Hungarian Quartet(ii)

Extract

String quartet. It was founded in 1935 in Budapest as the New Hungarian Quartet by Sándor Végh, Péter Szervánszky (soon replaced by Lászlo Halmos), Dénes Koromzay (b Budapest, May 18, 1913; d July 15, 2001 in Louisville, CO) and Vilmos Palotai (b Budapest, 21 May 1904; d Switzerland, 1972). In 1936 it gave the Austrian and Hungarian premières of Bartók’s Fifth Quartet. In 1937 Zoltán Székely (b Kocs, 8 Dec 1903 – a close associate of Bartók – became leader, Végh replacing Halmos as second violinist for a year before giving way to Alexandre Moskowsky (b Kerch, Crimea, 22 Oct 1901; d Manchester, 1969). Trapped in the Netherlands under German occupation during World War II, the group’s members played in orchestras and made an intensive study of Beethoven’s quartets. After the war they re-emerged as the Hungarian Quartet, made their US début in 1948 and based themselves at the University of Southern California from ...