Pavel Haas Quartet & Boris Giltburg

"As if their lives depend on it," The Times wrote about the playing of the Pavel Haas Quartet. The four Czechs now take the stage with pianist Boris Giltburg. He previously made a splash in Eindhoven with his performances of sonatas by Beethoven and Shostakovich. Now, however, he demonstrates his prowess with Brahms and Dvořák. The quintet by the Czech composer Dvořák is the most beautiful flower among piano quintets: so sunny, so radiant, so colorful - Czechs never composed better.

"Sleek yet full-blooded." The Pavel Haas Quartet won the coveted Recording of the Year at the Gramophone Awards with their recording of Dvořák's string quartets. So "their" Cypresses will sound fantastic as well. Amidst Dvořák stands Brahms, who was a great advocate of Dvořák. In his First Piano Quintet, Brahms is still a young man. You can hear it. Passionate, tempestuous music that hardly shies away from any emotion. It culminates in a brilliant finale. Brahms adored Hungarian gypsy music, enjoying sitting in a café while such a band played. This influence is clearly audible in the finale: he adapts such music to his own style. It became an equally powerful and sparkling whole - so exuberant that Arnold Schönberg could effortlessly make a version for symphony orchestra later on.