Decca's Entartete Musik series could well be one of the most valuable and important ongoing projects that the record industry has on offer at the moment. The first releases in this enterprising series focused attention on two composers (Korngold and Krenek) whose music suffered censorship under the Nazi regime, but who both succeeded in fleeing Europe to continue careers in exile. Here, attention is focused on two less fortunate composers. Pavel Haas and Hans Krasa were both born in Czechoslovakia in 1899; Haas in Brno, Krasa in Prague. Their careers appear to have followed eerily parallel paths: both were drawn to music for the stage, achieving success with at least one major operatic project—Krasa with Verlobung im Traum (1933) and Haas with Sarlatan (1936); both were influenced by the modern movement, including neo-classicism, jazz and 'the new tonality', and both entered Theresienstadt in 1941 to travel to their deaths (on the same day) three years later in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
Haas's Second String Quartet (From the Monkey Mountains), Op. 7 is a delightful discovery. Lubomir Peduzzi has stated that of all Janacek's pupils it was Haas who absorbed rather than merely imitated his teacher's ideas, and it is true that the spirit of Janacek hovers perpetually over this haunting work. The first movement (''Landscape'') bears certain similarities with passages from The Cunning Little Vixen in its portrayal of nature, but beyond this one is immediately struck by the strength and individuality, particularly melodic, of Haas's voice. The second movement (''Horse, cart and driver'') is a wonderful evocation—by way of weird glissandos and pizzicatos—of the irregular motion of a village cart as it traverses pot-hole-ridden country tracks, whilst the slow movement (''The Moon and I'') forms a passionately lyrical song of great intensity. The final movement is full of wild abandonment and jazz influences—the booklet-notes rightly point out the presence of the rhythm of the rumba, but this is very much a Czech rumba! They also point out that the Third Quartet, Op. 15 (1938) is possibly one of Haas's finest works, and judging by the superb performance that it is given here this may well be true. Something of the master's (Janacek's) aphoristic, questing manner remains, but other than that the work represents the mature Haas at work. An air of tension pervades the three-movement work, alternating passages of lyricism with tightly intertwining parts of harmonic complexity. The final movement was inspired by the euphoria of the 1938 Sokol rally which provided the country with an opportunity to unite against Hitler's Germany.
Hans Krasa's solitary String Quartet of 1921 also reveals a voice of exceptional talent. As a product of his studies with Alexander Zemlinsky the harmonic world that it encompasses errs more towards the fin de siecle of Vienna than his native homeland, especially in the outer movements. The central movement contains a marvellous section of burlesque (very boulevardier in allure) on a theme from the overture to Smetana's The Bartered Bride, whilst the slow finale opens up a magical, almost mystical, twilight world that Zemlinsky himself would have been proud to have penned. The excellent performances by the Hawthorne Quartet have put forward the strongest possible case for a further reappraisal of these composers, and these have been more than adequately complemented by the superb Decca recording. If you have any interest in Czech music at all (or even if you don't for that matter!) I strongly urge you to explore this thoroughly worthy and rewarding issue.'