The Guarneri Quartet was an American string quartet founded in 1964 at the

Marlboro Music School and Festival The Marlboro Music School and Festival is a retreat for advanced classical training and musicianship held for seven weeks each summer in Marlboro, Vermont, in the United States. Public performances are held each weekend while the school is in ses ...

. It was admired for its rich, warm, complex tone and its bold, dramatic interpretations of the quartet literature, with a particular affinity for the works of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

and Bartók. Through teaching at Harpur College (which became Binghamton University),

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

, Curtis Institute of Music, and at Marlboro, the Guarneri players helped nurture interest in quartet playing for a generation of young musicians. The group's extensive touring and recording activities, coupled with its outreach efforts to engage audiences, contributed to the rapid growth in the popularity of chamber music during the 1970s and 1980s. The quartet is notable for its longevity: the group performed for 45 years with only one personnel change, when cellist David Soyer retired in 2001 and was replaced by his student Peter Wiley. The Guarneri Quartet disbanded in 2009.

Musicians

1st violin : Arnold Steinhardt (b. Los Angeles, 1 April 1937) Steinhardt is the elder of two sons born to music-loving Polish parents. He began studying the violin at age 6, and when he was 17 he entered Curtis Institute of Music in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

as a pupil of Ivan Galamian. Prior to the founding of the Guarneri Quartet, Steinhardt spent four years as assistant concertmaster of the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Se ...

under

George Szell George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest condu ...

; he spent summers at the

Marlboro Music Festival The Marlboro Music School and Festival is a retreat for advanced classical training and musicianship held for seven weeks each summer in Marlboro, Vermont, in the United States. Public performances are held each weekend while the school is in ses ...

and in 1962 he studied in Switzerland with

Joseph Szigeti Joseph Szigeti ( hu">Szigeti József, ; 5 September 189219 February 1973) was a Hungarian violinist. Born into a musical family, he spent his early childhood in a small town in Transylvania. He quickly proved himself to be a child prodigy on ...

. :Steinhardt is 6 feet 3 inches tall, and as a result he has unusually long arms, which has made it necessary to adjust his playing posture to avoid pain. He is outgoing and articulate, and has written two books. When touring with the quartet, he liked to browse in antique shops, and he particularly collected old locks. Since the Guarneri’s dissolution he has maintained a blog containing his personal reflections and reminiscences (see External links). 2nd violin :

John Dalley John Dalley (born 3 March 1935 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American violinist. He was raised in a musical family. His father was an orchestra conductor, violinist, composer, instrumental teacher, and music educator. His mother, from Bloomington, ...

(b.

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

, 1 June 1936) Dalley’s parents were both musicians, and he started violin lessons at the age of 4. He spent summers at Interlochen National Music Camp, and in his teens he went to

Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of ...

to study at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

with Ottokar Čadek. At 18, he enrolled at Curtis Institute, working with

Efrem Zimbalist Efrem Zimbalist Sr. ( – February 22, 1985) was a concert violinist, composer, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music. Early life Efrem Zimbalist Sr. was born on April 9, 1888, O. S., equivalent to April 21, 1889, in the Greg ...

. Following graduation from Curtis, Dalley taught at

Oberlin Conservatory of Music The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music conservatory in Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the second oldest conservatory and oldest continually operating conservatory in the United States. It is one of ...

, and later played alongside David Soyer in a group known as the American String Quartet. :Dalley is thoughtful and affable, with a dry wit and occasional bursts of outright clowning; but he was the most introverted of the Guarneri musicians, often skipping post-concert social events and disappearing immediately after a concert. Dalley is a skilled maker of bows for stringed instruments; he would sometimes carry the necessary equipment on the road, so that he could work on a bow in his hotel room, while the others might be attending a reception following a performance. Viola : Michael Tree (b. Newark NJ, 19 Feb 1935; d. New York, 30 Mar 2018) Tree was the son of Samuel Applebaum, a respected violin teacher and the author of several books on technique. He started lessons with his father at age 5, and entered Curtis Institute at the unusually young age of 12. He studied with Leah Luboshutz, Veda Reynolds, and ultimately with Efrem Zimbalist. Following his graduation, Tree made a successful debut at Carnegie Hall and toured internationally as a violin soloist, playing with a number of orchestras. In 1959 he began spending summers at Marlboro, where he met David Soyer and played with him and pianist

