Flonzaley Quartet

The Flonzaley Quartet was a string quartet organized in New York City in 1902, which was highly esteemed. The group disbanded in 1928.

Personnel

The original personnel of the group were as follows:

1st violin: Adolfo Betti
2nd violin: Alfret Pochon
viola: Ugo Ara (until 1917), replaced by Louis Bailly (until 1924), and by Félicien d'Archambeau.
violoncello: Iwan d'Archambeau

Origins

The Quartet was the deliberate creation of Éduard J. de Coppet of New York, who in 1902 engaged the original members to devote themselves entirely to quartet-playing, and not with any view to giving regular concerts in public. The group took its name from de Coppet's summer villa near Lausanne, in Switzerland, where the four musicians first rehearsed. After a long period of practice, the Quartet made a European tour and won high praise for the perfection of its ensemble and its artistic finish. The group was first heard in New York, in private and at charity concerts, in autumn 1904, but it did not give a public concert in the USA until 5 December 1905. After that it appeared regularly in Europe and America. The members stuck to the original principle of not accepting any outside engagement, and having no pupils, and by devoting themselves entirely to the quartet maintained a position of acknowledged superiority in their field.

In 1914 the group asked Igor Stravinsky to write them a work. This resulted in his "Three pieces for String Quartet". A few years later they also commissioned him to write "Concertino", a one-movement work. Éduard de Coppet died in 1916, and his son André continued thereafter to maintain the Quartet. The original violist Ugo Ara left the group to join the Italian army, resulting in his replacement. The Quartet performed worldwide until disbanding in 1928 after a farewell tour that ended on April 14 in London. However, their recording of the Haydn 'Lark' quartet (below) could still be described as 'in prep.' in 1936.

Recordings

The Flonzaley recorded for Victor/His Master's Voice by both the acoustic horn and electric microphone methods. Among their recordings of longer works are the following:
* Beethoven: Quartet Op 18 no 2 (V 1218-21/DA 851-854).
* Beethoven: Quartet in E flat major op 127 (V 7629-33/DB 1377-81).
* Beethoven: Quartet in F major op 135 (V 122-125/DA 847-850).
* Brahms: Quintet in F minor op 34 with Harold Bauer, piano (V 6571-5/DB970-4).
* Dohnányi: Quartet no 2 in D flat major op 15 (V 7354-6/DB 1135-7).
* Haydn: Quartet in D major op 64 no 5 (V 7650-1).
* Mozart: Quartet in D minor K 421 (V 7607-8/DB 1357-8).
* Mozart: Quartet in D major K 575 (DA 947-9 ('V 1585-7' not issued?)).
* Schubert: Quartet in G major op 161 (V 7475-8/DB 1373-6).
* Schumann: Quintet in E flat major op 44 with Ossip Gabrilowitsch, piano (V 8092-5/DB 1191-4).
* Smetana: Quartet no 1 in E minor (V 7130-2/DB 1359-61).

ources

*R.D. Darrell, "The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music" (New York 1936).
*A. Eaglefield-Hull, "A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians" (Dent, London 1924).
*D. Ewen, "Encyclopedia of Concert Music" (Hill and Wang, New York 1959).