Hellmesberger Quartet

The Hellmesberger Quartet was a String Quartet formed in Vienna in 1849. It was founded by Joseph Hellmesberger, Sr. and was the first permanent named String Quartet.

Composition

Violinist Leopold Jansa started a string quartet in 1845. Hellmesberger took over from Jansa in 1849, retaining the other members. [Hellmesberger family biographies, under External links] Its initial composition was:
*Joseph Hellmesberger, Sr. (1st violin)
*Carl Heissler (2nd violin)
*Matthias Durst (viola)
*Carl Schlesinger (cello)

The quartet's composition remained "pretty constant until the mid-1860's"Potter, "The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet", p.44]

At one point, the composition was:
*Joseph Hellmesberger, Sr. (1st violin)
*Adolph Brodsky (2nd violin), left Vienna in 1870
*Sigismund Bachrich (viola)
*David Popper (cello), from 1868 to 1870

Hellmesberger's son, Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr. joined the quartet in 1875 to play the second violin and became leader in 1887.

Ferdinand Hellmesberger, the son of Joseph Sr. and brother of Joseph Jr., joined in 1883 to play the cello.

Importance

The Quartet played an important role in Vienna's musical life through the performance of quartets from Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Franz Schubert, premiering several of Brahms' and Schubert's chamber works. ["Hellmesberger family biographies" under External links]

It commissioned and premiered Antonín Dvořák's String Quartet No. 11, Op. 61, composed in 1881.

The programme of the opening concert on November 4, 1849 included Joseph Haydn's Quartet in C, Op. 76, No. 3 Spohr's Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 124, Beethoven's Quartet in F, Op. 59 No. 1.

Notes

References

*cite journal
quotes =
author = Unknown Author
date = 1903-4-1
title = Adolph Brodsky
journal = Musical Times
volume = 44
issue = 722
pages = 225–227
doi = 10.2307/902923
id =
url = http://www.jstor.org/pss/902923
format =
accessdate = 2006-10-10
*cite book |last=Clive |first= Peter |authorlink= |coauthors= |editor= |others= |title=Schubert and His World: A Biographical Dictionary |origdate= |origyear= |origmonth= |url= http://books.google.com/books?id=gBNGk5cKwcUC|format= |accessdate= |accessyear= |accessmonth= |edition= |series= |volume= |date= |year=1997 |month= |publisher=Oxford University Press |location= |language= |isbn=019816582X |oclc= |doi= |id= |pages=pp.73-74 |chapter= |chapterurl= |quote=
*

External links

* [http://www.tribalsmile.com/music/article_192.shtml Biographies of members of the Hellmesberger family]
*Frederick H. Martens, [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15535 "Violin Mastery: Talks with master violinists and teachers"] at Project Gutenberg, including information about the Hellmesberger Quartet
* [http://epub.oeaw.ac.at/ml/musik_H/Hellmesberger-Quartett.xml Hellmesberger family biographies]