Anton Kuerti Anton Emil Kuerti, OC (born July 21, 1938) is an Austrian-born Canadian pianist, music teacher, composer, and conductor. He has developed international recognition as a solo pianist.David Soyer (b. Philadelphia, 24 Feb 1923; d. New York, 25 Feb 2010) Soyer was, by about 12 years, the oldest of the original members of the quartet, and his pre-Guarneri experience was more extensive. The only one in the group who was not trained at Curtis, Soyer studied cello with Diran Alexanian,

Emanuel Feuermann Emanuel Feuermann (November 22, 1902 – May 25, 1942) was an internationally celebrated cellist in the first half of the 20th century. Life Feuermann was born in 1902 in Kolomyja, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Kolomyia, Ukraine) to ...

, and Pablo Casals. During World War II, he played euphonium in the United States Navy Band. Following the war, he played cello as a member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini,

Columbia Symphony Orchestra The Columbia Symphony Orchestra was an orchestra formed by Columbia Records strictly for the purpose of making recordings. In the 1950s, it provided a vehicle for some of Columbia's better known conductors and recording artists to record using o ...

, the

Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the '' CBS Sunday Night ...

orchestra, and various groups that recorded jingles and commercials. He played with several chamber music ensembles before the Guarneri: the Guilet and New Music Quartets, the short-lived American Quartet with John Dalley, and the Marlboro Trio with Michael Tree and Anton Kuerti. :In rehearsals, Soyer was outspoken and forceful; Steinhardt describes him as "blunt and highly opinionated". Soyer considered that his experiences performing commercial music helped him grow as an artist, and firmly believed that young musicians should be exposed to dance music, folk music, and gypsy fiddling. He was a connoisseur of art, and an avid sailor who owned a 24-foot sloop. Violoncello (2001–2009) :

Peter Wiley Peter Wiley (born 1955) is a cellist and cello teacher. He entered the Curtis Institute of Music at 13 years of age, where he studied with David Soyer. He was then appointed principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony at age 20, after one year ...

(b. Utica NY, 1955) Wiley grew up in central

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

, and at age 11, he started cello lessons with David Soyer during the time the Guarneri Quartet was in residence at Harpur College in Binghamton. When Soyer joined the faculty of Curtis Institute in 1968, Wiley enrolled there and continued his cello studies. Graduating in 1974, he played with the

Pittsburgh Symphony The ''Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra'' (''PSO'') is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District. History The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is an Americ ...

and the

Cincinnati Symphony The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its primary concert venue is Music Hall. In addition to its symphony concerts, the orchestra gives pops concerts as the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. The Cinci ...

before joining the

Beaux Arts Trio The Beaux Arts Trio was a noted piano trio, celebrated for their vivacity, emotional depth and wide-ranging repertoire. They made their debut on 13 July 1955, at the Berkshire Music Festival, Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, known today as the ...

to replace retiring cellist Bernard Greenhouse. He left the Beaux Arts in 1998 to co-found the Opus One Piano Quartet. When Soyer retired from the Guarneri in 2001, Wiley was quickly and unanimously chosen to succeed his mentor.

Instruments

Despite the group's name, only one instrument made by the celebrated

Guarneri The Guarneri (, , ), often referred to in the Latinized form Guarnerius, is the family name of a group of distinguished luthiers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati an ...

family of Cremona was played for any significant time by a member of the quartet: for many years David Soyer used an

Andrea Guarneri Andrea Guarneri (1626; 1698, in Cremona) was an Italian luthier, musician and founder of the Casa Guarneri. He is the most important student of Nicola Amati and grandfather of one of the best luthiers, Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri, del Gesù. Bi ...

cello made in 1669. He later switched to a Gagliano cello made in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

in 1778. After trying several violins (including a Guarneri), Steinhardt settled on a Cremona instrument made by Lorenzo Storioni in the late 18th century. Dalley plays a French violin made in 1810 by Nicholas Lupot. In the quartet's early years Tree played a viola (patterned after Andrea Guarneri's "Conte Vitale") made by Harvey Fairbanks, a luthier from Binghamton, New York. Later, his primary instrument became a 1750 viola made by Dominicus Busan of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

; he also plays a modern instrument made by Hiroshi Iizuka. Wiley plays a cello made around 1700 by

Matteo Goffriller Matteo Goffriller (1659–1742) was a Venetian luthier, particularly noted for the quality of his cellos. He was active between 1685–1735 and was the founder of the " Venetian School" of luthiers, during a time when Venice was one of the most imp ...

