Quatuor Pražák

Program

Serge Prokofiev : Quatuor à cordes n°2, en fa majeur, op.92
Gilbert Amy : String quartet n°2, Brèves
Franz Schubert : String quartet in D minor, D. 810, Death and the Maiden

Quatuor Pražák

The Pražák Quartet was created during the years of study at the Prague Conservatory of its members (1974-78), as is often the case with Bohemian ensembles.In 1978, the Quartet wins the first prize at the International Contest of Evian, and the Prague Springtime festival prize the following year. As a result the members decide to dedicate themselves exclusively to the future of the quartet. They work at the Prague Academy (AMU) in the chamber music class of Professor Antonín Kohout, cellist in the Smetana Quartet, with the Vlach Quartet, and finally with Walter Levine leader of the LaSalle Quartet at the University of Cincinnati. They follow the tracks of quartets that wish to learn about modern repertories, particularly the 2° School of Vienna.Today the Pražáks have established themselves within the entire musical repertoire of central Europe, whether in the works of Schönberg, Berg, Zemlinski and Webern that they arrange for their European tours (particularly in Germany) together with the quartets of the 1° School of Vienna, to those of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. In the Bohême-Moravie of yesterday and today, the works of Dvořák, Smetana, Suk, Novák, Janáček, Martinů, Schulhoff, Feld... with contemporary composers whom they analyse in the light of the experience of their international repertoire from Haydn to Dusapin (Quartet n°4, which is dedicated to him). Following the signing of their contract with PRAGA DIGITALS, they became known on an international scale and made it to the top ranks of international ensembles in the same way as their American predecessors Juilliard et LaSalle and the European Alban Berg Quartet. They have produced a full score of quartets by Schönberg, Berg, Beethoven (2000-2004), then by Brahms (2005-6) which has made them a worldwide reputation as one of the most united ensembles around today and their masterful and devoted has won the acclaim of the most specialized critics. A medical condition which effects musicians who have been playing for too long (three hours by day for over fifty years), meant that Václav Remeš the founding member together with the cellist Josef Pražák were remplaced in 1986 by Michal Kaňka and Pavel Hůla, one of their friends and fellow students since 1971 at the Musical Academy of Prague (HAMUl) where he is a violin and chamber music teacher himself (editors note pronounced « Prajâque »