On Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 8 p.m. the Pavel Haas String Quartet will perform in the Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall. (Photo by Marco Borggreve.)
Following its sold-out opening night concert by the Emerson and Calidore string quartets, the Princeton University Concerts Classics Series continues with another vibrant ensemble. On Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 8 p.m. the Pavel Haas String Quartet will perform in the Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall. This Czech-based, award-winning group will perform music of their compatriots, offering Martinů’s String Quartet No. 3 and Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 9, Op. 34 before delving into Beethoven’s Slavic-tinged “Razumovsky” Quartet, Op. 59, No. 2.
Esteemed Princeton University scholar Professor Scott Burnham will offer a pre-concert talk, free to all ticketholders, to introduce the program at 7 p.m.
Having already been awarded Gramophone’s prestigious “Record of the Year” award three times in their young career, the Pavel Haas Quartet has come to be known as the foremost arbiters of its homeland’s rich Romantic-era repertoire.
Named after a composer whose work was almost lost after his extermination by the Nazis (for a deeper exploration of this topic, the Richardson Chamber Players will perform works by Haas and other composers of the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp just three days later), this group brings to Princeton a program whose multicultural background transcends its national roots—as apparent as those roots may be.
In combining the works of Martinů—a Czech composer who had spent considerable time in the U.S., even serving as a visiting professor at Princeton University from 1949-1953—Dvořák, one of the first composers to incorporate African-American spirituals into classical music—and Beethoven, who embeds Russian melodies into his “Razumovsky” Quartets—the Pavel Haas Quartet reminds us of the internationality of our respective cultures.
Tickets to the performance range from $25 to $50. Tickets are available online at princetonuniversityconcerts.org, by phone at (609) 258-9220, or in person two hours prior to the concert at the Richardson Auditorium Box Office
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