The Loewenguth Quartet was a string quartet music ensemble led by the French violinist Alfred Loewenguth.[1][2] It was particularly famous for performances of classical repertoire such as Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn quartets, and was active from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Personnel

The founding line-up of the Loewenguth Quartet was:[3]

From the early 1960s the desks were occupied thus:

The quartet was dissolved in 1983 at the death of the founder.

Origins

Alfred Loewenguth was born in Paris in 1911. He formed his first string quartet in 1929, but appeared in public as a violinist first in 1936.[9][10]

Loewenguth began to study the violin at 8 years old, and had his first pupil when he was 12. At 16, he entered the Conservatoire National de Paris, and he set up his own Violin School when he was 17. At 19 he won the first prize at the Conservatoire, and principal medals for chamber music and solfeggio. For chamber music he was a pupil of André Tourret and Jean Roger-Ducasse. In 1959 he founded the Alfred Loewenguth Youth Orchestras,[11] and in 1969 he set up the Music Festival of the Orangerie de Sceaux.[12] He both founded and directed the Conservatoire of the 9th arrondissement of Paris, and taught at the Conservatoire of Stuttgart, at the Schola Cantorum de Paris, and at the Académie Internationale at Nice. Although he devoted the core of his musical work to teaching and to chamber music - with his quartet or in duo (for more than fifty years with the pianist Françoise Doreau), he also had a career as soloist. The cinematographer Benoît Jacquot devoted a documentary called "Enfance Musique" to him in 1979.

The Loewenguth Quartet appearances in Southern Africa were hugely successful, and they completed three tours, in 1955, 56, and 64.[13]

Alfred Loewenguth died in 1983.

The quartet performed the complete quartets of Beethoven in a series of 6 concerts over three consecutive weekends in November 1948 in New York.[14] On 12 November 1948 they gave the premiere of the 6th quartet, op. 64 (1947) of Egon Wellesz at the Library of Congress.[15] In the same year they also performed the complete Beethoven series for the Casavant Society in Montreal.[16] The quartet performed Priaulx Rainier's string quartet at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949.[17]

Recordings

The Loewenguth Quartet made many recordings on 78rpm and 33rpm discs, for various labels including Deutsche Grammofon (and Archiv), Vox, Philips, Westminster, Les Discophiles Français, Club National du Disque and some smaller French and American labels.[18]

References

  1. ^ Albert Richard, 'Alfred Loewenguth: 70 Ans-50 Ans d'Activité,' La Revue Musicale no. 347 (1981), 48 pages.
  2. ^ Alfred Loewenguth, 'Reflexions sur la Musique de Chambre en général et sur le Quatuor á cordes en particulier', in Rüdiger Görner (Ed.), Logos Musicae: Festschrift für Albert Palm (Franz Stein Verlag, Wiesbaden 1982), p.131-32.
  3. ^ Sleevenote, Loewenguth Quartet: Haydn Quartets op 74 no 3 & op 76 no 2,(Oriole LP SMG 20066), issued 1963.
  4. ^ a b c Performer in the early 1950s Deutsche Grammophon recordings.
  5. ^ Martini is also known as the conductor of the Concerts Colonne.
  6. ^ Jacques was father of the composer Ida Gotkovsky, see [1].
  7. ^ Active 1972 in live Mozart recordings.
  8. ^ Borsarello biographical notices
  9. ^ See short history of the quartet on the Doremi reissue prospectus of Loewenguth recordings: [2]
  10. ^ Jonathan Woolf review of the Loewenguth Quartet on Musicweb International [3]
  11. ^ *Alfred Loewenguth youth orchestras
  12. ^ Festival de l'Orangerie de Sceaux
  13. ^ Photos: Loewenguth Quartet tours of Southern Africa 1955, 56, 64
  14. ^ 'Quartet begins concerts series', New York Times Sunday 14 November 1948.
  15. ^ Rob Barnett, 'Review, Egon Wellesz String Quartets (Nimbus)', Music Web International.
  16. ^ The Canadian Encyclopedia: 'Casavant Society': #Montreal.
  17. ^ Schott's Music - Rainier profile
  18. ^ See title listings in Library of Congress Catalogue online.
  19. ^ Review by Richard F. Goldman, Musical Quarterly XXXIX (2)(1953), p.338-39.

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