Busch Quartet

Busch Quartet
Origin	Berlin, Germany
Occupation(s)	String Quartet
Years active	1919-1951

The Busch Quartet was a string quartet founded by Adolf Busch in 1919 that was particularly noted for its interpretations of the Classical and Romantic quartet repertoire. The group's recordings of Beethoven's Late String Quartets are especially revered.

In the summer of 1912 the position of first leader of the Wiener Konzertvereinorchester fell vacant. The 21-year-old German violinist and composer Adolf Busch was recommended for the role by numerous people, among them the principal viola Karl Doktor and principal cello Paul Grümmer. Following Busch's appointment as leader, conductor Ferdinand Löwe and the directors of the new Konzerthaus wanted to start a string quartet based on the orchestra's principals, and as Busch was known to be planning his own ensemble it seemed an ideal arrangement. He accepted Doktor and Grümmer as quartet partners but brought in Fritz Rothschild as second violinist.

After intensive rehearsals, the Wiener Konzertvereinquartett was first heard on 25 May 1913, playing Haydn in a private concert in Eisenstadt. Its official debut came on 3 August at Lilli Lehmann's Salzburg Festival with Beethoven's F major Quartet, Op. 59 No. 1, and Schumann's A minor Quartet, Op. 41 No. 1. The new ensemble received immediate acclaim, with critics comparing it with the Joachim Quartet. The concerts which followed were equally successful; however, Rothschild was dismissed shortly before the outbreak of war in the summer of 1914, while in early 1915 Doktor was called up. A year later the replacement second violinist Emil Hauser was also commandeered by the army. Busch and Grümmer, both unfit for military service, kept the quartet going until the end of the 1916-17 season with a revolving cast of players.

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