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If you're looking for a quiet, relaxing evening, Tuesday night's Pavel Haas Quartet concert might not be the place for you.
"It's not good music for sleeping," the quartet's cellist, Peter Jarušek, said in a phone interview from his Prague home a few days before embarking on a North American tour — which probably won't be very relaxing, given the distance between cities here, but is "always very exciting," he said.
The performance in Libby Gardner Concert Hall will be the Pavel Haas Quartet's third appearance under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City, which is marking its 50th anniversary this season. On the program are Prokofiev's String Quartet No. 1, which Jarušek said is "not extremely deep or emotional but very energetic"; Beethoven's String Quartet No. 11, nicknamed "Serioso" and written in the throes of disappointment over unrequited love; and Bartók's String Quartet No. 5, which the cellist called "one of the [composer's] most complicated — not only for the musicians, technically and musically, but also for the audience."
The Beethoven and Prokofiev pieces have been featured on two of the Pavel Haas Quartet's critically acclaimed recordings. The quartet, which is named for a Czech composer who was imprisoned at Theresienstadt in 1941 and died at Auschwitz three years later, has won four Gramophone Awards, which are among the most prestigious in the classical-music world.
"All the pieces we've recorded on CD are music we really love," Jarušek said. "We suggest a program to our label, Supraphon — we have a fantastic relationship with them, and they always agree. It's a luxury to record what we really like. It doesn't matter if there are 1,000 recordings already; it's what the Pavel Haas Quartet wants to record because we love it. If people like it and find it different or special, that's only a good thing." The group's next recording will feature music of Shostakovich.
Jarušek's wife, violinist Veronika Jarušková, founded the Pavel Haas Quartet in 2002. When the quartet's original cellist left shortly thereafter, "I realized it was my last chance to play with my wife," Jarušek said. "For many years, we played in different groups and it was very hard to see each other." In an unusual twist, the cellist he replaced ended up joining the quartet Jarušek had just left.
"There are two extremes," Jarušek said of his working relationship with Jarušková, whom he met as a teenager and with whom he now has a 2-year-old daughter. "Either you can't see each other, or you're together 24 hours a day. The second option is much better."
Czech, please
The Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City will present the Pavel Haas Quartet in music of Prokofiev, Beethoven and Bartók.
When • Tuesday, Oct. 13, 7:30 p.m.
Where • Libby Gardner Concert Hall, 1375 E. Presidents Circle, Salt Lake City
Tickets • $30; CMSofSLC.org