. At one point in the mid-1990s the quartet was offered the extended loan of a set of four rare

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are c ...

instruments owned by the

Corcoran Gallery The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Desi ...

in Washington, D.C. After considering the offer, the Guarneri musicians declined, preferring to play the instruments each had chosen for himself. Steinhardt has compared the task of finding a violin well matched to a performer's style to that of finding a spouse, and he adds, "After much trial and error, each of us has found what could aptly be called his musical soul mate."

History and activities

Steinhardt, Dalley, Tree and Soyer coalesced into the Guarneri Quartet at the

in Marlboro VT, where all of them spent summers during the early 1960s. During the summers of 1962 and 1963, the four played chamber music together in various permutations, and with encouragement from Festival director

Rudolf Serkin Rudolf Serkin (28 March 1903 – 8 May 1991) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century. Early life, childhood debut, and education Serkin was born in ...

and from

Alexander Schneider Abraham Alexander Schneider (October 21, 1908 – February 2, 1993) was a violinist, conductor and educator. Born to a Jewish family in Vilnius, Lithuania, he later moved to the United States as a member of the Budapest String Quartet. Early li ...

(second violinist of the

Budapest String Quartet The Budapest String Quartet was a string quartet in existence from 1917 to 1967. It originally consisted of three Hungarians and a Dutchman; at the end, the quartet consisted of four Russians. A number of recordings were made for HMV/Victor t ...

) the new quartet was launched on 20 July 1964 with a concert at Nantucket, Massachusetts. The name Guarneri was suggested by

Boris Kroyt Boris Kroyt (3 June 1897 – 15 November 1969) was a classical violinist and violist. He was the violist of the Budapest String Quartet from 1936 until the ensemble disbanded in 1967. Kroyt was born to a Jewish-Ukrainian family in Odessa, but sp ...

(violist of the Budapest String Quartet), who had played with a short-lived group of that name in Germany before World War II. In the fall of 1964, the quartet began a four-year residency at Harpur College (now known as Binghamton University) in Binghamton, New York, where they taught advanced students, held a series of open rehearsals, and played 15 public concerts per year. Steinardt relates that the group found the situation attractive because Binghamton was within driving distance of their base in New York City, and it would provide an opportunity to rapidly build a repertoire, gain performing experience, and develop working relationships among themselves. The Guarneri's New York City debut took place on 28 February 1965 at the New School for Social Research as part of a concert series arranged by Alexander Schneider. The enthusiastic audience included Fritz Steinway, of the concert management firm Judson, O’Neill, Beall and Steinway (which would shortly become the group's manager) and Max Wilcox, a record producer for RCA Victor, who quickly secured a recording contract for the Guarneri. Soon afterward, the group replaced the retiring Budapest String Quartet in a series of concerts at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

a series that extended across the Guarneri's lifespan, ending only when the quartet disbanded in 2009. They appeared at the

Mostly Mozart Festival The Mostly Mozart Festival is an American classical music festival based in New York City. Venues The festival presents concerts with its resident ensemble, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, principally at David Geffen Hall of the Lincoln C ...

beginning in 1966, and an ongoing series at Lincoln Center's

Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assist ...

began in 1975. Other frequent New York venues included the Frick Collection, the 92nd Street Y, Rockefeller University and Washington Irving High School. The Guarneri began touring almost immediately, with a concert in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

on 20 April 1965. In the summer of that year they embarked upon their first European tour, performing in

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

, and at the

Festival of Two Worlds The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conce ...

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Spolet ...

