The Kneisel Quartet

              The Kneisel Quartet
TWENTY-SIXTH SEASON, 1910–1911
WITH COMMENTS ON THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE QUARTET


1885



1910


Copyrighted 1908


FRANZ KNEISEL, 1st Violin
JULIUS ROENTGEN, 2nd Violin
LOUIS SVEĆENSKI, Viola
WILLEM WILLEKE, Violoncello

For dates and terms address MRS. FRANCES SEAVER, 1 West 34th Street, New York.



History of the Kneisel Quartet

Its Career and Personnel
At the close of the twenty-fifth season of the existence of the Kneisel Quartet, it may be of interest to state that the Quartet gives each season, in addition to numerous single concerts, series of concerts ranging from three to eight in number in no less than fifteen of the principal cities of the East and Middle West.

The Kneisel Quartet was formed in 1885, when Mr. Kneisel came to Boston, having been engaged by Mr. Gericke for the post of concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  Mr. Kneisel was asked to form an organization for the cultivation of chamber music and selected his members from the ranks of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, taking Emanuel Fiedler as second violinist, Louis Svećenski as viola and Fritz Giese, then solo-'cellist of the orchestra, as 'cellist of the Quartet.

The concerts were given at Chickering Hall, Boston, the first on December 28, 1885.  The attendance was very encouraging from the start and it was proven that there was a distinct demand for this highest form of music.  A few seasons later the Quartet began giving concerts in towns near Boston.  Reports regarding the programmes and performances spread rapidly, calls from distant places grew numerous, and before many years the Quartet had occasion to travel as much and as far as the duties of its members with the Orchestra would allow.  Regular series of concerts were established in Fitchburg, Hartford, and later in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and other cities.  Regular series were arranged in the great universities of Cambridge, Yale and Princeton, and single concerts are given every years in other colleges, among them Purdue, Williams, Oberlin, and Wells.  In 1905 a series of concerts was begun in Chicago, and more recently another series in Oak Park, a suburb of that city.

In the United States the Quartet has crossed the continent four times, playing as far south as San Diego and as far north as Portland, Seattle and Vancouver.

Three highly successful series of concerts have been given in London and the principal cities of England.  These were accorded the highest praise by the English press, some of the criticisms and notices of which are herein embodied.

As to repertoire, not only has the Kneisel Quartet performed at its concerts the standard works of the classic composers, but it has produced all the important novelties in chamber music of both European and American composers.  The great Bohemian composer, Dvoák, was so charmed by the performances of the Quartet that he gave Mr. Kneisel many of his manuscripts for their first public performance.  Among other compositions having their first performance in America by the Kneisel Quartet are works by D'Albert, Dohnanyi, Loeffler, Chadwick, Converse and Foote.

To illustrate the extent and variety of its repertoire it may be stated in the midst of the busy concert seasons the Quartet experiences no difficulty in playing at series of private musicales all the last great quartets of Beethoven.

It is interesting to record that almost all of the pianists of note who have visited this country, including D'Albert, Paderewski, Busoni, Siloti, Lamond, Vincent D'Indy and Rosenthal, have assisted the Kneisel Quartet in its concerts.

On the occasion of repeated trips to Europe, the members of the Quartet have had the opportunity of meeting and playing with many celebrated artists and composers living there.  Among others, they met Brahms, who honored the members of the Quartet by playing his chamber works with them, and from these meetings resulted very pleasant friendly relations.

The personnel of the Quartet has changed but few times in the course of twenty-five years.  There have been no changes in first violin and viola and but three in 'cellist and four in second violin before the present incumbents.  In the second season Otto Roth succeeded Emanuel Fielder as second violinist, remaining with the Quartet until 1899, when Karl Ondriček took his place.  He was succeeded in 1901 by Julius Theodorowicz, who remained with the Quartet until 1907, when Julius Roentgen, now second
 violinist of the Quartet, succeeded him.  At the end of four seasons Fritz Geise, 'cellist, was succeeded by Anton Hekking, who in turn gave way to Alwin Schroeder in 1891.  Mr. Schroeder remained with the Quartet for sixteen seasons, and 1907 was suceeded by Willem Willeke.

The artists at present composing the Quartet are Franz Kneisel, first violin; Julius Roentgen, second violin; Louis Svećenski, viola; William Willeke, violoncello.

The leader of the Quartet, Franz Kneisel, is a Roumanian by birth, and a graduate of the Vienna Conservatory of Music.  He made his first appearance in public December 31, 1882, when, at the age of seventeen, he played the violin concerto by Joachim with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and he was soon after offered the position of solo violin in the orchestra of the Imperial Court Theatre.  Later he became concertmeister of the famous Bilse orchestra of Berlin, a position of the highest honor which had been held before him by such artists as Ysaye, Halir and Thomson.

Mr. Kneisel became concertmeister of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1885.  During his first season in that city his performance of the violin concerto by Beethoven placed him in the front rank of violinists.  His subsequent career has only served to deepen the impression made at that time, and he may without doubt be said to be one of the world's greatest virtuosi.  The Brahms and Goldmark violin concertos were played for the first time in America by Mr. Kneisel with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in all the principal cities.  Mr. Kneisel held the position of concertmeister of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for eighteen years, resigning in 1903.  In the absence of Mr. Nikisch he conducted the orchestra on one of its Western trips and at three concerts at the World's Fair in Chicago.

In the spring of 1907 Mr. Kneisel was offered the post of conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, but declined the offer in order to continue his quartet playing.  During the summer of the same year Mr. Kneisel was appointed a member of the jury of the Violin Concours of the Paris Conservatoire National de Musique et de Déclamation, with Colonne, Vidal, Paul Dukas, Lalo and other distinguished Frenchmen as confrères.  This appointment was an exceptional honor rarely conferred upon foreigners.

Mr. Kneisel's violin is a Stradivarius (1714), in perfect tone and preservation.  It is almost priceless in value, having formerly belonged to Prof. Gruen, of the Vienna Conservatory.

Louis Svećenski has been a member of the Kneisel Quartet since its foundation.  He first studied music at Agram, the capital of Croatia, from which city he went to Vienna, studying there under Professor Gruen of the Conservatoire.  After graduating he went to Boston, having been engaged by Mr. Gericke as one of the first violins of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  Later he was appointed by Mr. Nickisch to take the leadership of the violas, which position he held until the members of the Quartet resigned from the Orchestra.

Julius Roentgen, the second violinist, was born in 1881, and comes from Amsterdam, of a well-known musical family, his father being a noted pianist in that city.  His grandfather was concertmeister of the Gewandhaus, Leispsic.  Mr. Roentgen studied under Joachim, and relinquished the position of first concertmeister of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra in order to join the Kneisel Quartet.

Willem Willeke, the 'cellist of the Quartet, was born September 29, 1878, in 's Gravenhage (The Hague).  He received his first musical instruction at the Haager Royal Conservatory, at The Hague, where he studied the 'cello under Hartog, going later to Rotterdam to continue his studies.  In 1896 he was engaged as solo 'cellist at Riga.  At the age of eighteen he received a call from the Düsseldorf Conservatory as teacher of 'cello and chamber music; here, at the same time, he had the opportunity of showing his skill as a soloist.  Mr. Willeke has played the Richard Strauss Sonata, F major, op. 6, several times with the composer and has toured with great success in Germany, Russia, Holland, Scandinavia, etc.  After an engagement as solo 'cellist with the Philharmonic Orchestra at Leipsic (1901–1903), Hans Richter engaged him as first 'cellist of the Covent Garden Grand Opera Royal Orchestra in London.  From 1903 to 1907 he was solo 'cellist at the Royal and Imperial Opera of Vienna.





Comments on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Foundation, of the Kneisel Quartet 1885–1910

The Century Magazine, New York.  (Editorial).
Hail to the Kneisels
The beginning of the twenty-fifth season of the Kneisel Quartet is an event of no merely local significance, nor one of small moment to lovers of chamber music in America and elsewhere; for, wherever they have played, the Kneisels, as they are familiarly known, have endeared themselves to American audiences as no other separate musical organization has done.
It is both proper and obligatory to say that perhaps the largest influence in our musical improvement has been the playing of this very Quartet.  Throughout the country, in cities, colleges and private houses, they have upheld the highest standards of their art and delighted hundreds of thousands by the beauty and sincerity of their professional work, and manifestly this has told and is telling in the musical education of the people.  Who that pretends to musical taste does not know and admire their beautiful ensemble, alike in classical and modern compositions?
As the eldest of the four who now compose this honored and united company of artists has not yet reached the ripe age of forty-five, it is within bounds to expect, as well as to wish, that the Kneisels may live to celebrate their golden jubilee!



Harper's Weekly, New York
—The reputation of the Quartet has become international.  In this county it is without an equal, and it may be doubted whether an unprejudiced observer would be prepared to maintain that it has in Europe any superior.  Upon its distinguishing excellences as an expressional instrument it would be otiose to dwell at length.  It is this season, in its twenty-fifth year, indisputably a finer vehicle than it has ever been before.  In balance and euphony, in solidarity of spirit, in corporate virtuosity, in the unfailing intelligence, the exquisite tact, and the profound artistic devotion which pervade and animate its performances, it commands, as it has commanded for years.
LAWRENCE GILMAN.



New York Sun
—It is now a habit to celebrate the rounding of cycles of twenty-five years, and in the inevitable process of time the Kneisels had to arrive at their turn.
This is not precisely the same Kneisel Quartet as veteran concertgoers heard a quarter of a century agone, but so long as Franz Kneisel continues to draw the first bow the Quartet will continue to represent the ideals, the musicianship and the temperament of one personality.
It matters little, then, who play the three other instruments, provided they be competent artists.  Mr. Kneisel has always been happy in his associates and never more so than at the present stage of the Quartet's history.  There is a homogeneity in this organization perfectly appreciable, but impossible to describe.  The entire Quartet is a materialized projection of Mr. Kneisel's artistic soul.  That can hardly be called description, but it may serve to stimulate fancy.
The exquisite finish of its performances gives the deepest satisfaction to those who love art raised to its highest level of refinement.
That there is now a devoted public which rallies every year to the support of the Kneisels is one of the hopeful musical signs of the times.  At these concerts there is nothing sensational and nothing to court the easy adulation of hero-worship.  All that is done is done with reverence for music itself, and the public approval of such doings is an honor to the intelligence and taste of the audiences.
W. J. HENDERSON.




Boston Herald
—The Kneisel Quartet (Messrs, Kneisel, Roentgen, Svećenski, Willeke) gave its second evening concert last night in Chickering Hall.
This concert was in celebration of the 25th year of the quartet.  Mr. Kneisel and Mr. Svecenski have been with the Quartet from the beginning, and they may look back with justifiable pride on the record of the years.  The Kneisel Quartet was not only an honor to this city which was until recently its dwelling place, it was and is a source of national pride, for this Quartet has an international reputation; furthermore, it has been a mighty factor in awakening interest in the best chamber music throughout the country and forming a fine and discriminative taste.
The Kneisel Quartet was the first chamber club in this country, which journeyed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, playing not only the compositions of acknowledged masters, but introducing the works of the ultramodern school.
The respect and the affection in which this Quartet is held here were shown last night by the hearty and long-continued applause that welcomed the members and followed the various movements of the compositions played.
It is not possible to overestimate the influence of this Quartet in Boston or in the country.  Think for a moment of the works produced here by Mr. Kneisel in the course of the last twenty-five years.  It is not too much to say that he enlarged the musical horizon of this city; that he awakened an interest in modern music in towns far distant.  And in the course of the last twenty-five years he has held steadily to the highest ideals in art.  He never wavered through fear of losing his audiences; on the contrary, he had faith in their intelligence, and he waited patiently till they came up to his own standard.  He was not a partisan; he knew that the surpassing excellence of the performances would insure success in the end.  His unflinching artistic purpose, his courage and his rare ability have been amply rewarded.
PHILIP HALE.



New York Times
—No musical organization in America holds a higher place in the development of music in this country or in the affections of music-lovers than the Kneisel Quartet, which celebrated during the past week its twenty-fifth anniversary, a long period of activity for any society which has devoted itself only to the exposition of the best in chamber music.
The applause and the enthusiasm which were liberated in so ample measure last evening meant more than delight at the beautiful performance of the music that was presented at the concert.  It was a tribute to Mr. Kneisel, to whose lofty ideals and unyielding maintenance of the highest standards, and to whose passion for perfection the more than national reputation of his organization is due, and also to Mr. Svećenski, who has been his faithful and untiring associate in the Quartet from its foundation.  To these, especially; but the tribute was rightfully shared by the two younger men, Messrs, Roentgen and Willeke, who have more recently been associated with Mr. Kneisel and have shared his spirit and carried out his purposes.



