About the end of the seventh season Blagrove withdrew, but the quartet continued in existence for many years, Mr. Dando playing first violin, and Mr. Loder, the viola, and the concerts were given at Crosby Hall in the city, instead of the Hanover Square rooms.
At St. Petersburg a quartet was formed by Leopold Auer, an excellent violinist, who at the death of Wieniawski was appointed professor of violin at the Conservatoire. Auer was born in Hungary, and became a pupil of Dont at Vienna, after which he had a brilliant career as a virtuoso in Europe. His St. Petersburg quartet was founded in 1868, and became one of the leading musical organisations of the Russian capital, until the death of Davidoff, the violoncellist, who was one of its members, in 1890.
Auer has been very active in the musical life of St. Petersburg, and is very highly esteemed both as a man and as a musician, teacher, and performer.
A quartet which has gained a great reputation in Europe during recent years is the Bohemian Quartet, consisting of Carl Hoffmann, first violin, Joseph Suk, second violin, Oscar Nedbal, viola, and Hanus Wihom, violoncello. They play with a great deal of vim and abandon, and the ensemble is remarkable.
At Hanover Richard Sahla has established a quartet, with Meneke, Kugler, and Loeleberg, and Arnold Rosé's quartet, of Vienna, has travelled in Hungary, Italy, and other countries, gaining a good reputation.
In the United States there have been well meant efforts to found good quartets, and these have all had a beneficial influence. In Boston Mr. Bernhard Listemann, some twenty years ago, established a quartet which gave some very delightful concerts, but the past decade has witnessed the rise of an organisation which is able to bear comparison with any quartet in the world.
The Kneisel Quartet was organised in 1885, the year in which Mr. Franz Kneisel accepted the position of concert-master to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Henry L. Higginson invited him at the same time to organise a quartet, and a series of concerts was given that season in Chickering Hall. While the excellence of the quartet was apparent from the start, there were comparatively few people in Boston who took much interest in chamber music, and the audiences were, as a rule, small. Year by year they have increased, and for the past few years it has been necessary to give the concerts in Association Hall, which has a seating capacity about twice as large as that of the original hall.
The second violin is Mr. Otto Roth,[2] a native of Vienna, who played for three years under the baton of Hans Richter, and came to Boston to play first violin in the Symphony Orchestra.
[2] Mr. Roth retired from the quartet in 1899 and his place was filled by Mr. Karl Ondricek.
