Word: music
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...years, that was one of the music world's favorite jokes. Alas, no one will tell it any more: the Budapest String Quartet has apparently decided to call it a career. Its three oldest members-First Violinist Josef Roisman, 68, Violist Boris Kroyt, 71, and Cellist Mischa Schneider, 64-are in poor health. Although there has been no formal announcement, they have agreed not to perform in public any more. Mischa's brother Alexander, 60, the second violinist, thinks that that is probably just as well. "Most artists play past their prime," he says. "How long could...
...second time in the early days of LP and a third for stereo. Haydn, Schubert and Brahms were staples as well, and moderns like Bartok, Milhaud and Hindemith were regularly included. To everything they played, the foursome brought a Toscanini-like elegance of outline within which the music pulsed with expressive passion. Says Violist Walter Trampler, their "fifth man" in quintet performances since 1955: "They had temperament and fire. Some people have lots of that, but they get carried away. The Budapest players were always in control...
...Russian Tea Room, they sat at separate tables. "We'd talked enough at rehearsal-politics, human nature, the whole world situation," says Alexander Schneider. "It was important to separate as much as we could, so that we kept entirely separate personalities. Homogeneity is the worst thing in music...
...quartet. They shared its profits equally-at their financial peak in the '50s, they made about $40,000 a year each-and put all disputes to a vote. Deciding interpretive questions at rehearsals, they avoided 2-to-2 deadlocks by assigning one player two votes for the music at hand. Roisman could sometimes swing a vote his way, even when in the minority. He would say quietly: "Doesn't Mozart get a vote...
Bridge at Rehearsals. Occasionally, the group could also have fun together. Alexander would cut up a pinup photo, insert the tantalizing slices between the pages of his colleagues' music, then watch for the reaction when the others discovered the picture halfway through a concert. During a two-year period just before World War II, the men showed up every day for rehearsal, but never practiced a note. Kroyt's daughter accidentally discovered why and reported back to her mother: "Momma, they're playing bridge...