As the string quartet established its place as a distinct chamber music genre, it gained a reputation as the most demanding form of instrumental music and eventually transitioned from aristocratic and bourgeois salons to public concerts. This shift required performers to adapt, transforming the music making experience from casual, intimate gatherings of like-minded individuals to more formal recitals, creating a new dynamic between performers and audience. While private quartets continued to exist alongside public performances, such practices have not been extensively documented.
Around 1800, Vienna saw a notable number of regular quartet gatherings, held in both prominent and less prominent homes, such as those of Emanuel Aloys Förster and Nikolaus Zmeskall von Domanovecz. Similar activities during the late 18th and early 19th centuries were sporadically documented across various courtly, aristocratic, and bourgeois salons throughout the German-speaking region, as well as in (primarily Austrian) monasteries and charitable foundations. These quartet performances were also featured in regular quartet entertainment or as part of larger mixed programs in both large and small towns.
While little is known about the exact musical standards of these private, semi-public, and public performances, it is likely that they were of high quality, as the performers were typically musically trained connoisseurs or professional musicians. These gatherings likely provided the foundation for developments that would dominate the 19th century: the concerts of traveling virtuosos who, from city to city, sought new partners for semi-public performances in private homes or public concerts, the concert tours of permanent ensembles, and the establishment of such ensembles in aristocratic or upper-class households.
This according to this month’s featured article on the string quartet ensemble in MGG Online.
Below is a 1934 performance Mozart’s string quartet no. 21 in D major by the Kolisch Quartet.
