Other quartets may be different, but for the Alban Berg SQ, its members
"never sit next to each other on planes, and they always book hotel rooms
far apart." There is a fascinating story about "The stormy, intimate
life of the string quartet" in the (http://tinyurl.com/2mm355) London
Times, on the occasion of the Berg dissolving itself after 40 years in
the majors.

San Francisco's Kronos Quartet is 35 and going, but grand-daddy Beaux
Arts Trio is retiring this summer, after almost 50 years.  The Berg -
deeply impacted by the death of Thomas Kakuska, the quartet's original
violist - is calling it quits after a farewell season in London, beginning
this week.

Salute the quartet by watching it perform the first movement of Beethoven's
String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 1 on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKFzy7tEXu4

Janos Gereben
www.sfcv.org
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