, Italy. As the quartet's reputation grew, both domestic and international tours became a way of lifeoften a grueling one. In the early years they played as many as 130 concerts per year, although by the 1980s they were attemptingnot always successfullyto limit their appearances to 100 per year. While the members of the quartet unanimously and emphatically preferred live performances to studio recordings, they were, from the beginning, prolific recording artists. Their first session for RCA Victor took place in June 1965, and included quartets by Mozart, Dvořák and

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sym ...

. By 1998 the Guarneri's catalog exceeded 50 LPs and CDs, including numerous recordings with pianist

Arthur Rubenstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish-American pianist.

. A partial discography can be found below. The Guarneri musicians were active in teaching throughout the quartet's life. The affiliation with Harpur College continued until 1968, and in that year Steinhardt, Tree and Soyer were appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. The members continued summer teaching at Marlboro, and in 1983, all four were appointed artists-in-residence at the

University of Maryland at College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the Flagship un ...

, where they continued teaching up to and beyond the formal dissolution of the Guarneri Quartet in 2009. David Soyer, who was about a dozen years older than his colleagues, retired in 2001, and his place was taken by Peter Wiley, Soyer's former student. The transition was symbolized in a Carnegie Hall concert that year, in which the Guarneri performed the Beethoven Quartet in B-flat major, op. 130, with Soyer playing cello, followed by the String Quintet in C by Schubert, with Soyer and Wiley taking the two cello parts. The incorporation of Wiley as cellist was a smooth one: "I don't feel like the new guy," he remarked. "I was a fan of the quartet since I was 11 years old…It was a very natural transition for me." Dalley added "It was actually very good for us when Peter came in, even though the quartet field was new to him…I think I learned more from Peter than he learned from us. He had a lot of good ideas that were brand new to us." The members of the quartet decided to disband at the end of the 2009 season, with the intention of going out on a high note. Steinhardt remarked on the difficulty of their work, and added "We all had the sense that we're still playing pretty well, and it's better to quit at that point than to go past our time. We had surprisingly little discussion; everybody came to that conclusion rather quickly." Critics agreed that it was time to bow out; while still praising the Guarneri's tone and style, they perceived increasing technical imperfections and a decrease in the intensity of the group's emotional connection with the music. For some of the final concerts, David Soyer rejoined the Guarneri as the group once again played the Schubert Quintet in C, which is scored for two cellos. David Soyer died on 25 February 2010, and Michael Tree died on 30 March 2018. As of 2018, the other Guarneri musicians continue to teach and perform under their own names.

Musical style and repertoire

The Guarneri's musical style was distinctive and widely admired. It has been described as "suave, elegant, highly nuanced, technically flawless", as "lush and vibrant sound married to an intensity of purpose", and as "seamless, warm and impassioned playing

ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediatel ...

a unanimity that did not efface individual personalities." Philadelphia critic Daniel Patrick Stearns remarked that:

Audiences kept coming back for the warmth of tone that was built from the inside out, with an unusually strong presence from second violin and viola, but with soft attacks and releases. Steinhardt's leaner tone defined that cloud of sound with a laserlike precision.

The quartet took a dramatic, even rambunctious approach to performing music; Steinhardt called it "swashbuckling and boisterous" when contrasting it with the

Orion String Quartet The Orion String Quartet is a string quartet formed in 1987. It is the quartet-in-residence of New York's Mannes College The New School for Music. The members are Todd and Daniel Phillips, brothers who alternate on first and second violin, viol ...

, whose style he admiringly described as "refined and thoughtful." In another context he stated that "our top priority is to try and deliver the essence of the music and create goosebumpsgive a performance that will be as memorable and vital and energetic as possible. I'd like to think we set caution slightly to the side in favor of emotional impact." The high-voltage performance style mellowed somewhat as the group matured; in a 2009 review of the quartet's performance of Beethoven's Quartet in E-flat, op. 127, Oregon critic David Stabler reported:

Instead of the feel of discovery, freshness and unpredictability, we heard more tempered playing. Instead of sharpness and strength in the opening of the E-Flat Quartet, the soft-pedaled sounds suggested a different way of engaging with the music. Less about surprise and urgency, more about knowing and acceptance. For the Guarneri, it was ground well trodden.

