The
Léner String Quartet was founded by violinist
Janos (or Jenö) Léner (1894 - 1948) in 1918 at the Budapest Academy of Music. The
Léner Quartet was one among several world-class chamber ensembles that were created under the watchful eye of virtuoso and pedagogue Jenö Hubay. In addition to
Janos Léner himself, the
Léner Quartet included second violinist Jozsef Smilovits, violist Sándor Roth, and cellist Imre Hartmann. While they were usually billed as "The Léner Quartet of Budapest," the group was mainly based out of London from 1922 through 1939, and made their American debut in 1929. The
Léner Quartet traveled around the world, concertizing, working directly with famous composers (such as
Ottorino Respighi), and conducting workshops with aspiring chamber musicians. Personnel remained the same until the ensemble broke up in 1942.
Janos Léner revived the group with different members in 1945, but his untimely death at age 54 in 1948 brought the
Léner Quartet's illustrious history as a performing ensemble to a close. The
Léner Quartet may have been the major string quartet active in commercial recording during the prime years of the 78rpm era. Beginning with acoustic records made in London in 1923, it ultimately produced some 450 sides and in many cases, was responsible for making the first-recorded performances of familiar string quartet works.
With the
Beethoven centenary of 1927, the
Léner Quartet instituted the first recorded cycle of the
Beethoven string quartets; while depression economics halted their progress at 14 quartets (out of 16) in 1933, the
Léner Quartet recordings became widely recognized as the established standard for these works. These were not superseded until the appearance of the
Budapest Quartet's recordings of the full
Beethoven cycle in the years following World War II. In addition to the works of
Beethoven, the
Léner Quartet also recorded works of
Haydn,
Mozart,
Brahms, and
Debussy, among others, and made ensemble appearances with soloists such as
Dennis Brain, Aubrey Brain, and
Leon Goossens. So highly regarded were their releases that a lengthy exegesis on the
Léner Quartet's recording of
Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15 in A minor is used as an element in the climactic scene of Aldous Huxley's novel Point Counter Point (1928).
Janos Léner died on the very eve of the introduction of the long-playing record, which greatly aided the dissemination of chamber music of all kinds, and in particular helped promote the popularity of the
Budapest Quartet, another ensemble initially nurtured under Hubay. By 1950, the
Léner Quartet recordings, mostly made in the 1920s, must have seemed ancient by comparison as the group favored a broad, fat string tone more readily associated with arch-Romantic performance practice. Nonetheless, this is precisely why some of the
Léner Quartet recordings are being revived on CD more than 50 years after they were largely regarded as obsolete artifacts belonging to a bygone era. While the
Léner Quartet's approach to Classical-era literature may seem a bit too precious, the recordings of the late
Beethoven quartets and works by
Brahms,
Dvorák, and similar repertoire directly comes from the heart of the late-Romantic idiom. This group of recordings within the extensive body of work left by the
Léner Quartet represent an authoritative interpretive viewpoint on late-Romantic quartet literature and warrant revival.