The New Hungarian 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 by

Andor Toth Andor John Toth (June 16, 1925 – November 28, 2006) was an American classical violinist, conductor and educator with a musical career spanning over six decades. Toth played his violin on the World War II battlefields of Aachen, Germany; performe ...

in 1972 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 ...

, where members were on the faculty. It is separate from the well-known

Hungarian Quartet The Hungarian String Quartet was a musical ensemble of world renown, particularly famous for its performances of quartets by Beethoven and Bartók. The quartet was founded in Budapest in 1935 (as the New Hungarian Quartet) and was disbanded in 197 ...

, though the violist in both groups was the same. From 1975 until 1979 the quartet was the first faculty quartet-in-residence at the Taos School of Music in

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Cha ...

Personnel

Violinist

founded the New Hungarian Quartet in 1972. It was based at the

in Oberlin, Ohio, where they were faculty members. The other members of the Quartet were Richard Young, second violin; Denes Koromzay (1913–2001), viola, formerly violist in the

; and Andor Toth, Jr., cello, formerly principal cellist of the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony (SFS), founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San Fr ...

under conductor

Josef Krips Josef Alois Krips (8 April 1902 – 13 October 1974) was an Austrian conductor and violinist. Life and career Krips was born in Vienna. His father was Josef Jakob Krips, a medical doctor and amateur singer, and his mother was Aloisia, née Seit ...

Touring

The New Hungarian Quartet toured internationally, giving many concerts during its career. The quartet performed a concert in New York City in

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 ...

in February, 1976. Oberlin College president

Emil Danenberg Emil Charles Danenberg was an American concert pianist and music educator in the field of classical music. He was Dean of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music 1970-1975, and president of Oberlin College from 1975 until his death in 1982. He was ...

, an established concert pianist, joined them for the

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 ...

Piano Quintet in F. Music critic

Raymond Ericson Raymond Ericson (1915 – December 30, 1997) was an American music critic who wrote articles for ''The New York Times'' for 30 years. Life and career Born in Brooklyn, Ericson earned an associate degree in mathematics from North Park Junior Co ...

commented in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' that:

The Brahms] was greeted enthusiastically, however, by a near-capacity audience, as were the works offered by the New Hungarian Quartet alone. These included Mozart's String Quartet No. 17 (Mozart), "Hunt" Quartet and Bartók's Fourth Quartet. The playing here was classic in its restraint and sweetness. The soft playing in the trio of the ''Mozart Adagio'' was ravishing. The stylishness held good throughout the Bartók, even when the players did justice to the wild dance rhythms of the last movement. This was top-level playing.

Recordings

The quartet made several recordings for VOX in their VOXBOX series (see discography below). The most notable recording was the CD album of the Six String Quartets by

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 ...

, recorded in 1976 for VOX (Vox SVBX 593).

Selected discography

Arkiv Music VoxBox CDX 5022: Schubert, String Quartets / New Hungarian Quartet

(violin), Richard Young (violin), Denes Koromzay (viola), Andor Toth, Jr. (cello) # String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D 804/Op. 29 no 1 ''Rosamunde'' # String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D 810 ''Death and the Maiden'' # String Quartet No. 15 in G major, D 887/Op. 161 # Quartettsatz in C minor, D 703/Op. posthumous VoxBox (Classical) CD3X 3012: Beethoven, The Middle Quartets / New Hungarian Quartet
Andor Toth (violin), Richard Young (violin), Denes Koromzay (viola), Andor Toth, Jr. (cello) # String Quartet No. 7 in F major ("Rasumovsky 1"), Op. 59/1 # String Quartet No. 8 in E minor ("Rasumovsky 2"), Op. 59/2 # String Quartet No. 9 in C major ("Rasumovsky 3"), Op. 59/3 # String Quartet No. 10 in E flat major ("Harp"), Op. 74 # String Quartet No. 11 in F minor ("Serioso"), Op. 95 VoxBox (Classical) CDX 3031: Debussy and Ravel Quartets / New Hungarian Quartet, second CD of 3-CD set. Andor Toth (violin), Richard Young (violin), Denes Koromzay (viola), Andor Toth, Jr. (cello) #

String Quartet (Debussy) Claude Debussy completed his String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 (List of compositions by Claude Debussy, L.91), in 1893 when he was 31 years old. It is Debussy's only string quartet. Background That year Debussy had abandoned the opera ''Rodrigue ...

in G Minor, Op. 10 #

String Quartet (Ravel) Maurice Ravel completed his String Quartet in F major in early April 1903 at the age of 28. It was premiered in Paris in March the following year. The work follows a four-movement classical structure: the opening movement, in sonata form, presents ...

Vox SVBX 593

: The 6 string quartets. New Hungarian Quartet: Andor Toth (violin), Richard Young (violin), Denes Koromzay (viola), Andor Toth, Jr. (cello). Cataloged in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

, Control No
77760307

References

External links

CD Database

The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet By Robin Stowell
an example of the confusion existing regarding this quartet

''The New York Times'' *

article about the quartet's residency at the Taos School of Music

* ttp://www3.amherst.edu/~concerts/artists.htm Appearance on the Music at Amherst Series 1978–79
Cited in the obituary of the cellist, Andor Toth Jr.

Citation in the Wichita Public Library, Wichita, Kansas

Appearance at Oklahoma State University in 1976–77 season

Richard Young, second violin, bio from Northern Illinois University

{{authority control American string quartets 1972 establishments in New Hampshire Musical groups established in 1972