Many quartets strive to present a clean and cohesive tone, working to coordinate phrasing, bowing and intonation so as to create the sense of a single instrument with four registers. David Blum notes that the Guarneri explicitly followed a different path:

They readily admit that other quartets look for and achieve a more consistent blend of timbre and unity of style. They enter into the music’s expressive stream and let it work upon them, even if, in so doing, an occasional rough edge appears. Their goal is always to communicate the music as a living experience.

In a similar vein, Dalley expressed the Guarneri musicians’ intent as follows:

u heard four individual voices rather than four people trying to play alike. We liked to stand out individually in the quartet rather than play in a unified way. We wanted to have our own personalities come through rather than be submissive.

Tree agreed:

I think in view of many of our colleagues we'll be best known for never making a fuss about playing the same bowings. Some players would come backstage and wonder if we were fighting, because our bowings were different. We were unorthodox from the beginning, having a strong notion that we should play as best we can individually in our own comfort zone in terms of bowings and fingerings and so forth.

In its early years, the Guarneri's repertoire focused primarily on music of 18th and 19th century composers, and they became particularly known for their interpretations of

’s quartets. However, by the 1980s the quartet was incorporating more music from the 20th century in its programs. The musicians took a selective approach to modern musicthey were not enthusiastic about what Tree called "very experimental, avant-garde music" and they had mixed feelings about Schoenberg and

Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...

but they became champions of the quartets of Bartók and their repertoire eventually included music by

Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stead ...

Berg Berg may refer to: People *Berg (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Berg Ng (born 1960), Hong Kong actor * Berg (footballer) (born 1989), Brazilian footballer Former states * Berg (state), county and duchy of the Hol ...

, Stravinsky,

Vincent Persichetti Vincent Ludwig Persichetti (June 6, 1915 – August 14, 1987) was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, he was known for his integration of various new ideas in musical composition into his own wo ...

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ' ...

Witold Lutosławski Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szyman ...

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

Leon Kirchner Leon Kirchner (January 24, 1919 – September 17, 2009) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he won a Pulitzer Pr ...

, and William Klenz. Several original compositions were written for the group, by

Ned Rorem Ned Rorem (October 23, 1923 – November 18, 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and writer. Best known for his art songs, which number over 500, Rorem was the leading American of his time writing in the genre. Althoug ...

Lukas Foss Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor. Career Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with J ...

Mario Davidovsky Mario Davidovsky (March 4, 1934 – August 23, 2019) was an Argentine-American composer. Born in Argentina, he emigrated in 1960 to the United States, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He is best known for his series of compositions ca ...

, and

Richard Danielpour Richard Danielpour (born January 28, 1956) is an American composer. Early life Danielpour was born in New York City of Persian Jewish descent and grew up in New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida. He studied at Oberlin College and the New E ...

. The group also made a point of performing seldom-heard quartets by earlier composers, including those of

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest com ...

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European fol ...

Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (; hu, Kodály Zoltán, ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music ed ...

, and

Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish language, Spanish and Manx language, Manx versions of ''John (given name), John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronoun ...

Group dynamics

Unlike most performing ensembles, the Guarneri permitted, and even encouraged, public awareness of their work as they prepared concerts, and they allowed backstage glimpses of the interpersonal dynamics within the group. From the beginning they conducted "genuine" open rehearsals, in which audiences could listen as they argued over the best way to play a passage or whether a piece they were considering ought to become part of their repertoire. They frequently held interactive sessions with audiences and they regularly made themselves available for interviews by journalists and writers. On several occasions they allowed observers to travel with the quartet and to publish detailed accounts of their activities onstage, in rehearsal, and during their travel time and free hours. In addition, Arnold Steinhardt published a book of memoirs in 1998 under the title ''Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Search of Harmony'' (see Resources). As a result of all this, a good deal is known about the way the group worked, musically and psychologically. From the beginning, the Guarneri members rejected the then-common notion that the first violinist was the leader of the ensemble. The group insisted that all of the players were equals, and as a symbol of this, determined that whenever a piece called for one violin (for example, a piano quartet), second violinist John Dalley would play that part unless he chose not to do so. Similarly, all decisions were to be made by the group as a wholeand since four is an even number, that stance guaranteed a great deal of discussion when two members favored one option and two others preferred a different one. Dalley expressed the group's position as follows:

You have to be able to bend or give up some of your ideas. If you don't compensate and give in and compromise, you just don't get along. I think we had four strong personalities, and that's good. It's one way for a quartet to mature. The other way is to have a dictator who rules over the other three. That's the way it was in Europe, but Americans don't like that. It works faster, but the democratic way is more satisfying.

