Kolisch Quartet
The Kolisch Quartet was a string quartet founded by Rudolf Kolisch in Vienna in 1921 , which is one of the central ensembles of the 20th century due to its special merits in the performance and promotion of new music . It disintegrated after emigrating to the USA in 1944.
history
The Kolisch Quartet was created in the context of Arnold Schönberg's association for private musical performances in Vienna in the early 1920s. Initially with a briefly changing line-up and accompanied by interruptions in the line-up, it was constituted in autumn 1924 as a Viennese string quartet . From the reorganization in 1927, it was officially called the Kolisch Quartet .
The ensemble was mainly dedicated to the cultivation of new music and soon became internationally known after several tours . It brought numerous works by composers of the Second Viennese School (Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg , Anton von Webern ) and from their environment to world premieres or premieres . The interpretations were often worked out in close cooperation with the composers, which gave them special significance in terms of the history of interpretation. This was especially true for the works of Schönberg, who as spiritus rector also had a great influence on Rudolf Kolisch and his quartet.
Radically oriented towards faithful reproduction, the ensemble endeavored to analytically penetrate the composition and the underlying considerations. The most intensive rehearsal work was aimed at mastering the score (not just your own voice) and the quartet played a large repertoire by heart (for the purpose of mutual coordination via eye contact). The aim was not an “effective” but a “correct” (authentic) interpretation of the musical text.
The lack of demand for contemporary music as a result of the increasingly conservative cultural policy in politically changed Europe prompted the quartet to include more classical works (especially Beethoven's late works ) in their programs in the early 1930s . The limited concert opportunities as a result of the economic crisis contributed to the fact that the musicians were also looking for engagements overseas. It was not until 1935 that various tours to the USA, Canada and South America took place. When Rudolf Kolisch, who moved from Vienna to Berlin in 1929, moved to the USA at the end of 1936, America became the focus of the ensemble's concert activities. But concert tours through Europe continued to be part of the fixed program and at the time of the " Anschluss " of Austria the musicians were in Amsterdam .
Following final emigration to the United States, the quartet of tough competition has faced, not least by others from the Nazis in Europe who fled ensembles. Without additional income from orchestra engagements or apprenticeships for members, the Kolisch Quartet could no longer continue to exist in the long term. After long-standing members left (1939), Rudolf Kolisch succeeded for some time in repeatedly presenting a quartet, but in the end only with a line-up that changed at ever shorter intervals. The last concert of a Kolisch quartet finally took place in May 1944 in New York .
Members
- Violin : Rudolf Kolisch (1921–1944)
- Violin: Jaromir Czerny (1921–1922), Gustav Kinzel (1922), Oskar Fitz (1922–1923), Fritz Rothschild (1924–1927), Felix Khuner (1927–1941), Daniel Guilevitch (1941–1943), Lorna Freedman (1943–1944)
- Viola : Othmar Steinbauer (1921–1922), Herbert Duesberg (1922–1923), Marcel Dick (1924–1927), Eugen Lehner (1927–1939), Jascha Veissi (1939–1941), Kurt Frederick (1941–1942), Ralph Hersh (1942–1943), Bernhard Milofsky (1943–1944)
- Violoncello : Erik Skeel-Görling (1921–1922), Wilhelm Winkler (1922–1923), Joachim Stutschewsky (1924–1927), Benar Heifetz (1927–1939), Stefan Auber (1939–1941), Fritz Magg (1942–1943 ), Janos Scholz (1943–1944), Stefan Auber (1944)
literature
- Claudia Maurer Zenck: “What else can a person do but play as a quartet?” - Rudolf Kolisch and his quartets. Attempt to create a chronicle for the years 1921–1944 ; in: Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, vol. 53 (1998), no. 11, pp. 8–57.
- Walter Levin: Immigrant Musicians and the American Chamber Music Scene, 1930-1950 ; in: Reinhold Brinkmann, Christoph Wolff (Ed.): Driven into Paradise. The Musical Migration from Nazi Germany to the United States ; Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1999; Pp. 322-339.