New York Tribune
—With the sixth concert of the evening subscription series at Mendelssohn Hall last night the Kneisel Quartet brought its twenty-fifth season to a close.  It was only the eighteenth season in New York, for there were years which belong to musical history, when the youthful concertmaster of the Boston Orchestra thought it wise to confine his ministrations in the department of chamber music to the place of his closer and larger activities.  Like a true artist, he knew that there was one field in which even angels' footsteps were fearful, and he entered upon it reverentially, modestly—in short, like a true artist.  Many years passed by before he had his reward, but of late he has had it abundantly in the patronage and the admiration of the inner brotherhood of music-lovers who know where the highest, because the purest, enjoyment in the art is to be found.
The name of Franz Kneisel is inextricably entwined with the history of chamber music in America during the last twenty-five years, and when, two weeks ago, the subscribers to the Kneisel Quartet concerts tendered the
 famous violinist a dinner in honor of the twenty-fifth season of his organization it was universally recognized as a fitting tribute to the work the Quartet had accomplished in forwarding musical art in the United States.  The day when Wilhelm Gericke, the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra offered to Mr. Kneisel the post of concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra must be marked as one of much importance in American musical annals.  This was in 1885, and soon after his arrival Mr. Kneisel formed the Quartet that bears his name.



Evening Transcript, Boston, Mass.
—As the Kneisel Quartet sang the intricacies of César Franck's great Larghetto, there was a consent of the four players, a subordination of each to the ensemble that made the Quartet sound again and again like some single instrument, hitherto unheard of yet oddly familiar.  Each player of the group has the endowments of the virtuoso.  Much of the music they played last night demanded a virtuoso's dexterity, and yet it was impossible to think of any one of the performers as such; it was equally impossible to follow one instrument singly, so completely had they merged themselves to a general voice and a single utterance.  These four players have renounced the individual.  They have yielded themselves up to become a medium through which such music may express itself.  Often, in their performance, their preoccupation with the core of the matter is as if they were passive agents.  It is almost possible to conceive of them as played upon.  That, at least, is the spirit of their surrender.
This, then, for an observance of their anniversary.  There have been changes of personnel in the quarter of a century.  Of the original group Mr. Kneisel and Mr. Svećenski remain.  But steadily from 1885 to 1910 the fourfold single instrument has gained in richness and resonance and as new members have come to the desks of the second violin and the violoncello, the tradition has been transmitted and the spirit of the group maintained.  All apart from the qualities of its separate players, even the Kneisel Quartet of ten years ago could not have played as it played last night.  This was the true significance of the event.  It was the anniversary of an organization, perhaps.  It was much more the anniversary of an artistry.



New York Evening Post
—After the Kneisel Quartet's concert in Mendelssohn Hall last Tuesday evening more than a hundred of the subscribers and friends gathered in a neighboring restaurant to celebrate the successful termination of the twenty-fifth season of this organization.  Franz Kneisel himself and Louis Svećenski, the two members who have formed part of the Quartet ever since its beginning, were the recipients of beautiful silver coffee sets, and a number of reminiscent and complimentary speeches were made, in which chamber music was extolled as the highest branch of the art divine, and the Kneisels as its most eloquent exponents.
Few can realize what a Herculean feat it has been to carry on twenty-five seasons of such concerts successfully.  Chamber music may be the highest branch of the tonal art, but it certainly is also the least popular.  To the masses, orchestral performances make a much more powerful appeal than a simple combination of two violins, a viola and a violoncello.  In Italy and France it leads a precarious existence, and even in Germany since the demise of the Joachim Quartet, there is no organization of the kind which does not habitually play to small—usually very small—audiences.
If under such circumstances, the Kneisels—as they are usually called for short—have won conspicuous and lasting success, this in itself indicates that there must be unusual merit in their performances.  They have succeeded in gathering flocks of devotees not only in the metropolis but in many other cities, West as well as East, and they have also won laurels abroad, in England and on the Continent.
Wilhelm Gericke is the man we must thank for having brought across the ocean the violinist who has done more than any one else to spread appreciation of chamber music throughout the United States, from Boston to San Francisco.




New York Sun
—The highest and purest musical taste is that which delights in the performance of chamber music; but how difficult it is to secure public support for this.  The struggles of the Kneisel Quartet are part of the musical history of this town.  Even when it produced the new works of Antonin Dvoák, written while the Bohemian master lived in this country, the little chamber music hall in the Carnegie building was not more than half full.
Now Mendelssohn Hall, the largest hall suitable to the performance of chamber music, is filled at every concert.  The audience is composed of people who do not require the aid of professional criticism to help them to make up their minds.  They know what they like and why they like it.  The pitch of their tastes may be measured by the fact that they are a solid body of adorers of the quartets of Beethoven.
Let no man, dear reader, delude you into supposing that the Kneisel performances would be better if the Quartet sacrificed its finish for more vigorous rudeness.  Paganism you may have in music, but not barbarism.  It is a delusion to fancy that if the Kneisel Quartet abandoned its balance and exquisite polish of style it could exert a more potent spell upon the hearer.  No such result would be achieved.  We should have discord and chaos where we now have clarity and harmony, and we should understand nothing and strive to deceive ourselves into believing that mere fuss was strength.
Let us not forget that they make glad the hearts of men with the blessing of exquisite beauty.
The inner brotherhood of music-lovers (which constitutes the audience of the Kneisel Quartet and which is the flower of the musical brotherhood of this ponderous town) owes much to the genius and artistic devotion of Franz Kneisel.  It owes a part of its own existence to him.  He has been patient in preaching the gospel of high art and his congregation has added converts at times very slowly, but now the Kneisel Quartet thrives and waxes fat and its public is happy.
W. J. HENDERSON.



Chicago Tribune
—The performance was masterly.  The unanimity of intention developed by the four players served to define a new standard of ensemble, even for the Kneisels, and they have long formed the ideals of the country in all that pertains to chamber music.


Cincinnati Tribune
—In finish of detail, interest and variety of subject and flawlessness of execution, the concert of the Kneisel Quartet probably marked the crest of the artistic wave of the winter.  The annual engagement of this organization is usually the signal for the response from the inner circles of the musically disposed and the audience last night represented a discriminating gathering of music-lovers fully alive to the exceptional excellence of the performance.
In the matter of perfect ensemble, refinement and finish, the Kneisels are unique.



Chicago Inter-Ocean
—The only change that the present season brings to the Kneisel Quartet is an added emphasis of its manifold excellences.  In the past we have learned to look to this splendid organization for the realization of the finest and highest ideals of interpretation and yesterday's program left us with the conviction that the same impeccable standard will be maintained in the present season's concerts with, possibly, an added refinement and beauty.  Last season the Quartet showed a gain in the certainty with which Mr. Roentgen had learned to blend his tone with that of Mr. Kneisel.  The tonal amalgamation has progressed toward Mr. Svećenski at the viola desk and Mr. Willeke, whose admirable 'cello tone, surely the noblest and finest the world knows to-day, now seems but an extension downward of that tonal beauty and unity that makes the Kneisel Quartet the synonym for a new definition of the word ensemble.




General Press Comments

New York Tribune
—For many years the Kneisel Quartet has stood at the head of American musical organizations in respect to seriousness of endeavor and successful achievement.  It has carried its ministrations from ocean to ocean, everywhere stimulating appreciation and love for the purest form of absolute music.  It has had no rival on this side of the Atlantic, and there are many traveled musicians, professional and amateur, who stoutly insist that it is the equal, if not the superior, of the best and most famous of the chamber music organizations of Europe—the Joachim Quartet of Berlin, and the Brussels and Bohemian Quartets, for instance.  Its career has been brilliant in the extreme, and when its members withdrew from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, to devote themselves exclusively to chamber music, even the warmest friends of the orchestra felt that their loss, in one respect, was in another a national gain.—H. E. K.



The Outlook, New York (Editorial)
—While the press has recorded the advent and departure of orchestral leaders and has made much ado over operatic singers, the Kneisel Quartet has year after year, unsensationally and unobtrusively, been giving its concerts.  Year by year, too, it has educated a larger circle of hearers to the appreciation of chamber music.  Once it played chiefly to audiences of modest size in Boston and Cambridge, now even in New York, opera-mad as it may seem to be, this string quartet has been playing to crowded houses.


New York Times (Editorial)
—With all the splendid variety and distinction of a musical season in New York, there is nothing else quite so stimulating and satisfying to the real lover of music as the performances of the Kneisel Quartet.


London Times
—The players were heard to the utmost advantage; their performance, especially of the slow movement of Beethoven's posthumous quartet in A minor, deserving to rank very high among the multitude of wonderful achievements of the various quartet parties who have visited us during this memorable year.  Players who can exhaust the possibilities of such a work are comparatively few, but among them must certainly be reckoned the Kneisel Quartet; higher praise it is impossible to give.


London Observer
—The merits of their playing are unanimity of attack and expression, exquisite refinement and delicacy in soft and introspective passages, the rendering of the last-named often possessing what may best be described as a poetical atmosphere.


London Morning Post
—The efforts of the Kneisel Quartet are worthy of the highest praise.  It would, indeed, be impossible to conceive greater perfection in the matter of ensemble, precision, delicacy and all the qualities requisite for the proper interpretation of chamber music.


