Not so very long ago I discovered the music of Pavel Haas. Recordings have been surfacing lately on Supraphon.
He was a Janacek pupil - perhaps the best and most faithful. Alas, he was killed by the Nazis.
Judging by his String Quartets (esp. "From the Monkey Mountains"), his music is unjustly neglected. It really is splendid and an ABSOLUTE must-listen for any serious admirer of Janacek.
I am only just now starting to explore more broadly. Are the quartets a good measure of the quality of his work? Where else should one look?
If you have not yet listened to Haas, I strongly recommend his quartets.
Its good to hear that there is another admirer of Pavel Haas around on GMG ;D
I would strongly recommend this disc with Orchestral works. Its well performed and recorded, and the music is fabulous.
Welcome to the forum.
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Pavel-Haas-Symphonie-1940-41-unvollendet/hnum/7873061
His page at IMSLP has his oboe sonata :)
http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Haas,_Pavel (http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Haas,_Pavel)
Been touting Haas for years - nice to see him mentioned again! As you say, Janacek's best pupil, and also perhaps the only real Janacek follower in a more than general sense, though very much his own man. His most Janacek-like work is the utterly delightful Wind Quintet, which would make he ideal couplng for Mladi. The disc Harry posted is superb, too, and very moving indeed.
The CD in Harry's post is excellent.
I have been fortunate enough to see the Pavel Haas Quartet play Pavel Haas' Second String Quartet, live. A really moving experience to be sure - terrific music, and the players emphasize their enthusiasm by, as is their custom, playing everything standing up. Except for the poor cellist. ;D
Decca featured Haas in their Entartete Musik series. A great discovery was his only opera:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/6190XJP68YL._SCLZZZZZZZ_Sarlatan.gif)
This disc (http://www.amazon.com/Janacek-Haas-String-Quartets-Leos/dp/B000GCG8HG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1281370785&sr=1-2) is all I have at present - but it is so good, I might invest in the orchestral works posted previously.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41f1jwl8PxL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Quote from: Dancing Divertimentian on August 09, 2010, 08:18:46 AM
Decca featured Haas in their Entartete Musik series. A great discovery was his only opera:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/6190XJP68YL._SCLZZZZZZZ_Sarlatan.gif)
And can anybody explain why this series hasn't been reissued as a midpriced series or whatever?
I'm not familiar with Haas. Interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOxbMrCxgto&feature=related
Quote from: erato on August 09, 2010, 08:23:50 AM
And can anybody explain why this series hasn't been reissued as a midpriced series or whatever?
Because it's a major :P
Even if they can't be bothered to put any effort into it, a boxed reissue of the whole series minus notes would be a hit - I'd certainly buy it. Hell, licence to Brilliant - pure money, no effort. Goddamnit, Universal... :-X
Edit:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51100K174WL._SL500_AA300_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Janacek-Haas-Szymanowski-String-Quartets/dp/B00006FSPH/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1281373727&sr=1-15)
On topic - I greatly enjoyed this disc, which includes an orchestration of his second quartet, along with two other fine orchestrations of quartets by two others.
Quote from: Lethe on August 09, 2010, 09:07:08 AM
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51100K174WL._SL500_AA300_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Janacek-Haas-Szymanowski-String-Quartets/dp/B00006FSPH/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1281373727&sr=1-15)
Two others?!!!
Szymanowski and Janacek are not just 'two others' 8)
Got the album - it isn't actually a complete transcription of the full string quartets for string chamber orchestra.
The larger chamber orchestra does however slow down the dynamics of the quartet, so instead of that intense analytical character of all three quartets, the Australian group really reveal a sumptuous body of smooth strings.
My favorite works of his are his Suite for Piano and his Partita for string orchestra. The suite, which I have played, is a work that shows his preoccupation with jazz and Czech melodies. It is a work brimming with life, but is not immune to the dire situation around him, which was only to get worse, unfortunately. The Partita is an orchestration of his string trio and also includes many Czech folk melodies in it. Interesting note: this work was conducted by Haas in the Terezín camp where Haas and many of his composer contemporaries such as Gideon Klein and Hans Krása were incarcerated.
I'm new to this forum and have not yet figured out how to respond to a specific post (it seems many others are doing so).
Re: Sarlatan.
I purchased a copy of the opera a couple of months ago, but several days later offered to lend my copy to a friend (who works at the Met in NY) who has not yet returned it! And so, I have not yet had a chance to listen to the opera!!!
