The Kodály Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1966 in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, originally as ''Sebestyén Quartet''. In 1969, with the approval of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs of the Hungarian Republic, the quartet assumed its present name in honour of the Hungarian composer

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 edu ...

. The ensemble tours internationally, and has recorded the complete cycles of

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

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

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 ...

for the

Naxos Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best ab ...

label. Its discography exceeds sixty recordings, mainly for Naxos.

Members

The quartet's present members are: * Attila Falvay ''1st

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

'' * Ferenc Bangó ''2nd violin'' * Zoltán Tuska ''

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

'' * György Éder ''

violoncello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D ...

Awards

* Ferenc Liszt Award (1970) * Artist of Merit of the Hungarian Republic (1990) * Bartók-Pasztory Award (1996) * Classic CD Magazine's Best Chamber Music Release (1993)

Select Notable Reviews

* BBC Music Magazine's Pick of the Month, April 2000 * American Record Guide, July/August 2000 * Strad Magazine, February 2001 * MusicWeb UK, February 2001 * Gramophone, December 2002 * Classic Today, June 2005 * The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs (several listings, including one "Rosette")

Sources

* Archives of the Ferenc Liszt Society * Archives of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic * Archives of the Bartók-Pásztory Foundation * Archives of the publishers of Classic CD Magazine * Archives of the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC Music Magazine * The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs, * Archives of the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, Hungary * Kodály Quartet entry in the German edition of Wikipedia
Naxos discography

External links

Kodaly String Quartet homepage
*Facebook: Kodály String Quartet {{DEFAULTSORT:Kodaly Quartet Musical groups established in 1965 Hungarian string quartets Artists of Merit of the Hungarian People's Republic