(2 of 2)
Little Men Who Weren't There. None of the Budapest Quartet comes from Budapest. Only one of the four (first violinist Josef Roismann) has ever even visited the city. All are Russians. To the Quartet, this fact has become a continual embarrassment. Wherever they go, they are likely to be welcomed in fluent Magyar by effusive groups of Hungarians. The Quartet knows plenty of Hungarian music, but no Magyar.
The original Budapest Quartet, which toured Europe and the U.S. in the 1920s, was as 100% Hungarian as goulash. By 1927 its second fiddler left and a Russian took his place. By 1932 there was not a Hungarian left. Today the four are 43-year-old first violinist Josef Roismann from Odessa; 35-year-old second violinist Alexander Schneider from Vilna; 43-year-old violist Boris Kroyt from Odessa; 39-year-old cellist Mischa Schneider, brother of Alexander.
The Russian Budapesters are all German-trained and have spent most of their professional lives in such German cities as Berlin, Leipzig and Hamburg. Long since exiled from the Third Reich (all are Jewish), they make their headquarters in Washington, D.C. They practice three hours a day with religious regularity, pausing occasionally for tea (see cut). All disputes about interpretation are put to a majority vote. On their long Pullman hops they are incessant poker and bridge players, winning and losing substantial sums among themselves. Their drinking habits, not nearly as blended as their tone, are: Roismann, tomato juice; Alexander Schneider, Burgundy; Kroyt, vodka; Mischa Schneider, milk.
Two of the four, Roismann and Kroyt, are married; three have homes in Washington. The fourth, Alexander Schneider, keeps a bachelor apartment on Manhattan's swank Beekman Place. He cooks, makes pottery and prefers blondes.
Kroyt's English is strictly from Odessa. Once in Australia, a noted critic was introduced to the Quartet. Said the critic to Kroyt: "I have just met your wife." Said Kroyt: "Thank you very much." Kroyt fishes from a motorboat on the Potomac. Like the others, he sees very little of his colleagues socially. Each has his own set of friends.
*The Flonzaley Quartet was disbanded in 1929.