I have, however, been exploring other operas on the FABULOUS Entartete Musik series. Schreker (Die Gezeichneten), Korngold (Das Wunder der Heliane), Krenek, Schulhoff, etc. I recently got a great deal on Schulhoff's Flammen on ebay - a great fortune, because I would not have otherwise been able to purchase the set, having been recently laid off. The OOP operas in this Decca series tend to be inordinately expensive, and yes, they should definitely be reissued!!!
Re: Lethe (on the disc of music by Janacek, Szymanowski and Haas)
I ran across this disc on Amazon some time ago, but I passed it over because I am generally pretty skeptical about orchestrations, etc. (generally any non-original version of a composition). The only occasional exception I make is when the original composer has transcribed the piece him- or herself (as, for instance, Brahms' clarinet sonatas in the version for viola and piano). Perhaps I am missing out? I just feel that there is generally good reason for the original choice of instrumentation, and this original intent is meaningful. Many years ago, before I had much experience listening to classical music, I heard a radio broadcast of a transcription of Rachamninoff's piano trios for orchestra (the composer who orchestrated the trios argued that the original version was deficient for various reasons). At the time I was tempted into buying the recording. Some years later I reconsidered and sold it. I've since stayed away from transcriptions. I will not argue here that the Rachmaninoff trios are perfect examples of the form (they have their weaknesses), but the transcription took the heart out of the music and it really seemed that the piano, cello and violin were entirely adequate and appropriate to convey the essence of the music. Not only was the orchestra superfluous in this case; it was somehow inimical to the whole musical experience. It rang hollow. Perhaps this example (Haas, etc.) is different...
The quote button is found on the top right of the post you wish to quote :)
Quote from: filipek7 on August 09, 2010, 06:27:23 PM
I ran across this disc on Amazon some time ago, but I passed it over because I am generally pretty skeptical about orchestrations, etc. (generally any non-original version of a composition). The only occasional exception I make is when the original composer has transcribed the piece him- or herself (as, for instance, Brahms' clarinet sonatas in the version for viola and piano). Perhaps I am missing out? I just feel that there is generally good reason for the original choice of instrumentation, and this original intent is meaningful. Many years ago, before I had much experience listening to classical music, I heard a radio broadcast of a transcription of Rachamninoff's piano trios for orchestra (the composer who orchestrated the trios argued that the original version was deficient for various reasons). At the time I was tempted into buying the recording. Some years later I reconsidered and sold it. I've since stayed away from transcriptions. I will not argue here that the Rachmaninoff trios are perfect examples of the form (they have their weaknesses), but the transcription took the heart out of the music and it really seemed that the piano, cello and violin were entirely adequate and appropriate to convey the essence of the music. Not only was the orchestra superfluous in this case; it was somehow inimical to the whole musical experience. It rang hollow. Perhaps this example (Haas, etc.) is different...
They certainly aren't to be taken as seriously as the original compositions, but they do add an interesting dimension to more familiar music, and the programming on that disc is excellent. Some transcriptions can be quite poor, but often they are carried out as labours of love by a person who feels a strong enough connection to the music to wish to explore it via the compositional process. This is what Tognetti's transcriptions feel like to me, and while some of the modernistic bite of the original works is lost, there is ample exploration of the moodier aspects of the pieces. I can understand exactly what you mean when you mention the problem of superfluousness, but the appealing choice of pieces and charming musicmaking won me over in this case.
No one's yet mentioned that DEcca cd of the String Quartets, with the Krasa, too. That whole cd is pretty awesome. Hawthorne Qrt.
Quote from: lescamil on August 09, 2010, 05:52:56 PM
My favorite works of his are his Suite for Piano and his Partita for string orchestra. The suite, which I have played, is a work that shows his preoccupation with jazz and Czech melodies. It is a work brimming with life, but is not immune to the dire situation around him, which was only to get worse, unfortunately. The Partita is an orchestration of his string trio and also includes many Czech folk melodies in it. Interesting note: this work was conducted by Haas in the Terezín camp where Haas and many of his composer contemporaries such as Gideon Klein and Hans Krása were incarcerated.
Yes, it is worth reiterating that much of the music written in Terezin is music of hope, and of wit too, in some cases - defiant music that rejected the conditions in which these brave men were held.
There is, however, a danger that we perform their music out of a mistaken sense of sympathy. The best reasons for performing Haas, Krasa, Ullmann etc is because they wrote extraordinary music that deserves to be played! :)
Quote from: False_Dmitry on August 10, 2010, 11:59:40 PM
There is, however, a danger that we perform their music out of a mistaken sense of sympathy. The best reasons for performing Haas, Krasa, Ullmann etc is because they wrote extraordinary music that deserves to be played! :)
I wouldn't call it a danger, but rather extra motivation. Of course, the quality of the music is most important.
