The Flonzaley Quartet was a string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

 organized in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 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: Alfred 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

Villa

A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...

 near Lausanne

Lausanne

Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

, in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, 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. Both violinists and the violist had been students of the Belgian maestro César Thomson

César Thomson

César Thomson was a Belgian violinist, teacher and composer.He was born in Liège in 1857. At age seven, he entered the Liège Conservatory of Music, and studied under Jacques Dupuis and Lambert Massart. By age 16, he was considered to have "a technique unrivalled by any other violinist then living"...

. 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

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

 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

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 army, resulting in his replacement. The Quartet performed worldwide until disbanding in 1928 after a farewell tour that ended on April 14 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. 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
  Harold Bauer
  Harold Bauer was a noted pianist who began his musical career as a violinist.Harold Bauer was born in London; his father was a German violinist and his mother was English. He took up the study of the violin under the direction of his father and Adolf Pollitzer. He made his debut as a violinist in...
  
  , piano (V 6571-5/DB970-4).
• Dohnányi
  Dohnányi
  Dohnányi is a Hungarian family name belonging to a notable family of politicians and musicians descended from composer Ernő Dohnányi. The addition of "von" was a personal choice made by Ernő as it was usual by Hungarian noble families not having a prädicate to indicate their nobility.* Ernő...
  
  : 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
  Robert Schumann
  Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
  
  : Quintet in E flat major op 44 with Ossip Gabrilowitsch
  Ossip Gabrilowitsch
  Ossip Gabrilowitsch was a Russian-born American pianist, conductor and composer.- Biography :...
  
  , piano (V 8092-5/DB 1191-4).
• Smetana
  Smetana
  Smetana is a Slavic loanword in English for a dairy product that is produced by souring heavy cream. Smetana is from Central and Eastern Europe, sometimes perceived to be specifically of Russian origin. It is a soured cream product like crème fraîche , but nowadays mainly sold with 15% to 30%...
  
  : Quartet no 1 in E minor (V 7130-2/DB 1359-61).

Sources

• 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).

External links

• Discography of Flonzaley Quartet on Victor Records
  Victor Talking Machine Company
  The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....
  
  from the Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR)