The Sociedad de Cuartetos de Madrid (Madrid Quartet Society), 1863–1894, was an organization that provided concert series with an educational approach. They attempted to save chamber music from fading into oblivion since Italian opera and Zarzuela dominated Spanish concert life. Founded by violinist Jesús de Monasterio and pianist Juan María Guelbenzu Fernández in 1863, this society contributed significantly to the circulation and interest of chamber music in the Iberian Peninsula. The quality of the music, over their thirty-one seasons, was always praised. They also exposed a lack of interest by the majority of the Spanish composers for the chamber music genre during this time. Despite their great perseverance and increasing success, the society's activities concluded on January 5, 1894, due to health problems that troubled Monasterio for several seasons prior. The Society of Quartets represents the first serious and lasting initiative for the circulation of chamber music in 19th-century Spain. Their activities carried out through thirty-one concert seasons ( or "sessions" as defined them) in Madrid as well as other concerts offered outside the capital.
History of the Institution. The idea for this chamber music institution came from Monasterio, who had been a successful pupil of Charles de Bériot at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. His distinguished career included the post of honorary violinist of the Capilla Real and the appointment as a professor of the Madrid Conservatory. After a successful European tour that included performances of string quartets of Beethoven and Schubert, Monasterio decided to return to his home country to initiate a quartet society in Madrid. Monasterio initially conceived this organization exclusively for strings, but his former tutor Basilio Montoya convinced him to collaborate with the Spanish pianist Guelbenzu. After his studies in Paris, Guelbenzu became a respected pianist who had befriended Chopin, Liszt, Giacomo Meyerbeer, and Sigismund Thalberg. The inclusion of Guelbenzu to this organization expanded their repertoire possibilities to include solo and chamber works for piano.
The long history of society can be distinguish in two periods:
First period (1863-1884): The society offers its concert seasons in a rehearsal room of the Madrid Conservatory. The society was officially formed by Jesús de Monasterio (first violin), Rafael Pérez (second violin), Tomás Lestán (violist), Ramón Rodriguez Castellanos (cellist), Juan María Guelbenzu (pianist) and Basilio Montoya (treasurer). During this period, the concerts were offered on Sundays at 2:00 pm every 15 days or weekly (since 1866).
Second period (1884-1894): The concert seasons took place in the "Salon Romero" in Madrid. After the death of Guelbenzu (pianist) and Basilio Montoya (treasurer), on October 18, 1884; the society wrote new statutes to their establishment. Those were the formal distinction the original String Quartet (Monasterio, Pérez, Lestán and Castellanos) and the new conditions for contracts of external musicians and the new rates for the public. The society also programmed a concert without piano music in which a crown of flowers was placed in a grand piano as tribute to Guelbenzu's career. At this point, concerts were offered on Fridays from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm weekly.
Members of the society and collaborations The founding string quartet consisted of members of the Teatro Real, principal violist Tomás Lestán and the concertmaster Rafael Pérez as second violin. The cellist was Ramón Rodríguez Castellano, who was later replaced by the Franco-Polish cellist Víctor Mirecki. Other performers included pianists Mariano Vázquez Gómez (1863) Adolfo de Quesada (1868), the violist and composer Miguel Carreras (1869), clarinetist Antonio Romero (1875), cellist Agustín Rubio (1881), violinist Enrique Arbós (1882), and several collaborations with faculty from the Conservatory.
Repertoire & Concert Series "Sesiónes"
The concert seasons (referred to as sessions) occurred between November and March. Some extraordinary series of concerts were also offered in April. In their first year, there were only four sessions. From the second year onward, an average of 6 sessions was offered per season. This figure was considered insufficient by critics and the public, which is the reason the company decided to provide extraordinary sessions.
