String Quartet
Biography:
The long and eventful history of the now based in Frankfurt am Main Haba Quartets now extends over more than half a century. In 1946 the violinist Dušan Pandula founded the Hába Quartet in Prague, whose focus even then was collaboration with important contemporary composers (including Alois Hába, Bohuslav Martinů, Günther Bialas, Luciano Berio, Luigi Nono, Isang Yun, Jan Kapr), whose works Ensemble also premiered. Above all, the close artistic and friendly connection to the most important composer of microtonal music - Alois Hába, who gave the quartet its name - led to the composer dedicating the last twelve of his seventeen quartets to the ensemble. When Alois Hába fell out of favor politically in the course of the communist cultural policy of the 1950s, the Hába Quartet came under pressure and had to rename itself the Novák Quartet in order to be able to continue its international career. However, this did not prevent the ensemble from continuing to perform works by Alois Hába as often as possible. In 1968, after Dušan Pandula moved to West Germany, the quartet broke up, but was re-established sixteen years later in 1984 in Frankfurt, this time together with his student Peter Zelienka.
Today's Hába Quartet, which has been playing with the same cast for more than a decade (Sha Katsouris and Hovhannes Mokatsian, violins / Peter Zelienka, viola / Arnold Ilg, cello), sees itself as a direct successor and carrier of the long-standing Hába Quartet tradition - with the task of making the works of Alois Hába accessible to the public with the greatest authenticity. The ensemble is characterized by a repertoire that encompasses all eras and also includes rarely played works.
The CD recordings of the works of Nikolaj Roslavets, Leoš Janáček and Bedřich Smetana were well received by the press. The versatility and interpretative stylistic confidence of the Hába Quartet has been proven time and again through intensive concert activities at home and abroad, radio recordings and appearances at important festivals (e.g. in Salzburg, Graz, Munich, Hanover, Berlin, Darmstadt, The Hague and Prague). During a successful concert tour to China, the ensemble also devoted itself to intensive teaching. Since 2002, the Hába Quartet has had its own concert series in the Johanniskirche in Kronberg im Taunus.
Albums:
