3 Review(s)

KUDOS to We Knocked Their Socks Off, Tim Bosworth’s fine, new biography of the Curtis String Quartet (1927-1981). The first string quartet trained in America, at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA. it was arguably the greatest string quartet in history. At its retirement in 1981, the Quartet had been together longer than any other. It was the first American quartet to perform in England and to tour Europe. Twice. It played in big cities where it was well-known, on college campuses, in lobbies of banks, and in small towns where no one had even known what a quartet was. In its prime, the Quartet’s work was recognized as the gold standard for quartet playing. Yet up to now, it has still not received its due. Left standing has been the false narrative that quartets began in America only after World War II. That narrative, sadly, has written the Quartet out of history. This book writes it back in.