The Guarneri Quartet was an American string quartet founded in 1964 at the Marlboro Music School and Festival. It was admired for its rich, warm, complex tone and its bold, dramatic interpretations of the quartet literature, with a particular affinity for the works of Beethoven and Bartók. Through teaching at Harpur College (which became Binghamton University), University of Maryland, Curtis Institute of Music, and at Marlboro, the Guarneri players helped nurture interest in quartet playing for a generation of young musicians. The group's extensive touring and recording activities, coupled with its outreach efforts to engage audiences, contributed to the rapid growth in the popularity of chamber music during the 1970s and 1980s. The quartet is notable for its longevity: the group performed for 45 years with only one personnel change, when cellist David Soyer retired in 2001 and was replaced by his student Peter Wiley. The Guarneri Quartet disbanded in 2009.
Musicians 1st violin Arnold Steinhardt (b. Los Angeles, 1 April 1937) Steinhardt is the elder of two sons born to music-loving Polish parents. He began studying the violin at age 6, and when he was 17 he entered Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia as a pupil of Ivan Galamian. Prior to the founding of the Guarneri Quartet, Steinhardt spent four years as assistant concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell; he spent summers at the Marlboro Music Festival and in 1962 he studied in Switzerland with Joseph Szigeti.Steinhardt, 58–69
Steinhardt is tall, and as a result he has unusually long arms, which has made it necessary to adjust his playing posture to avoid pain.Ruttencutter 59–60; see also Steinhardt 93 He is outgoing and articulate, and has written two books. When touring with the quartet, he liked to browse in antique shops, and he particularly collected old locks.Steinhardt 201 Since the Guarneri’s dissolution he has maintained a blog containing his personal reflections and reminiscences (see External links).
2nd violin John Dalley (b. Madison, Wisconsin, 1 June 1936) Dalley’s parents were both musicians, and he started violin lessons at the age of 4. He spent summers at Interlochen National Music Camp, and in his teens he went to Tuscaloosa to study at the University of Alabama with Ottokar Čadek. At 18, he enrolled at Curtis Institute, working with Efrem Zimbalist. Following graduation from Curtis, Dalley taught at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and later played alongside David Soyer in a group known as the American String Quartet.Steinhardt 75
Dalley is thoughtful and affable, with a dry wit and occasional bursts of outright clowning;Ruttencutter 38–39 but he was the most introverted of the Guarneri musicians, often skipping post-concert social events and disappearing immediately after a concert. Dalley is a skilled maker of bows for stringed instruments; he would sometimes carry the necessary equipment on the road, so that he could work on a bow in his hotel room, while the others might be attending a reception following a performance.Ruttencutter 43
Viola Michael Tree (b. Newark NJ, 19 Feb 1935; d. New York, 30 Mar 2018) Tree was the son of Samuel Applebaum, a respected violin teacher and the author of several books on technique. He started lessons with his father at age 5, and entered Curtis Institute at the unusually young age of 12. He studied with Leah Luboshutz, Veda Reynolds, and ultimately with Efrem Zimbalist. Following his graduation, Tree made a successful debut at Carnegie Hall and toured internationally as a violin soloist, playing with a number of orchestras. In 1959 he began spending summers at Marlboro, where he met David Soyer and played with him and pianist Anton Kuerti in a group known as the Marlboro Trio.Ruttencutter 29–30
Tree was described by Steinhardt as an efficient problem solver, and as "one part musician, one part cutup",Steinhardt 7, 72 always ready to relieve an overly-intense moment with a joke or some kind of buffoonery. He was the most high-strung member of the quartet, particularly prone to nervousness before performances.Ruttencutter 30–32 An avid tennis player, he liked to play with local experts or with friends while on tour.Ruttencutter 73, 78
Violoncello (1964–2001) David Soyer (b. Philadelphia, 24 Feb 1923; d. New York, 25 Feb 2010) Soyer was, by about 12 years, the oldest of the original members of the quartet, and his pre-Guarneri experience was more extensive. The only one in the group who was not trained at Curtis, Soyer studied cello with Diran Alexanian, Emanuel Feuermann, and Pablo Casals.Blum 100–105 During World War II, he played euphonium in the United States Navy Band. Following the war, he played cello as a member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, the Ed Sullivan Show orchestra, and various groups that recorded jingles and commercials. He played with several chamber music ensembles before the Guarneri: the Guilet and New Music Quartets, the short-lived American Quartet with John Dalley, and the Marlboro Trio with Michael Tree and Anton Kuerti.Ruttencutter 44–45
In rehearsals, Soyer was outspoken and forceful; Steinhardt describes him as "blunt and highly opinionated".Steinhardt 7 Soyer considered that his experiences performing commercial music helped him grow as an artist, and firmly believed that young musicians should be exposed to dance music, folk music, and gypsy fiddling. He was a connoisseur of art, and an avid sailor who owned a sloop.Ruttencutter 44, 51–53
Violoncello (2001–2009) Peter Wiley (b. Utica NY, 1955) Wiley grew up in central New York State, and at age 11, he started cello lessons with David Soyer during the time the Guarneri Quartet was in residence at Harpur College in Binghamton. When Soyer joined the faculty of Curtis Institute in 1968, Wiley enrolled there and continued his cello studies. Graduating in 1974, he played with the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony before joining the Beaux Arts Trio to replace retiring cellist Bernard Greenhouse. He left the Beaux Arts in 1998 to co-found the Opus One Piano Quartet. When Soyer retired from the Guarneri in 2001, Wiley was quickly and unanimously chosen to succeed his mentor.
