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Wednesday, September 22, 8.00 pm

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The concert is recorded by Czech Radio.

Programme

Dmitry Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57Antonín Dvořák: Piano Trio No. 4, Op. 90, B. 166, ʻDumkyʻ

The concluding concert of the Chamber Series presents encounters between its protagonists –series curator and pianist Boris Giltburg with the Pavel Haas Quartet – as well as between two great composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. They will be heard in reverse chronological order, however, so the last word will belong to the Czech composer to whom the whole festival and the Dvořák Collection series are dedicated. This is also a meeting of two masters of contrast: one who tends to be kind and gentle, the other, often sharply ironic.  

Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Piano Quintet in G Minor in 1940. Before that, he had been hard at work on his Symphony No. 6 and an arrangement of Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov, so it might seem that writing this quintet was something of a breather for him. This transparent, classical-sounding music is still teeming with emotion and playfulness with a constant emanation of melancholy. Dvořák’s last piano trio, nicknamed “Dumky”, is oriented towards the east but in a diametrically opposite mood. It took inspiration from a Ukrainian song form with an alternation of wild and pensive passages.

  • Dress code: dark suit
  • Doors close: 7.55 pm
  • End of concert: 9.30 pm

Artists

Pavel Haas Quartet

Throughout the 2022/2023 concert season, members of the Pavel Haas Quartet will be collaborating on selected quartet projects with violist Karel Untermüller.

After victories at the Prague Spring Competition and the Premio Paolo Borciani in Reggio Emilia, Italy, in 2005 the Pavel Haas Quartet quickly won itself a place among today’s most prominent chamber ensembles. The quartet members studied with Milan Škampa, the legendary violist of the Smetana Quartet. The Pavel Haas Quartet appears at the most important concert halls around the world. In 2007 the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) named the Pavel Haas Quartet as one of its “Rising Stars”. This gave the group the unique opportunity to appear in a series of concerts at important concert venues. From 2007 to 2009 they took part in the BBC New Generation Artists programme, and in 2010 they won a special scholarship from the Borletti–Buitoni Trust. The Pavel Haas Quartet records exclusively for Supraphon. They have eight albums to their credit, and all of their CDs have won significant international awards – the Diapason d’Or de l’année, the BBC Music Magazine Award for two albums, and the Gramophone Award on six occasions. The quartet is named for the Czech composer Pavel Haas (1899–1944), whose musical legacy includes three magnificent string quartets.

Pavel Haas Quartet

Boris Giltburg

The Moscow-born, Israeli pianist is lauded across the globe as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling interpreter. Critics have praised his “singing line, variety of touch and broad dynamic palette capable of great surges of energy” (Washington Post) as well as his impassioned, narrative-driven approach to performance.

In recent years Giltburg has engaged in a series of in-depth explorations of major composers. To celebrate the Beethoven anniversary in 2020 he embarked upon a unique project to record and film all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas across the year. He also recorded the complete concerti with Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on Naxos.


In 2021-2023 Giltburg explores the complete works of Ravel, performing the solo works across Bozar, Flagey and the Amsterdam Musiekgebouw, and the whole cycle at Wigmore (including the Violin Sonatas with Alina Ibragimova). He also plays Ravel’s concerti with the Orchestre National de France/Macelaru at Bozar, Brussels Philharmonic/Prieto at Flagey, and Residentie Orkest/Bihlmaier at the Concertgebouw.

Widely recognized as a leading interpreter of Rachmaninoff, Giltburg completes his recording of Rachmaninoff’s solo works in 2023 and releases the last disc in his acclaimed concerto cycle. Giltburg also plays Rachmaninoff concerti with Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony at the Barbican, Tomáš Netopil and the Czech Philharmonic, Nicholas Collon and the Finnish Radio Symphony, and Brussels Philharmonic and Giancarlo Guerrero at Flagey.

Giltburg regularly plays recitals in the world’s most prestigious halls, including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Wiener Konzerthaus and London Southbank Centre. He has worked with Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, NHK Symphony and at the BBC Proms. In 21/22 he debuted at the Santa Cecilia di Roma with Kirill Petrenko.

Giltburg’s collaboration with Naxos began in 2015, winning the Opus Klassik award for Best Soloist Recording (Rachmaninoff concerti and Etudes Tableaux) and a Diapason d’Or (Shostakovich concerti and his own arrangement of Shostakovich’s 8th String Quartet). He also won a Gramophone Award for the Dvorak Piano Quintet on Supraphon with the Pavel Haas Quartet, as well as a Diapason d’Or for their latest joint release, the Brahms Piano Quintet.

Giltburg feels a strong need to engage audiences beyond the concert hall. His blog “Classical music for all” is aimed at a non-specialist audience, and he complements it with articles in publications such as Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, Guardian, Times and Fono Forum. During the lockdown period in spring 2020, Giltburg regularly streamed live performances and masterclasses from home, with over 1 million views.

Source: Intermusica

Boris Giltburg - piano

Rudolfinum, Dvořák Hall

The Rudolfinum is one of the most important Neo-Renaissance edifices in the Czech Republic. In its conception as a multi-purpose cultural centre it was quite unique in Europe at the time of its construction. Based on a joint design by two outstanding Czech architects, Josef Zítek and Josef Schultz, a magnificent building was erected serving for concerts, as a gallery, and as a museum. The grand opening on 7 February 1885 was attended by Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, in whose honour the structure was named. In 1896 the very first concert of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra took place in the Rudolfinum's main concert hall, under the baton of the composer Antonín Dvořák whose name was later bestowed on the hall.

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