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Scan 333
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
18 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 303. See the scan on archive.org.
1Remporat and Artura Cuccoli. Many changes have taken place in the personnel, the leader only remaining with it during its entire career.
3WALDEMAR MEYER QUARTET. Composed of Waldemar Meyer, Max Heinicke, Dagobert Lowenthal and Albrecht Loeffler. One of the finest European chamber music organizations which toured Europe many times with the greatest possible degree of success.
5WALTER QUARTET. Founded by Benno Walter, a violinist and musician of unusual ability who brought his organization to the highest point of musical as well as technical proficiency.
7WARSAW QUARTET. Founded by Stanislaus Barcewicz, a Polish violinist of great reputation. He became professor of the violin at the Warsaw Conservatory in 1885, founding at the same time this quartet which immediately became one of the leading Polish organizations of this kind.
9WINKLER QUARTET. Composed of Julius Winkler, Fritz Wahle, Alfred Finger and Alexander Timpel. This organization was one of the most popular of its kind in Vienna. Winkler was a great admirer of Haydn's quartets and his concerts invariably included some one of the lesser known works of the great master.
11The above lists include most of the quartets whose labors in this field of music have tended to increase the love for and appreciation of the master chamber music works. It has been necessary of course to leave out the names of hundreds of lesser organizations in Europe but it will not be amiss to mention in connection with the United States such ensemble groups as the Boston String Quartet, the Chicago Quartet, the Chicago Scandinavian String Quartet, the Gordon String Quartet of Chicago, the Culp String Quartet at Cincinnati, the MacManus Quartet at Corvallis, Oregon, the Philharmonic and Zoellner Quartets of Los Angeles, the Spargur Quartet at Seattle, Washington, and the West Sisters Quartet at Omaha, Nebraska.
13The playing of string quartets presents delicate problems in various ways. The chamber music player must be a thorough musician and an excellent instrumentalist from the technical standpoint. He must know how to handle his bow and his fingers perfectly, and must be fully conscious of the fact that in ensemble music it is absolutely necessary to sacrifice every kind of virtuosity. Mediocre virtuosos often make excellent quartet players, and this is due to the fact that these players have a better right arm than a left hand.
15When beginning the study of a string quartet the player must resolve upon an act of self-abnegation. He must not say, "I am the first violin," or "I am the second violin," but must look on himself as merely forming an integral part of a combination, an ensemble. He must also know how to efface himself when it is the turn of another instrument to play the leading part. I have often heard chamber music played in the most lamentable fashion by very great artists who, each taken by himself, would have played marvelously well.
17The listener should never allow himself to be unduly impressed by the magic of a great name, and those artists whose mission it is to reveal music in all its true beauty to the public are in error when they profane their art for mere display purposes.
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