Sessions (Main concert Series) This chamber music society performed a varied repertoire of 173 works by 33 different composers. In their first five seasons, however, programs mainly consisted of works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and Haydn with an interesting inclusion of the String Quartet Op.74 No.1 by Louis Spohr in season two. This choice of repertoire reflects their educational mission to expose the German models on the chamber music genre, specifically those of First Viennese School. The evolution in variety of composers also encourages the inclusion of Spanish composers. In their sixth season, they dedicated a concert to works by Spanish composers, including M. Adalid, R. Pérez, M. Allú. Additionally, two works by the Cuban composer N. Ruiz Espadero were performed in the following season. Through the 1870s their repertoire added works by Onslow, Anton Rubinstein, Joseph Mayseder, G. Verdi, Joachim Raff, and even Giuseppe Tartini. The decade of the 1880s completely renewed their repertoire. Their programs included works that were new to audiences in Madrid, such as Schumann's String Quartets Op. 41, Schubert's String Quartet D.810 "Death and the Maiden", Grieg's Violin Sonatas Op. 8, Chopin Op. 3, Dvorak's Piano Quintet Op. 18, Scarlatti L. 390, Svendsen Op. 26. More obscure composers included Arriaga, Godard, Delsart, Nawrátil, and Monasterio himself. Their concert series concluded with a performance of Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No.1, Op.11, which was applauded with utmost respect and admiration.
The most important source for their repertoire are the concert programs located in the archives of the library of the Royal Superior Conservatory of Music of Madrid. They include the date of the season, the time, the season number corresponding to that season, the type of concert, the venue, and sometimes the catalog of the works. However, it is known that they also performed concerts in addition to their concert seasons, performing in different cities such as Valladolid, Burgos, Bilbao, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Asturias, and even outside of Spain. Each concert usually consisted of three works. From the news papers and musical press it is known that advertising circulated in Madrid days before the start of the concert season.
Repertoire by Concert Program Source:
The following table contains information of the works presented by the society. Most of the society's concerts introduced introduce new works to their repertoire, but previous works were often repeated. The following information reflects only the first performance of each work, and these are not reflecting the entirety of the program presented on each of the concert seasons. +1st Concert Season2nd Concert Season3rd Concert Season4th Concert Season5th Concert Season6th Concert Season7th Concert SeasonFebruary 1, 1863
Beethoven: Quartet in D, Op. 18
Beethoven: Sonata in F, Op. 24
Haydn: Quartet in G, Op 77
February 8, 1863
Haydn: Quartet in C, op 76
Mozart: Sonata in F, K.376
February 22, 1863
Beethoven: Trio in C, minor op 1
Mendelssohn: Quartet in D, op 44November 15, 1863
Beethoven: Quartet in F, Op. 18
Haydn: Quartet in D minor, Op. 76
Mozart: Quartet in G minor, K. 478
November 29, 1863
Beethoven Sonata in E-flat, Op. 12
Mozart: Quintet in G minor, K. 516
Spohr: Quartet in A minor, Op. 74
January 10, 1864
Beethoven: Sonata in A minor, Op. 47
January 24, 1864
Beethoven: Quartet in D, (arr. Piano Sonata) Op. 28
Mozart: Sonata in A, K. 526November 20, 1864 Haydn: Quartet in A, Op. 55
Mozart: Sonata in B-flat, K.454
December 4, 1864
Mendelssohn: Quartet in E-flat, Op. 12
December 18, 1864
Beethoven: Septet in E-flat, Op. 20
January 8, 1865
Mozart: Quartet in D minor, K. 421
