The string quartet was without a name, and about to disband. Its leader, First Violinist Jacques Gordon, had been ordered by his doctor to retire. Then Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, the nation's No. 1 patroness of music, came to the rescue. She put up money for enough additional concerts to make the quartet's summer season possible. For one of the few times in her life, Mrs. Coolidge then asked a sentimental favor in return: would the quartet please call itself the Berkshire Quartet? It was the name which Mrs. Coolidge had given to the...
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