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Juilliard Quartet at 80: lines of inquiry

2026-08-14T09:08:00

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As the Juilliard Quartet celebrates its 80th anniversary, its members speak to Thomas May about teaching, rehearsal‑room disagreement, new commissions and the essential questions that keep the ensemble’s tradition alive

At a certain point in Beethoven’s op.132, the members of the Juilliard Quartet found themselves arguing about vibrato. Violist Molly Carr and second violinist Leonard Fu had proposed playing the recurring chorale in the ‘Heiliger Dankgesang’ slow movement entirely without it. Cellist Astrid Schween remembers the idea as beautiful in principle: a cleaner, purer tone, ‘unadulterated by left-hand proclivities’. But each time the chorale returned, she felt the pull of instinct – an urge to let her left hand impart just a little more expression…

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