Thus the Guarneri's rehearsals were marked by vigorous give-and-take, with disagreements frequent and forcefully expressed. No point was too small for debate: in musical notation, a dot over a note means that it should be played

staccato Staccato (; Italian for "detached") is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation, it signifies a note of shortened duration, separated from the note that may follow by silence. It has been described by theorists and has appeared in music ...

, and Steinhardt describes one public rehearsal in which the group argued for 20 minutes over precisely how much shortening one particular staccato-marked note ought to have. In general majority opinions prevailed, but a minority voice was listened to, and occasionally when one member had extremely strong feelings on a matter, he was allowed veto power. When the group's decision process hit a deadlock, they would sometimes play the passage one way for a Monday concert and a different way on Tuesday. The players came to accept and expect the constant flow of criticism without resentment, and the rehearsals were also laced with friendly banter and corny jokes. But praise was almost never expressed; Steinhardt describes the Guarneri as a "compliment-free zone," noting that this reduced competitiveness and eliminated any pressure to offer congratulations in return. However, the frequency and intensity with which the players had to work together forced them to adopt measures to preserve their individual identities and maintain some degree of personal privacy. They seldom socialized outside of concert-related events, and while touring they often made independent travel and hotel arrangements. They would frequently split up during off days while on tour, and consciously avoided asking about the activities of the others. The musicians maintained a firewall between the quartet's activities and their family lives, and summers were protected as Guarneri-free time. The devices the players used to resolve problems and maintain their personal privacy, combined with their genuine fondness for each other and for the music they played, made possible an unusually long life for the quartet. The four original musicians performed together for 37 consecutive years, "a remarkable record of longevity for a string quartet, in which tensions over music making, money and personal differences often cause breakups." After Soyer retired, the group continued, with Wiley playing cello, for another 8 years, bringing the Guarneri's total life to 45 years with only one personnel change. The quartet's longevity, along with the readily-available material about the group's interpersonal dynamics, has made it possible for the Guarneri to be used as a model in studies and pedagogy regarding collaborative leadership.

Cultural impact

There were only about a dozen American string quartets in 1964 when the Guarneri was born. Just 16 years later, there were over 250. While that growth cannot be attributed to any single cause, the Guarneri is frequently cited as a significant force assisting the boom. For one thing, the members’ active work as teachers increased student interest in playing string quartets. One need look no further than Peter Wiley, who began his cello studies with Soyer, to see an example. The group's teaching at Harpur, at University of Maryland, and particularly at Marlboro and Curtis certainly helped young musicians to develop an appetite for quartet music. James Reel quotes a Curtis student's thoughts:

"There was always an excitement in the air at Curtis when they were about to show up," recalls Lucy Chapman Stoltzman, who studied particularly with Steinhardt, often in lessons lasting more than two hours…"It was the pure beauty of their sound and legato, and the sense of the inner voices was so strong, the sense of every voice being important in the way you want it to be," she says. "The Guarneri brought it to some new level that I hadn't heard before."

Another way in which the Guarneri facilitated the growth of interest in playing chamber music was through the example they set. In the early 1960s, music students aspired primarily to careers as soloists or orchestral musicians. The four Guarneri players took a substantial financial risk by establishing themselves as a professional string quartet in the absence of bookings, recording contracts, concert management, or even certainty of sufficient public interest. In the wake of their success, however, other musicians have been able to launch new quartets with more confidence that they can make a living playing chamber music, and by commanding significant fees, the Guarneri raised the payment baseline for all string quartets. Finally, the Guarneri helped to build public awareness of chamber music, and thus increase demand for it. Their eagerness to communicate with their audiences, their interviews, open rehearsals, question-and-answer sessions all helped to make string quartets less esoteric, more familiar to listeners. Helen Drees Ruttencutter put it this way:

They are said to have done for quartet music in America what Leonard Bernstein did for symphonic music – made it accessible and appealing to everyone open to a new musical experience. Audiences get a quadruple dose of what many managers consider one of the most important elements for a career in music: charisma. They have been hailed all over the world as "the Great American Quartet of the era" and "the greatest string quartet in the world."