January 22, 1865
Haydn: Sonata in G, HXI 73 January 28, 1866 Beethoven: Sonata in C, minor Op. 30
February 4, 1866
Beethoven: Quartet in E minor, Op 59
February 18, 1866
Beethoven: Sonata in C minor, Op. 10
Mozart: Quintet in C minor, K.406
March 4, 1866
Haydn: Quartet in D, Op. 64
March 11, 1866
Beethoven: Sonata in C minor, Op. 13November 25, 1866 Beethoven: Sonata in A-flat, Op. 26
Haydn: Quartet in F, Op. 77
December 2, 1866
Beethoven: Trio in C minor, Op. 9
December 16, 1866
Mendelssohn: Trio in D minor, Op. 49
January 27, 1867
Mozart: Quartet in B-flat, K. 458
February 3, 1867
Beethoven: Romance in F, Op. 50
Mendelssohn: Caprice in A minor, Op. 33
April 13, 1867
Haydn: The Seven Last Words of ChristNovember 17, 1867 Haydn: Quartet in G, Op. 76
Mendelssohn: Quartet in E, Op. 44
December 15, 1867
Mozart: Quartet in D, K.499
Beethoven: Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op. 27
February 16, 1867
M. Adalid: Sonata in the G
R. Pérez: Quartet in E-flat
M. Sánchez Allú: Sonata in DDecember 6, 1868 Beethoven: Sonata in A, Op. 2
Haydn: Quartet in G minor, Op. 74
December 27, 1868
Mozart: Quartet in D, K. 575
Espadero: Melody in B-flat, "La caída de las hojas"
Espadero: Sonata in E-flat
January 10, 1869
Weber: Sonata in D minor, Op. 49
January 24, 1869
Mendelssohn: Sonata in B-flat, Op. 45
January 31, 1869
Beethoven: Sonata in B-flat, Op. 228th Concert Season9th Concert Season10th Concert Season11th Concert Season12th Concert Season13th Concert Season14th Concert SeasonJanuary 2, 1870
Haydn: Quartet in G, Op. 64
January 9, 1870
Beethoven: Sonata in E-flat, Op. 7
January 30, 1870
Mozart: Quintet in D, K.596
February 30, 1870
Beethoven Quartet in A, Op 18December 11, 1870
Haydn: Quartet in B-flat, Op. 76
Mendelssohn: Romance without words in E, Op. 19
December 18, 1870
Onslow: Quartet in B-flat, Op. 21
January 8, 1871
Beethoven: Quartet in E-flat, Op. 74
January 29, 1871
Mozart: Sonata in F, K.497January 7, 1872
Mendelssohn: Quartet in F minor, Op. 2
January 14, 1872
Beethoven: Quartet in B-flat, Op. 18
January 21, 1872
Schumann: Quintet in E-flat, Op. 44
March 30, 1872
Guelbenzu: Two Piano CompositionsDecember 1, 1872
Haydn: Quartet in D, Op. 50
December 8, 1872
Mendelssohn: Quartet in E, Op 81
December 15, 1872
Beethoven: Quartet in C minor, Op. 18January 18, 1874
Beethoven: Quartet in E-flat, (arr. Quintet) Op. 16
February 8, 1874
Beethoven: Sonata in F minor, Op. 57
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64November 5, 1874
Haydn: Quartet in C Op. 74
November 29, 1874
Beethoven: Quartet in G, Op. 18
Mozart: Sonata in C minor, K. 457
January 3, 1875
Mozart: Fantasia in C minor, K. 475
Rubinstein: Sonata in A minor, Op. 19
January 10, 1875
Mozart: Quintet in A, K. 581 November 5, 1875
Mendelssohn: Quartet in B minor, Op. 3
November 12, 1875
Rubinstein: Trio in F, Op. 15
January 2, 1876
Beethoven: Trio in E-flat, Op. 1
Mendelssohn Quintet in B-flat, Op. 87
February 13, 1876
Beethoven: Serenade in D, Op. 815th Concert Season16th Concert Season17th Concert Season18th Concert Season19th Concert Season20th Concert Season21st Concert SeasonNovember 31, 1876
Verdi: Quartet in E minor Op. 31November 4, 1877
Mayseder: Trio in A-flat, Op. 32
November 11, 1877
Mozart: Quartet in F, K. 590
December 2, 1877
Mendelssohn: Sonata in D, Op. 58November 10, 1878
Beethoven: Trio in C minor, Op. 66
December 29, 1878
Mendelssohn: Song without Words Op. 109
Mozart: Sonata in D, K.576
Tartini: Adagio from 8th Violin Sonata December 7, 1879
Mendelssohn: Trio in C minor, Op. 66
December 21, 1879
Beethoven: Quartet in F, Op. 59
January 4, 1880
J. Raff Trio in A minor, Op. 155December 5, 1880
Schumann: Quartet in A minor, Op. 41
December 26, 1880
Mozart: Quartet in C minor, K.465
January 16, 1881