8 pieces of advice for happy string quartets

‘At whatever age and level of accomplishment the players may be, the basics of quartet playing are the same, and they are principally to do with communication. First young players have to learn to listen.’

The Strad, August 2008

‘Play together as frequently as possible if you would play quartets well. Let each member of the small party make his suggestions as to the performance of certain passages; let each suggestion be weighted, and that adopted which is decided to be the best — but once having fixed on a certain plan, keep to it, as nothing will tend to mar the beauty of your ultimate results so much as chopping and changing about.’

The Strad, September 1893

‘The master composers have left us a most precious literature in their works written expressly for interpretation by two violins, viola and violoncello. This group of stringed instruments seems to have appealed to them as a means of expression second to none, judging from the transcendent beauty and variety of the ideas we find intrusted to it.’