Recordings

The Guarneri String Quartet has made numerous recordings during its long history, including some of the most important works in the string quartet and chamber music literature. They recorded for Arabesque,

RCA Victor Red Seal RCA Red Seal is a classical music label whose origin dates to 1902 and is currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment. History The first "Gramophone Record Red Seal" discs were issued in 1901.Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

and Surroundedby Entertainment. All recordings are with David Soyer as cellist unless it is noted that the cellist is Peter Wiley. A partial

discography Discography is the study and cataloging of published sound recordings, often by specified artists or within identified music genres. The exact information included varies depending on the type and scope of the discography, but a discography entry ...

includes: *

Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga y Balzola (27 January 1806 – 17 January 1826) was a Spanish Basque composer. He was nicknamed "the Spanish Mozart" after he died, because, like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, he was both a child prodigy and ...

– Complete String Quartets *

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...

– Complete String Quartets *

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

– Complete String Quartets (recorded twice: on RCA and Philips), String Quintet in C Op. 29 (with

Pinchas Zukerman Pinchas Zukerman ( he, פנחס צוקרמן, born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor. Life and career Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, to Jewish parents and Holocaust survivors Yehuda and Miriam Lieberman Zuk ...

) *

Alexander Borodin Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin ( rus, link=no, Александр Порфирьевич Бородин, Aleksandr Porfir’yevich Borodin , p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr pɐrˈfʲi rʲjɪvʲɪtɕ bərɐˈdʲin, a=RU-Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin.ogg, ...

– String Quartet No. 2 *

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

– Complete String Quartets, Complete String Quintets (with

), Piano Quintet in f Op. 34 (with

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

on RCA, with

Peter Serkin Peter Adolf Serkin (July 24, 1947 – February 1, 2020) was an American classical pianist. He won the Grammy Award for Most Promising New Classical Recording Artist in 1966, and he performed globally, known for not only "technically pristine" pl ...

on Philips), Complete Piano Quartets (with

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

), *

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

– String Quartet (recorded twice: on RCA and on Surroundedby Entertainment) *

Ernő Dohnányi Ernő or Erno is a Finnish and Hungarian masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Ernő Balogh (1897-1989), Hungarian pianist, composer, editor, and educator * Ernő Bánk (1883-1962), Hungarian painter and teacher * Ernő B ...

– String Quartet No. 2 in Db (recorded twice: on RCA in 1980 and on Sony in 2009 with cellist Peter Wiley), String Quartet No. 3 in A (with cellist Peter Wiley) *

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czechs, Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravian traditional music, Moravia and his native Bohemia, following t ...

– Piano Quintet No. 2 Op. 81 (with

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

), Quartet in C Op. 61, in F Op. 96 ("American"), in G Op. 106, in Ab Op. 105, Viola Quintet in Eb Op. 97 (with

Walter Trampler Walter Trampler (August 25, 1915 – September 27, 1997) was a German musician and teacher of the viola and viola d'amore. Born in Munich, he was given his first lessons at age six by his violinist father. While still in his youth, he played well e ...

), Terzetto Op. 74 *

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers ...

– String Quartet Op. 121 (recorded twice: on RCA and Surroundedby Entertainment), Piano Quartet in c Op. 15 (with

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

) *

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...

– String Quartet in g Op. 27 (recorded twice: on RCA and Philips) *

Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

– String Quartets in D Op. 20 No. 4, in g Op. 74 No. 3, in G Op. 77 No. 1, in F Op. 77 No. 2 *

– Piano Quintet (with

) *

– Complete String Quartets *

- Quartet for Strings no 2, Op. 10 (with cellist Peter Wiley) *

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...

