Mimi Ezutz recommends Indivisible by Four" by Arnold Steinhardt, first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet. Another interesting book I read is (although not as good IMO as Steinhard's book) is "The Four and the one. In Praise of String Quarterts" by David Rounds with Lafayette String Quartet. It includes inside stories about the Lafayette Quartet and information about the string quartet genre in general. One interesting difference described in the two books is the attitude towards Shostakovich. The Lafayette quartet studied with Dubinsky, which was in the original Borodin Quartet, and one of their first recordings includes Shostakovich's third quartert. A whole chapter in Round's book is dedicated to Shostakovich's third. Steinhard, OTOH, describes in his book how some of the Guarneri members disliked Shosatkovich, considered this quartet shallow and consequently the Guarneri decided not to perform it. Dan Zimmerman [log in to unmask]