London Truth
—As to quartet concerts, the ensemble of the Kneisel Quartet has been an eye-opener in this branch, as the advent of Dr. Richter, sixteen years ago, was to orchestral music.


Liverpool Daily Post
—The result, as regards tone, was a charming vocal quality, as well as sympathetic breadth, so that the expressive flexibility of the string, which writing in the quartet form is more than anything else designed to illustrate, was carried to something like its ultimate point.


Bournemouth Observer and Chronicle
—It seems impossible to the writer that in the expressiveness of phrasing and in perfection of ensemble the Quartet can have any superior.



Manchester Guardian
—Out of a host of concerts held the past week the return of Dr. Richter and of the Kneisel Quartet may be selected as the events most worthy of notice.  Of the admirable artists led by Herr Kneisel it is enough to say that, even after the recent performance of the Bohemian and Joachim Quartets, they fully maintained the impression created at their first appearance in London.  Nothing could have been purer in style or more delicate in expression than their rendering of the singularly fresh and ingenious little quartet by Dittersdorf.  The rendering was extremely finished and enjoyable.


New York Sun
—The Quartet in D minor by Mozart is perfectly suited to a disclosure of those qualities which have made famous the Kneisel Quartet, and which, it may be said after last night, are to maintain it.  Ravishing beauty of tone—pure, round, mellow, smooth and vibrant tone—have always characterized the playing of this organization.  Last night the tone was not only beautiful in quality and pure and rich, but it was homogeneous.  Four men constituted one quartet, not four separate players.
In the department of balance the same high standard of excellence was reached.  It may not be going too far to say that in this feature of chamber music performance the standard of the quartet has been raised perhaps one degree.  Certainly in all ensemble passages the four instruments were adjusted to a perfect dynamic scale.  Only in the solo utterances did any single voice come forward, and then it was never out of the picture.  In precision and unanimity the quartet was always admirable.  The nuances were so beautifully made as to defy description.



New York Sun
—It is a fine little musical aristocracy that attends the concerts of the Kneisel Quartet.  The musical aristocracy of New York is in one sense exclusive and in another sense it is not.  People are excluded merely by their own want of that last elevation of taste required for the enjoyment of such music as is provided by the Kneisel Quartet.—W. J. HENDERSON.



New York Times
—Schumann's Quartet (A major) was played with the most complete insight into its poetic beauty and its romantic spirit, and with such a melting fullness and loveliness of tone, such a perfection of balance, of phrasing and nuance, such impeccable purity of intonation, as even the Kneisel Quartet can command only in its happiest moments.  So played, the conception of the composer, it must seem, comes absolutely to realization in tone.  The audience listened and applauded with rapture.


New York World
—It is some time since criticism of the playing of this famous organization could be other than a more or less eulogistic account of their musical proceedings, criticism in the shape of fault-finding being wholly unnecessary and out of place.
There is good and sufficient reason for this vogue of the Kneisel Quartet, for they continue to provide consistently the best chamber music to be heard in New York.  The fourth concert of the regular series given last night before a large audience undeterred by the stormy weather, presented the usual features of a programme attractive of its type, played with the finish and refinement, elegance and ensemble, which ever distinguish the work of these admirable artists.—REGINALD DE KOVEN.



New York Herald
—The excellence of the quartet, its exceptional merits in the way of tone quality and the perfection of balance between the four instruments was evident in the Mozart D minor quartet with which the evening began.  It would be hard to imagine a more sympathetic and delicate performance.


New York Evening Post
—Not only was all the music of the best, but the players fairly excelled themselves in everything that goes to make perfect ensemble playing—absolute purity of intonation, precision, shading, expressive phrasing, beauty and variety of tone.  There were moments, notably in the splendid quartet of Schumann (Op. 41, No. 3) when it seemed as if not four, but forty strings were playing, so rich and luscious was the tone quality.



New York Evening Post
—The players aroused the enthusiasm of the audience by their perfect ensemble, tonal euphony, and artistic phrasing, which revealed the very soul of music.


New York Evening Sun
—The fourth concert of the Kneisel Quartet was heard last night by the usual outpouring of music lovers.  The delicacies of music evoked by these players seemed in keeping with the soft illumination of the picturesque hall, and the audience was immediately in receptive mood.  Last night's Beethoven Quartet was a symphony of spring flowers, an effervescent breath of exquisite fragrance.  Its enormous technical difficulties were executed in the most smooth and polished way.  They did not exist.  It was a dance of tiniest fairies among the first vague greens of the year.  Birds sang in the violins, and the deep hum of the 'cello formed a superbly melodic background.