I find that I can't stop playing the 'con moto', third movement from the Suite from the Opera 'Charlatan' - it has a lovely tune, a kind of melancholy slow march which really sticks in my mind. There is a poignancy to much of this music which I find very touching + the great unfinished Symphony.
Composer unknown to me but was just ambling thru y tube and came across Haas's Symphonia (1940/41)-on first listening rather lopsided but makes me want to hear more.....
Erik Ericcson -
One of several Czech composers to have been first sent by the Nazis to Theresienstadt (Terezin in Czech) and later to his death at Auschwitz, Pavel Haas was undeniably gifted. Leoš Janácek's prize pupil, he had faced hardships before he was sent to Theresienstadt. After studying with Jaroslav Kunc and Vilem Petrzelka, Haas came into the orbit of Janácek from 1920 to 1922. In the elder composer's master class, Haas gained mastery of assembling various elements into a coherent style, first based largely on Moravian folk music and the jazz that had seeped into central Europe. Later, Haas found an icon in Stravinsky, whose irony he found congenial and whose colorful yet spare orchestration intrigued him. Still later, Haas forged ahead into the Czech avant garde, creating a modest oeuvre that was somewhat hampered by not being able to devote himself full-time to composition. Among works that attracted attention were his Saddened Scherzo, Op. 5; Fata Morgana, Op. 6; and From the Monkey Mountains, Op. 7. His Suite for Piano, Op. 13, drew attention abroad, establishing a reputation considerably enhanced by his opera The Charlatan (Sarlatán), which premiered in Brno in 1938. That score was awarded a prize by the Smetana Foundation. Following the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Germany, Haas was increasingly concerned with issues of survival. He felt compelled to divorce his Christian wife to protect her from the privations he understood to be inevitable. Yet he refused to succumb to injustices and psychological torture. Instead, especially after his imprisonment at Theresienstadt in 1941, he turned once again to Czech and Moravian sources, fashioning them into works of universal meaning. Of five works undertaken during his imprisonment, only three were preserved, and his Study for Strings required partial reconstruction. A Nazi propaganda film intended to show the world that Jews lived in positive conditions featured Haas leading a performance of this work by prison musicians. Only a month later, Haas and many of the other musicians were sent to Auschwitz where they were murdered. Haas died the same day as fellow composers Viktor Ullmann and Hans Krása.
I'll have to look into his stuff.
I have a mid'lin portion of Janacek's music, so I'm interested.
I've a pretty much complete portion of Janacek's music, and I'd say you are right to be interested - as I've said before, probably on this thread, Haas is the only truly important composition student of Janacek's, and he's also the only composer who writes in anything like a Janacek tone (barring the odd work of Jarmil Burghauser, IMO). Which is not to say that Janacek wasn't hugely influential - he was, but in the broadest of senses, not in specifics of individual style, as his own style was too personal for that. And nor is it to say that Haas is a mere Janacek copier - he has his own idiom, wth much more influence of the wider world, more bitterness and irony, more sophistication, indeed. Nevertheless, as a Janacek addict, the only composer I've ever found who has written anything which gives me a remotely comparable hit is Haas. So many composers are compared to Janacek, and the comparison almost always seems to me to massively miss the point of Janacek's music.
Above all, put Janacek's masterly Wind Sextet Mladi next to Haas's almost unknown Wind Quintet and the parallels - and differences - are obvious. I've said it ad nauseum, but that is a CD coupling made in heaven, and never yet set down on disc.
Looking back to page one - yes, I have indeed said all this already, long ago. Thought so. How annoyingly predictable I am. That's how it goes when you've been on the boards for so many years!
Another thing I've probably said before, to qualify the above - one more work which comes close to the Janacek spirit, for a few minutes, is the Gideon Klein string trio (I think Haas and Klein are the most interesting of the Terezin composers, and Klein's Trio maybe the best work to come out of that hell). The slow movement is what I am thinking of, but that is partly because it uses a Moravian folksong of an obviously Janacekian hue. The sound itself is of an exposed, emotional rawness which touches realms close to Janacek's quartets, too. But the harmony etc is much more 'advanced' than Janacek, whilst the variation form is more conventional. A little masterpiece, though, that Trio.