Instruments Despite the group's name, only one instrument made by the celebrated Guarneri family of Cremona was played for any significant time by a member of the quartet: for many years David Soyer used an Andrea Guarneri cello made in 1669. He later switched to a Gagliano cello made in Naples in 1778. After trying several violins (including a Guarneri), Steinhardt settled on a Cremona instrument made by Lorenzo Storioni in the late 18th century. Dalley plays a French violin made in 1810 by Nicholas Lupot. In the quartet's early years Tree played a viola (patterned after Andrea Guarneri's "Conte Vitale") made by Harvey Fairbanks, a luthier from Binghamton, New York.Steinhardt 132: "… [Michael] was playing on a brand-new instrument made by a relatively obscure maker, one Harvey Fairbanks from Binghamton, New York." Later, his primary instrument became a 1750 viola made by Dominicus Busan of Venice; he also plays a modern instrument made by Hiroshi Iizuka. Wiley plays a cello made around 1700 by Matteo Goffriller of Venice.Ruttencutter 44, 62–63
At one point in the mid-1990s the quartet was offered the extended loan of a set of four rare Stradivarius instruments owned by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. After considering the offer, the Guarneri musicians declined, preferring to play the instruments each had chosen for himself. Steinhardt has compared the task of finding a violin well matched to a performer's style to that of finding a spouse, and he adds, "After much trial and error, each of us has found what could aptly be called his musical soul mate."Steinhardt 262
History and activities Steinhardt, Dalley, Tree and Soyer coalesced into the Guarneri Quartet at the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Marlboro VT, where all of them spent summers during the early 1960s. During the summers of 1962 and 1963, the four played chamber music together in various permutations, and with encouragement from Festival director Rudolf Serkin and from Alexander Schneider (second violinist of the Budapest String Quartet) the new quartet was launched on 20 July 1964 with a concert at Nantucket, Massachusetts. The name Guarneri was suggested by Boris Kroyt (violist of the Budapest String Quartet), who had played with a short-lived group of that name in Germany before World War II.Steinhardt 72–80, 98–99
In the fall of 1964, the quartet began a four-year residency at Harpur College (now known as Binghamton University) in Binghamton, New York, where they taught advanced students, held a series of open rehearsals, and played 15 public concerts per year. Steinardt relates that the group found the situation attractive because Binghamton was within driving distance of their base in New York City, and it would provide an opportunity to rapidly build a repertoire, gain performing experience, and develop working relationships among themselves.Steinhardt 86
The Guarneri's New York City debut took place on 28 February 1965 at the New School for Social Research as part of a concert series arranged by Alexander Schneider. The enthusiastic audience included Fritz Steinway, of the concert management firm Judson, O’Neill, Beall and Steinway (which would shortly become the group's manager) and Max Wilcox, a record producer for RCA Victor, who quickly secured a recording contract for the Guarneri.Steinhardt 115–117 Soon afterward, the group replaced the retiring Budapest String Quartet in a series of concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Arta series that extended across the Guarneri's lifespan, ending only when the quartet disbanded in 2009. They appeared at the Mostly Mozart Festival beginning in 1966, and an ongoing series at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall began in 1975. Other frequent New York venues included the Frick Collection, the 92nd Street Y, Rockefeller University and Washington Irving High School.Ruttencutter 68
The Guarneri began touring almost immediately, with a concert in Cleveland on 20 April 1965. In the summer of that year they embarked upon their first European tour, performing in Geneva, Basel, Amsterdam, Cologne, and at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy.Steinhardt 122 As the quartet's reputation grew, both domestic and international tours became a way of lifeoften a grueling one. In the early years they played as many as 130 concerts per year, although by the 1980s they were attemptingnot always successfullyto limit their appearances to 100 per year.Ruttencutter 42, 127
While the members of the quartet unanimously and emphatically preferred live performances to studio recordings,Blum 20 they were, from the beginning, prolific recording artists. Their first session for RCA Victor took place in June 1965, and included quartets by Mozart, Dvořák and Mendelssohn. By 1998 the Guarneri's catalog exceeded 50 LPs and CDs, including numerous recordings with pianist Arthur Rubinstein.Steinhardt 159 A partial discography can be found below.
The Guarneri musicians were active in teaching throughout the quartet's life. The affiliation with Harpur College continued until 1968, and in that year Steinhardt, Tree and Soyer were appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. The members continued summer teaching at Marlboro, and in 1983, all four were appointed artists-in-residence at the University of Maryland at College Park, where they continued teaching up to and beyond the formal dissolution of the Guarneri Quartet in 2009.