Legacy of String Quartet

The Curtis String Quartet performed thousands of concerts around the United States between 1932 and 1981, bringing world-class chamber music to many small cities for the first time; it was also the first American-based quartet ever to tour Europe, in 1935. The group—founded by Jascha Brodsky, Benjamin Sharlip, Max Aronoff, and Orlando Cole—enjoyed a close relationship with composer Samuel Barber, who wrote several pieces for them, including his Serenade for String Quartet Op. 1, and Dover Beach, Op. 3. Barber also composed his famous String Quartet, Op. 11 for the Curtis ensemble, and wrote to Orlando Cole about his enthusiasm for the Adagio movement during the process of composition. Barber did not complete the piece in time for the Curtis String Quartet to premiere it on their European concert tour, so it was instead premiered by the highly regarded Pro Arte Quartet in Rome in 1936.

The talent and expressive capabilities of the artists in the Curtis String Quartet were undoubtedly at the forefront of Barber’s mind as he composed Op. 11, and this is nowhere more evident than in the famous Adagio movement. Comprising some of the most awe-inspiring eight minutes in modern music, the Adagio attracted the attention of audiences globally when Arturo Toscanini premiered the orchestral version with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1938 and in 1945 when it was broadcast over the radio upon the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Since then, the work has been used in films, arranged for chorus, and sampled in the work of prominent DJs, becoming a go-to piece that expresses the depth of human pathos.

The founding of other internationally renowned quartets by Curtis artists also bolstered the school’s burgeoning influence. The Guarneri Quartet—formed in 1964 at the Marlboro Festival by Curtis students Arnold Steinhardt (’59), John Dalley (’57), and Michael Tree (’55), along with David Soyer—profoundly influenced the appreciation, understanding, and pedagogy of the string quartet in the United States. With its members joining the Curtis faculty in 1968—and with Soyer passing the bow to current cello faculty Peter Wiley in 2001—the Guarneri Quartet set a living example to Curtis students of the viability of the string quartet as a vehicle for professional success and coached numerous young quartets at Curtis before bringing

their distinguished ensemble career to a close in 2009. Teaching at Curtis for over fifteen years, Mischa Schneider exerted a similar influence on chamber music throughout his 38 years in the Budapest String Quartet, taking part in the premiere of the final version of the Barber String Quartet, Op. 11 in 1943. Felix Galimir was also a key figure in chamber music coaching at Curtis, bringing to the fold his relationships with numerous serialist and modernist composers stretching back to Alban Berg. Current chamber music coach Steven Tenenbom (’79)—violist of the Orion Quartet, who studied with Tuttle and Tree—has embarked on several exciting new music projects, crossing boundaries with jazz greats Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis.