Kocian Quartet - Pavel Haas: String Quartets (3) (1999)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 309 Mb | Total time: 63:20 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | # PRD 250 118 | Recorded: 2014
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 309 Mb | Total time: 63:20 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Praga Digitals | # PRD 250 118 | Recorded: 2014
What an outstanding release! Pavel Haas was one of the many Czech/Jewish composers interned by the Nazis at the Terezin concentration camp before being sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. His three string quartets are extraordinary pieces, continuing the line of development inaugurated by Janácek both in their exploration of unusual sonorities and in their use of folk and popular music for much of their melodic substance. The Quartets Nos. 2 and 3 previously were recorded by the Hawthorne Quartet as part of Decca’s Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music) series dedicated to works suppressed by the Nazi regime, but these performances are superior in every way.