Pavel Haas Quartet April 3, 2011

SF Performances presents the San Francisco debut of Pavel Haas Quartet, the young Czech ensemble deemed "one of the most polished and musically exciting string quartets in the world today" (Washington Post) in a program of Schulhoff, Debussy and Haas Sunday, April 3 at 7 p.m. at Herbst Theatre.

Based in Prague, the group-Veronika Jaruskova (violin), Pavel Nikl (viola), Marie Fucxova (violin) and Peter Jarusek (violincello)-won Italy's Paolo Borciani Competition in 2005 and since then has taken on the world's great concert halls, producing three award-winning albums including the mesmerizing recordings of Jana
ek's Quartet No. 1, "Kreutzer" Sonata and Haas's Quartets Nos. 1 and 3.

Also on the program is Quartet No. 1 by another Prague native, Erwin Schulhoff, the Jewish composer who died in a Nazi concentration camp and whose work has recently seen a revival thanks to championing by James Conlon, Jeffrey Kahane and others.

Haas's gorgeous tone poem, Quartet No. 2 "From the Monkey Mountains" from 1925, was inspired by the composer's vacations in the Vysoeina highlands (the "Monkey Mountains") between Bohemia and Moravia. Written in 1925, years before Haas's deportation and work as a Nazi prisoner at Terezin, the piece opens up a lush portrait of rural paradise as well as a very human reflection on that paradise. The tribute to Haas, whose tragic death at Auschwitz cut his career short, but whose works include three masterful quartets, is a fits well with the SF debut program of his namesake ensemble.

Debussy's exotic and agile Quartet in G minor rounds out the program of this debut performance. Tickets start at just $35. For more information, visit sfperformances.org or call 415.392.2545.

Official Website: http://sfperformances.org/performances/1011/PavelHaasQuartet.html