Thanks for alerting me to Haas' music. I will certainly listen to it. it sounds as if it should be good. Plus, I always try to read books and listen to music written by people who were murdered by the Nazis; it's something to do, even 65 years after the event, to negate the actions of Nazism.
I've listened to the String Quartets 2 (string orchestra version) and 3 and the Study for string orchestra.
Great stuff. I see Amazon has copies of the 1994 orchestral works disk, might try that next.
Great stuff! And if by the 1994 disc you mean the one on Koch with the Symphony, yes, that's an essential listen, deeply impressive music, and a profoundly moving experience too. Please, though, someone apart from me listen to the Wind Quintet, as I did again yesterday. It's such fun, and to repeat myself tediously, it's such a close cousin to Mladi that it takes the breath away. Distinct enough to clearly not be by Janacek, but never have I heard a work by nother composer so filled with Janacek's techniques and intonations.
I've received the 1994 Koch orchestral music disk and wow!
I was immediately taken with the Suite from the Charlatan (his opera), so much so that I immediately ordered the CDs of the whole Opera.
The incomplete Symphony is an amazing work, I'll have to listen to it several times before I can say anything useful about it. But immensely compelling on first hearing.
Just been listening to Šarlatán. What an amazing opera, you have to try it!
It's not to long, lively, great music, amusing plot, lots of action, not pretentious. Just fun and very moving at the same time.
I think Czech is a great language for singing. Despite its formidable consonant clusters it seems to have a natural rhythm for singing, so even prose sounds like it should be sung. (Most settings of English leave me asking, 'why is this set to music'?)
Quote from: Luke on August 09, 2010, 03:37:06 AM
Been touting Haas for years - nice to see him mentioned again! As you say, Janacek's best pupil, and also perhaps the only real Janacek follower in a more than general sense, though very much his own man. His most Janacek-like work is the utterly delightful Wind Quintet, which would make he ideal couplng for Mladi. The disc Harry posted is superb, too, and very moving indeed.
*bump* And it didn't take them more than 6½ years..
(http://b2b.naxosusa.com/Images/Assets/BackCovers/GEN%2017460.20170320105537.jpg)
I do strongly recommend the 2nd string quartet "From the Monkey mountains" - a real corker.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61alxvCA7RL.jpg)
I must say that this disc is simply tremendous!! All of the three pieces on it (Scherzo Triste, Suite from the opera 'Šarlatán' and his unfinished Symphony) have no waste whatsoever. The music has some influences by Janáček as Haas studied under him. The Scherzo Triste (Sad Scherzo) is not as much as its title says, it's more perky and somewhat sparkling, albeit reaching the ending the music becomes more wistful. The Suite is nothing but superb and it has a really wonderful tune in the Gaiamente movement that will stick in your mind for a while; the Symphony possesses airs of violence, struggle, piquant gestures and some references to Jewish folk music.
I'm already familiar with his three phenomenal String Quartets which have been recorded by Supraphon.
One of my most remarkable discoveries of this year so far.
I'm still a Haas fan after all these years. Only last week I was listening to the Resonus disc of four song cycles, highly recommended.
Quote from: Symphonic Addict on May 10, 2022, 02:14:09 PM
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61alxvCA7RL.jpg)
I must say that this disc is simply tremendous!! All of the three pieces on it (Scherzo Triste, Suite from the opera 'Šarlatán' and his unfinished Symphony) have no waste whatsoever. The music has some influences by Janáček as Haas studied under him. The Scherzo Triste (Sad Scherzo) is not as much as its title says, it's more perky and somewhat sparkling, albeit reaching the ending the music becomes more wistful. The Suite is nothing but superb and it has a really wonderful tune in the Gaiamente movement that will stick in your mind for a while; the Symphony possesses airs of violence, struggle, piquant gestures and some references to Jewish folk music.
I'm already familiar with his three phenomenal String Quartets which have been recorded by Supraphon.
One of my most remarkable discoveries of this year so far.
Sounds like a must-hear to me! Thus far, the only Haas work I've heard is his remarkable SQ no. 2
From the Monkey Mountains (what a great subtitle!). I see that my now-local orchestra, the Indianapolis SO, is programming his Symphony next season!
Quote from: kyjo on May 11, 2022, 08:30:18 AM
Sounds like a must-hear to me! Thus far, the only Haas work I've heard is his remarkable SQ no. 2 From the Monkey Mountains (what a great subtitle!). I see that my now-local orchestra, the Indianapolis SO, is programming his Symphony next season!
It's great music, Kyle. On the strength of the
Šarlatán Suite, the complete opera seems an obliged listen to me in the future.