Pavel Haas Quartet & Denis Kozhukhin, 2 Jun 2017 at 7:30 pm.

Young Russian star Denis Kozhukhin joins the Pavel Haas Quartet for timeless chamber classics.

Gramophone has called the Pavel Haas Quartet the ‘world’s most exciting string quartet’, stating that its players ‘represent the best qualities of the Czech tradition’.
With the ‘sensational’ Kozhukhin (Herald Scotland) performing the virtuosic piano part, they present Dvorák’s passionate 19th-century masterpiece, which brilliantly intermingles moments of poignancy and drama.

The composer’s musical loyalty to his homeland can be heard in the second and third movements, strongly influenced by Czech folk music.

The piano quintet is performed alongside another enduringly popular chamber work, Beethoven’s Op.127 Quartet in E flat. Considered the pinnacle of writing for the form, Beethoven’s late string quartets offer an irresistible combination of formal complexity and heartfelt expression.

Written in 1825, as the composer’s health worsened towards the end of his life, the quartet conveys a sense of deep, occasionally prayerful, rumination.

About St John’s Smith Square

Performers

Pavel Haas Quartet
Denis Kozhukhin piano

Repertoire

Beethoven: String Quartet in E flat, Op.127
Interval
Dvorák: Piano Quintet No.2 in A, Op.81