Brodsky Quartet (Adolph Brodsky Leipzig)

The Brodsky Quartet was a String quartet led by Adolph Brodsky. It was established on 1884, while Brodsky was professor at the Leipzig Conservatoire. The founding members, aside from Brodsky (1st violin) were Ottokar Nováček (2nd violin), Hans Sitt (viola) and Leopold Grützmacher (violoncello).^[1]

In 1885, Hans Becker replaced Nováček (2nd violin) and Julius Klengel replaced Grützmacher. In 1888, Sitt was replaced by Nováček (viola), a former student of Brodksy. In 1891, Sitt replaced Nováček (viola) again and Arno Hilf replaced Brodsky,^[1][2] as the latter moved to the United States, accepting the invitation by Walter Damrosch to become concertmaster of the New York Symphony Orchestra. The quartet was renowned internationally and toured Russia (1889),^[3] Denmark (1890) and Italy (1891) as well as Germany.

In 1895, Brodksy formed a second quartet named Brodsky Quartet, when he settled in Manchester. Several years after an 1890 request by that quartet's cellist Carl Fuchs, Edward Elgar composed in 1918 his String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83 and dedicated it to the quartet.^[4][5][6]

Notes

1. Kohut 1900, pp.84-85
2. Ehrlich 1897, p.17
3. Ginsburg 1983, p.76: "In 1889, [Klengel] was invited to Russia as a member of the famous Brodsky Quartet of Leipzig ... the four concerts of the Quartet [were] given excellent reviews in the Russian press. The program of the series featured works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Grieg, Rubenstein and Tchaikovsky."
4. Kennedy, Michael (1987), p. 355
5. Moore (1999), p. 299: "Early in February [1900] ... cellist of the Brodsky Quartet ... Fuchs extracted from Edward a promise to write something for the cello one day."
6. Moore (1999), p. 734: "On 24 December [1918] the Quartet was finished. Keeping an old promise from the turn of the century, [Elgar] dedicated it to the Brodsky Quartet"

References

• Baker, Theodore; Remy, Alfred (1919). "Brodsky, Adolf". Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (3rd revised ed.). New York: G. Schirmer. pp. 119–120. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
• Ehrlich, Alfred Heinrich (1897). "Brodsky, Adolf". Celebrated Violinists, Past and Present. Translated by Robin Humphrey Legge. London: The Strad. pp. 17–19. LCCN 10008593. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
• Kennedy, Michael (1987). Portrait of Elgar (Third ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-284017-7.
• Kohut, Adolf (1900). "II. Die Instrumentalisten". Berühmte israelitische Männer und Frauen in der Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit Lebens- und Charakterbilder aus Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (in German). Leipzig - Reudnitz: A. H. Payne. pp. 84–85. Retrieved 30 September 2010.

• Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday at Project Gutenberg by Henry Charles Lahee, page 153, Boston (1899): L.C. Page.
• Ginsburg, Lev (1983). "Cellists of the Viennese School and Other German Cellists of the 19th century, German Violoncellists of the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century". In Axelrod, Herbert R. History of the Violoncello. Translated by Tchistyakova, Tanya. Neptune City, New Jersey: T.F.H. Publications. pp. 19, 76. ISBN 978-0-87666-597-8.
• Moore, Jerrold Northrop (1999). Edward Elgar: A Creative Life. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-816366-4.
• "07 June 2010 This is the week that...". Royal Northern College of Music Archives. Royal Northern College of Music. Retrieved 26 September 2010.