Mozart: Quartet No. 18 in A major, KV 464

Roth Quartet

"If I ever write another string quartet, it will be dedicated to the Roth Quartet." 

- Maurice Ravel

I. Allegro

II. Menuetto

III. Andante

IV. Allegro non troppo

Roth Quartet

Feri Roth, 1st Violin / Jeno Antal, 2nd Violin

Ferenc Molnár, Viola / Janos Scholz, Violoncello

(78 rpm transfer; Columbia UK, recorded July 5, 10, 31; Aug. 7, 1935)

______________________

Feri Roth, Music: Los Angeles

1899-1969

Professor Emeritus

Feri Roth, emeritus professor of music at UCLA, died on May 7, 1969, after devoting almost five decades to the performance of string quartet literature. Born July 18, 1899, at Zvolen, Czechoslovakia, Feri received his musical training at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music in Budapest where he graduated in 1917. His first position was the concertmastership of the Budapest Opera from 1919-1920; a year later he joined the Berlin Volksoper in the same capacity. In 1922, he founded the string quartet which bore his name for forty-seven years. Two years later, the quartet made a successful debut in Paris, then embarked on a tour of Europe and Africa. On an invitation from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge in 1928, the quartet, reorganized to include Jeno Antal, Ferenc Molnar, and Janos Scholz, made its first appearance in the United States at the Pittsfield (Massachusetts) Music Festival. Subsequently, the quartet concertized throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico, participating in concerts at the Library of Congress, giving many concerts of modern works in New York City and Washington, and performing all of Beethoven's string quartets including his Grosse Fuge.

In 1937, the quartet joined the faculty of Westminster Choir College at Princeton University. Resigning from the college in 1939, Mr. Roth assembled a new group consisting of former members of the Manhattan String Quartet: Rachmael Weinstock, Julius Shaier, and Oliver Edel. In 1947, Roth began his long association with UCLA, joining the Department of Music as Lecturer. In 1960, he was named full professor. During his years at the University, he made further changes in the personnel of the quartet. The group that was most familiar to concert goers included Thomas Marrocco, professor of music at UCLA; Irving Weinstein; and Cesare Pascarella, UCLA lecturer in music. It was principally this combination that Professor Roth led in his yearly festivals of Beethoven's chamber music. He made many other important contributions. Occasionally he would exchange his violin and bow for the conductor's baton and lead larger chamber music ensembles in performances of concertos by Vivaldi, Handel, and Bach, and of Bach's The Art of Fugue. For more than ten years, he organized the Tuesday Noon Concerts, a weekly production of the Department of Music in Schoenberg Hall Auditorium. His authoritative and stimulating teaching found expression in a continuing series of chamber music classes, and his course on the music of Bach and Beethoven attracted thousands of students.

A champion of modern music, Professor Roth's quartet performed in concert many works by composer-colleagues in the department, and gave public readings of newly composed works by graduate students. This service was invaluable. In its off-campus appearances, the Roth Quartet concertized widely, not only on the west coast, where it gave many performances each year, but also on the east coast, in Canada, and in Great Britain. During 1963 and again in 1966, the quartet played a series of concerts in London; and in the spring of 1968, it presented the entire cycle of Beethoven's quartets in New York City's Lincoln Center. A further presentation of the cycle, scheduled for Elizabeth Hall, London, in the spring of 1969 had to be cancelled because of Professor Roth's death.

During its long history, the Roth Quartet recorded thirty-five albums for Columbia Masterworks and five for the Society for Forgotten Masterpieces. Especially important is the quartet's recording of Bach's Art of the Fugue, in the Harris-North transcription. In 1966, the Roth Quartet was televised at UCLA during performances of two Beethoven quartets: Opus 74 (The Harp) and Opus 95 (Serioso). The video tapes are valuable to students, and also to amateurs, for their visual clues to the secret of successful quartet performances.

Professor Roth was the recipient of the Award of Merit from the National Association of American Composers and Conductors in 1942 for outstanding service to American music, and he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from the New York College of Music in 1949. He was a member of the Beethoven Association of New York, the International Society for Contemporary Music of London, the Mozart Society of Salzburg, and the Triton Music Society of Paris.

Professor Roth's death will be long felt by the music department. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and a sister, Mrs. Erzsike Tropp living in Hungary.

Roy Harris Robert U. Nelson W. Thomas Marrocco William Young 

http://content.cdlib.org/viewdocId=hb629006wb&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00036&toc.depth=1&toc.id=

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As far as I know, only one recording of the Roth Quartet has ever appeared in the compact disc format:

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fugue-J-S-Bach/dp/B000CFX604/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1458049945&sr=1-1&keywords=art+of+the+fugue+roth+quartet

There exist a considerable number of other recordings from the Roth Quartet which are not mentioned directly in the above UCLA article.