The Kneisel Quartet was a
string quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
founded in 1885 by violinist Franz Kneisel, then concertmaster of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...
. It continued to perform until 1917, and was generally considered the leading string quartet of its time in the United States.
Origin and history
The Kneisel Quartet was founded in 1885, soon after
Franz Kneisel Franz Kneisel (born January 26, 1865, Bucharest - died March 26, 1926, New York) was a violinist and music teacher. He completed early musical training at the Bucharest Conservatory and moved to Vienna in 1879, where he studied under Jakob Grün. ...
arrived in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
as
concertmaster
The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most signifi ...
of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...
.
The original members of the quartet were all members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and this remained true, in spite of changes in personnel, until 1903, when the players resigned from the orchestra in order to devote their time and energy exclusively to chamber music.
In 1905 they moved from Boston to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where Kneisel had accepted a position at the recently created Institute of Musical Art (now the
Juilliard School of Music
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
).
The quartet gave its final performance on 3 April 1917 in New York. In a statement announcing their retirement, Kneisel explained that henceforth he planned to devote himself to teaching and he wanted to avoid any decline in the quality of their performances.
Personnel
First Violin:
*Franz Kneisel (1885–1917)
Second violin:
*Emanuel Fiedler (1885–1887)
*Otto Roth (1887–1899)
*
Karel Ondříček (1899–1902)
*Julius Theodorowicz (1902–1907)
*
Julius Röntgen
Julius Engelbert Röntgen (9 May 1855 – 13 September 1932) was a German-Dutch composer of classical music. He was a friend of Liszt, Brahms and Grieg.
Life
Julius Röntgen was born in Leipzig, Germany, to a family of musicians. His father, ...
(1907–1912)
*Hans Letz (1912–1917)
Viola:
*
Louis Svećenski (1885–1917)
Cello:
*Fritz Giese (1885–1889)
*
Anton Hekking
Johannes Francis Anton Hekking (7 September 1856 – 18 November 1935) was a Netherlands-born cellist and teacher.
Education
Anton Hekking was born in The Hague on 7 September 1856, to a musical family that also produced other notable cellists, ...
(1889–1891)
*
Alwin Schroeder
Alwin Schroeder (15 June 1855, Neuhaldensleben – 17 October 1928, Boston) was a German-American cellist. He was well known for playing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO first cellist from 1891 to 1903 and from 1910 to 1912, and section c ...
(1891–1907)
*Willem Willeke (1907–1917)
Repertoire and reputation
The Kneisel Quartet played an important role in the growth of appreciation for chamber music in the United States, and in the spread of European standards of performance and programming.
The quartet adopted an uncompromisingly serious approach in their playing and choice of repertoire, making "no concessions to public ignorance".
In place of the popular selections and excerpts from larger works that many audiences were familiar with, they regularly played complete quartets by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and they introduced to American audiences many compositions that are now part of the classical repertoire, but were then new and unfamiliar, including works by Brahms, Dvořák, Smetana, Franck, Debussy, Ravel, and Schoenberg.
They also played many contemporary works by American composers, such as
Edward MacDowell
Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites ''Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and ''Ne ...
,
Arthur Foote
Arthur William Foote (March 5, 1853 in Salem, Massachusetts – April 8, 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American classical composer, and a member of the "Boston Six." The other five were George Whitefield Chadwick, Amy Beach, Edward Mac ...
, and
George Chadwick, and were exceptionally supportive of the work of women composers and musicians, such as
Amy Beach
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (September 5, 1867December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. Her Gaelic Symphony, "Gaelic" Symphony, premiered by the Boston Symph ...
and
Bertha Tapper
Bertha Johanne Feiring Maass Tapper (25 January 1859 - 2 September 1915) was a Norwegian composer, pianist, and teacher, best known for editing the piano works of Edvard Grieg for publication in America. She published under the name Bertha Feirin ...
, with whom they sometimes performed. The quartet toured widely and gave concerts in small towns across North America that had rarely, if ever, heard a professional instrumental ensemble playing serious works from the chamber repertoire.
It was occasionally criticized for not playing more accessible music,
and even in Boston and New York its concerts were not always well attended,
but by the time of its retirement the Kneisel Quartet was widely credited with having created a more educated and appreciative audience for chamber music in the United States.
As the New York critic Richard Aldrich wrote in 1917,
Selected first performances
*
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 with ...
,
String Quintet No. 2. First American performance, 6 November 1891.
*
Loeffler, String Sextet. World premiere, 15 December 1893, New York,
*
Dvořák,
String Quartet no. 12 ("American"). World premiere, 1 January 1894, Boston (followed by the first New York performance on 13 January).
*
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
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
. First American performance, 10 March 1902, Boston.
*
Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...
,
String Quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
. First American performance, 4 December 1906, Boston.
*
Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...
, ''
Verklärte Nacht
''Verklärte Nacht'' (''Transfigured Night''), Op. 4, is a string sextet in one movement composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1899. Composed in just three weeks, it is considered his earliest important work. It was inspired by Richard Dehmel's poe ...
''. First American performance, 2 March 1915, New York (followed by first performances in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago).
References
External links
The Love Family Papers at Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, Yale Universitycorrespondence of Helen Love Scranton, secretary to Franz Kneisel.
American string quartets
American instrumental musical groups
Musicians from Bucharest
Cultural history of Boston
Musical groups established in 1885
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