The Nation
—The four men played with a precision and a sympathetic understanding that were astonishing.  Altogether the performance was such as to make the audience grateful that Mr. Kneisel was persuaded by his friends to refuse the offer of the conductorship of the Philadelphia Orchestra, an offer which, if accepted, would have ended the career of America's best chamber music organization.


The Independent
—The season's first concert showed that the quartet was as good as ever, playing with the precision, the beauty of tone, the purity of intonation, the refined shading and the excellent ensemble that have for sixteen years characterized the Kneisels, who have not their superior, perhaps not their equals, in Europe.


New York Evening Mail
—It is only when we hear the Kneisel Quartet do things which surpass their own former efforts that we realize that it is possible that their playing can be surpassed at all.  It is in the height of simplicity that true art asserts itself, and this was never more undeniably sounded than last night in Mendelssohn Hall.  Each movement was like a mosaic, in which there was not a blur, nor a blemish.  This chamber music organization known to be second to none in the world, attracts the cream of musical audiences.


Musical America
—In listening to the music of the spheres, or after doing so, it is best to preserve silence.  There is little to say about this magnificent programme (Beethoven Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, Bach Double Concerto in D minor, Brahms Sextet in B flat major) or the manner in which it was given.  It is one of the rare experiences of musical life to listen to anything so perfect.


Chicago Tribune
—Those who have listened to Messrs, Kneisel, Svecenski, Roentgen and Willeke in their presentment of chamber music, do not need to be told that it is about as near perfection as it is possible to find in the concert world to-day.  Those who have not been fortunate enough to hear them will scarcely believe that analysis of their work is little other than extravagant scarcely believe that analysis of their work is little other than extravagant hysterical laudation.  The audience that filled Music Hall to its last place yesterday afternoon will, however, be ready to a person to bear witness that anything more complete, more musically perfect, more artistically beautiful than the work that the quartet proffered is difficult even to imagine, say nothing of find.  It seemed as though the four players never had been in as fine accord, their instruments harmonized as absolutely, or there was such richness and mellowness of tonal effect produced as was discoverable yesterday.  They have done the exceptional in the past, but yesterday it impressed that they were surpassing even their former achievements.  The whole work seemed softer in tint, warmer in shade, and lovelier in nuance than ever before.  It was as if the tone of it all had grown fuller, deeper and mellower, just as does a master violin or a master painting.  Technically, all was faultless, tonally, it was a source of refreshment and uplift to the spirit.—W. L. HUBBARD.



Chicago Inter-Ocean
—As the years go by the debt of all music lovers to the Kneisel Quartet grows and increases faster than if it were compounded at usurious rates of
 interest.  With each reappearance one discovers in that admirable organization some new virtue, or sees a long recognized excellence in a new light.
Those who have been so fortunate as to hear the Kneisels during the past three seasons have come to regard them as representing the very highest standards in interpretive art.  So they do.  But we are obliged to revise our standards for the Kneisels have seen fit to raise them to yet more exalted heights than they had achieved in former seasons, impossible as that may seem.  Yesterday there was revealed a new conception of unity.  It was a unity so complete that it embraced not merely the whole range of tone values, to the finest nuance, so absolutely that it was possible to distinguish the individual players only by the most careful attention, but it entered into every phase of interpretation, until the whole performance became, in fact and in deed, the expression of a single intention of an ideal which was perfectly shared by the four players.  It was, in short, perfect, and with that one word the performance is as completely described as it is possible for words to describe it.  One might write a volume in a vain attempt to convey an impression of the tonal beauty, the infinite variety, the vital purpose that were evident in almost any phrase.  Nothing was insignificant.  Every detail, however slight, had been carefully weighted, and its relative importance definitely fixed.  Yet all seemed fresh and spontaneous.—GLEN DILLARD GUNN.



Chicago Examiner
—They play with the same blend of tone, the same abnegation of personal virtuosity for the good of the general ensemble, the same nobility of tone and the same finesse.  Each member of the quartet has proved himself the right man in the right place.  They have all become integral parts of one finely adjusted instrument.—MAURICE ROSENFELD.



Chicago Evening Post
—These columns have chronicled not seldom the notable achievements of Mr. Kneisel and his colleagues—their marvelous ensemble, their insight into the meaning of the works they play, their unity of thought and inspiration.


