Kolisch Quartet

The Kolisch Quartet was a string quartet musical ensemble founded in Vienna, originally (early 1920s) as the New Vienna String Quartet for the performance of Schoenberg's works, and (by 1927) settling to the form in which it was later known. It had a worldwide reputation and made several recordings. The quartet disbanded in the United States during the early 1940s.

violin 1:

violin 2:

viola:

violoncello:

In the early 1920s the Viennese violinist Rudolf Kolisch began to study composition with Arnold Schoenberg, who also put Kolisch to work in the composer's "Society for Private Musical Performances" (Verein fuer musikalische Privatauffuehrungen). This led to the creation of a string quartet ("Neue Wiener Streichquartett") dedicated to performing Schoenberg's music, but also to performing the classical string quartet repertoire in a manner which would take into account the principles of Schoenberg's teaching. The quartet consisted initially of Kolisch and Fritz Rothschild (alternating first and second violins), Marcel Dick (viola) and Joachim Stutschewsky (cello). This ensemble began to concertize and tour in central Europe.

By 1927 the membership of the ensemble had settled: Kolisch played first violin, Felix Khuner played second violin, Eugene Lehner played viola and Benar Heifetz played cello; this group became known as the Kolisch Quartet. Numerous works were written for them by composers including Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg, and Béla Bartók. The Quartet's tours extended eventually to include all European countries including Scandinavia, and also (by the mid-1930s) North and South America.

One notable aspect of the Quartet was that they generally performed from memory, including difficult modern works such as the Lyric Suite of Berg. This was not intended as a demonstration of any special powers of memorization, but rather of an approach which involved such careful rehearsal that by the time a piece was ready for performance, the musicians no longer required the score. The quartet used eye contact and were more able to respond musically to one another without music stands interfering.

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