In the early 1920s, the Viennese violinist
Rudolf Kolisch began to study composition with
Arnold Schoenberg, who also put Kolisch to work in the composer's "Society for Private Musical Performances" (Verein fuer musikalische Privatauffuehrungen). This led to the creation of a string quartet ("Neue Wiener Streichquartett") dedicated to performing Schoenberg's music, but also to performing the classical string quartet repertoire in a manner which would take into account the principles of Schoenberg's teaching. The quartet consisted initially of Kolisch and Fritz Rothschild (alternating first and second violins), Marcel Dick (viola) and Joachim Stutschewsky (cello). This ensemble began to concertize and tour in central Europe. By 1927, the membership of the ensemble had settled: Kolisch played first violin, Felix Khuner played second violin,
Eugene Lehner played viola and Benar Heifetz played cello; this group became known as the
Kolisch Quartet. Numerous works were written for them by composers including
Alban Berg,
Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg, and
Béla Bartók. The Quartet's tours extended eventually to include all European countries including Scandinavia, and also (by the mid-1930s) North and South America. One notable aspect of the Quartet was that they generally performed from memory, including difficult modern works such as the
Lyric Suite of Berg. This was not intended as a demonstration of any special powers of memorization, but rather of an approach which involved such careful rehearsal that by the time a piece was ready for performance, the musicians no longer required the score. The quartet used eye contact and were more able to respond musically to one another without music stands interfering. The Quartet was on tour in
Paris in 1938 when Nazi Germany
annexed Austria. Because of their association with Schoenberg (whose music had been banned by the Nazis) and because most of the members of the Quartet were considered Jewish according to the Nazi legal definition, they did not return to Vienna. They set up their headquarters in Paris and toured from there.
Béla Bartók's
String Quartet No. 6 is dedicated to the Kolisch Quartet, and it was they who gave its premiere at
The Town Hall in
New York City on 20 January 1941. They were on tour in the United States when that country entered the war and civilian transport across the ocean suddenly became unavailable. Rather than continue with the Quartet in the face of great uncertainty about the future, the cellist and violist soon took jobs with major U.S. orchestras (
Philadelphia and
Boston, respectively). The Quartet continued to play concerts with replacement players for some time, but when the second violinist left to join an orchestra in
San Francisco, the Quartet finally disbanded. == Recordings ==