A concert by one of the unmissable ensembles on the Czech music scene, which is celebrating ten years of its existence this year.
The Pavel Bořkovec Quartet was founded at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where each of the members studied. The quartet was originally mentored by the violinist Jiří Panocha. It is named after the composer Pavel Bořkovec, who was a distinguished professor at the academy’s music faculty between 1947 and 1967.
Among his pupils were the modern Czech composers Pavel Blatný, Jiří Pauer, Vladimír Sommer, Petr Eben, Jan Klusák, Jan Truhlář, Radim Drejsl, and Miroslav Raichl. Pavel Bořkovec composed two operas, two piano concertos, one concerto grosso, a ballet, and five string quartets. The violist Matěj Kroupa is the composer’s great-grandson. The Pavel Bořkovec Quartet focuses primarily on 20th- and 21st-century Czech music. Its main aim is not only to promote the unjustly neglected composers of Bořkovec’s generation, but also to feature ‘new’ music and to bring contemporary composers to the concert stage. The Pavel Bořkovec Quartet also has classical quartet pieces in its repertoire.