Philadelphia Public Ledger
—Yesterday's concert was, as usual, a consummate exhibition of the art of ensemble playing.  So perfectly blended do the players merge and yet preserve their several individualities, that one is generally oblivious of the fact that each of the performers is a virtuoso of rare attainment.  The finished product of constant drill and close association is, therefore, a true quartet, in which no one predominates, although the sound scholarship and musicianly ideals of Mr. Kneisel are apparent in the unified conception and interpretation of his colleagues.


Pittsburgh Despatch
—Absolute tonal surety, intonation, intelligent phrasing and nuance distinguished the numbers, representative of the best quartet material.  It seemed as though every phase of light and shade possible for a string quartet to attain, was embodied in the graceful lines of the Mozart G Major.—CHARLES W. CADMAN.



Philadelphia Record
—The Kneisel Quartet is second to none in this country.


Brooklyn Daily Times
—The Kneisels again made plain the perennial freshness and loveliness of their beautiful art.


Cleveland News
—The name Kneisel is synonymous with the best in art and the highest in musicianship.


Baltimore Sun
—All the daintiness and delicacy that form the very essence of Schumann's writings, all the tone painting necessary to the correct interpretation of the master, are absolutely at the command of this body of artists, and to hear Schumann interpreted by them is to gain a correct appreciation of the innermost thoughts of the greatest of romantic composers.


Buffalo Commercial
—The entire evening's programme was given with such repose, purity and elevation of style that the listeners were held spellbound to the end.



New Haven Courier
—No other musical event gathers just the audience which attends these concerts; to enjoy them indicates a love for the best in music, and it is gratifying that a sufficient number has been found to support these concerts for twenty-two years.


Hartford Times
—The Kneisels are old friends and gladly welcomed in our city, where, for about fifteen years, they have proved, as in other places, the classical exponents of chamber music.  We were early to appreciate their excellence, and we have never ceased to appreciate and admire in the highest degree their superb production.


Milwaukee Wisconsin
—This Quartet possesses in a pre-eminent degree all the qualities which constitute perfect ensemble playing.


Boston Post
—The perfect euphony and excellence of ensemble were as admirable and gratifying as formerly, and the performances throughout the evening were a feast of tonal beauty.


Boston Globe
—Mr. Kneisel and his associates occupy a position that is almost unique among organizations devoted to interpretation of the highest form of chamber music, and the artistic excellence of their work is so generally known that words of praise seem almost superfluous.


Boston Transcript
—The entire concert was, in fact, a pleasure, old works and new receiving equal attention, and, above all, it was not too long.  Better playing never has been heard and probably never will be heard.—H. T. P.



Boston Herald
—It should never be forgotten that the Kneisel Quartet will be in the very front rank of chamber organizations here or in Europe as long as Mr. Kneisel is the leader.—PHILIP HALE.
It is doubtful whether even the Kneisels will surpass the beauty of their performance of Beethoven's quartet, a performance which is already one of the chief events of the musical season, that will long haunt the memory, that will render any performance by others intolerable.  It is impossible to speak too highly of the exquisite sense of proportion, of the euphonic triumph, of the poetic appreciation of the wondrous andante con moto, of the dazzling brilliance of the finale.  The performance was a masterpiece of technique, tone, imagination.
The Kneisels gave an exceedingly dramatic performance of the Caetani quartet, one that must be ranked with their highest achievements.  * * * Beyond doubt and peradventure the quintet by César Franck must be reckoned not only among that master's noblest works, but also among the greatest compositions in all chamber music.  The ineffable tenderness, the glowing passion, the towering sublimity of this masterpiece are now recognized by those to whom this musical speech was at first as a foreign tongue.  The performance last night was a memorable one.  The Kneisel Quartet is still the Kneisel Quartet, unrivalled and incomparable.—PHILIP HALE.




THE FOLLOWING LETTER IS PUBLISHED WITH THE CONSENT OF MR. THEODORE THOMAS:
CHICAGO, DECEMBER 21, 1904.

DEAR MR. WESSELS:

The string quartet represents the highest and purest form in the art of music.  There are only three first rank organizations in the world who devote their time exclusively to the cultivation of this branch.  The Kneisel Quartet is one of them, and the only one in America.  I am rejoiced that it contemplates giving a series of concerts in Chicago this winter.  Please put my name on the list as a subscriber for two season tickets.

Yours truly,
THEODORE THOMAS.