– String Quartet in an Op. 13, String Quartet in D Op. 44 No. 1, Viola Quintet in Bb Op. 87 (with

), Octet in Eb Op. 20 (with the

) *

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

– The Complete Piano Quartets (with

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

), ''Eine kleine Nachtmusik'' (with Julius Levine), 6 String Quartets dedicated to

(recorded twice: for RCA and Philips) (in G K387, in d K421, in E K428, in Bb K458, in A K464, in C K465), String Quartet in D K499, String Quartet in D K575, String Quartet in Bb K589, String Quartet in F K590, The Complete Viola Quintets (with

Ida Kavafian Ida Kavafian ( hy, Այտա Գավաֆեան) (born October 29, 1952 in Istanbul) is an American classical violinist and violist. Biography Kavafian was born in Turkey to Armenian parents. She moved with her family to America in 1956, and began ...

, Steven Tenenbom, and

Kim Kashkashian Kim Kashkashian (born August 31, 1952) is an American violist. She is recognized as one of the world's top violists. She has spent her career in the US and Europe and collaborated with many major contemporary composers. In 2013 she won a Grammy A ...

) *

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

– String Quartet (recorded twice: for RCA and Surroundedby Entertainment) *

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

– String Quartets in a D804 (recorded twice: for RCA and Arabesque), in c "Quartettsatz", in d D810 "Death and the Maiden" (recorded twice: for RCA and Arabesque), in G D887, String Quintet in C D956 (with

Leonard Rose Leonard Joseph Rose (July 27, 1918 – November 16, 1984) was an American cellist and pedagogue. Biography Rose was born in Washington, D.C.; his parents were Jewish immigrants, his father from Bragin, Belarus, and his mother from Kyiv, ...

), "Trout" Quintet D667 (with

Emanuel Ax Emanuel "Manny" Ax (born 8 June 1949) is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is a teacher in the Juilliard School. Early life Ax was born to a Polish-Jewish family in Lviv, Ukraine, (in what was then the Soviet Union) to Joachim and ...

and Julius Levine) *

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

– Complete String Quartets, Op. 41, Piano Quintet in Eb Op. 44 (with

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

) *

– String Quartet in D minor Op. 56 '' Voces intimae'' *

Bedřich Smetana Bedřich Smetana ( , ; 2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his people's aspirations to a cultural and political "revival." He has been regarded i ...

– String Quartet in E minor ("From my Life") *

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

– String Quartet No. 1 in D Op. 11, "Souvenir de Florence" Sextet Op. 70 (with Boris Kroyt and Mischa Schneider) *

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

– String Quartet in E minor *

Hugo Wolf Hugo Philipp Jacob Wolf (13 March 1860 – 22 February 1903) was an Austrian composer of Slovene origin, particularly noted for his art songs, or Lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Ro ...

– '' Italian Serenade''

Awards

* 2005: The Ford Honors Award, University Musical Society of the University of Michigan. * 2004: The Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, Chamber Music America. * 1992: Award of Merit, Association of Performing Arts Presenters in New York City. * 1983: Honorary Doctorate degrees by the State University of New York. * 1982: New York Seal of Recognition. * 1976: Honorary Doctorate degrees by the University of South Florida

Films

* 1989: ''High Fidelity – The Guarneri String Quartet,'' directed and produced by Allan Miller.

Notes

Resources

* David Blum (1986). ''The Art of Quartet Playing: The Guarneri Quartet in Conversation with David Blum'', New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. . * I. Fink & C. Merriell with the Guarneri String Quartet (1985). ''String Quartet Playing'', New Jersey: Paganiniana Publications, Inc. * Helen Drees Ruttencutter (1980). Quartet: a Profile of the Guarneri Quartet. New York. Lippincott & Crowell Publishers. * Arnold Steinhardt (1998). ''Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. .

References

External links

Miami Chamber Music profile of Guarneri Quartet
National Public Radio, All Things Considered, 17 May 2009. *Steinhardt, Arnold
In the Key of Strawberry: Stories About Music
{{Use dmy dates, date=March 2017 Musical groups established in 1964 American string quartets Curtis Institute of Music alumni Curtis Institute of Music faculty