String quartet Violini, Violetta [viola], e Violoncello senza Cembalo" (Sonata for four instruments: two violins, viola, and cello without harpsichord), this was a natural evolution from the existing tradition. The string quartet in its now accepted form came about with Haydn. If the combination of two violins, viola and cello was not unknown before Haydn, when it occurred in chamber music it was more likely through circumstance than conscious design; certainly the string quartet enjoyed no recognized status as an ensemble in the way that two violins with basso continuo – the so-called 'trio sonata' – had for more than a hundred
Escher String Quartet Grosvenor, jazz vocalist Kurt Elling, and jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman In 2013 the Escher Quartet was awarded the Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Career Grant. In 2015 the quartet was awarded the Martin. E. Segal Award by Lincoln Center. The Escher String Quartet is best known for its recordings of Alexander von Zemlinsky's complete string quartets. In 2015, the quartet began releasing recordings of Mendelssohn's complete string quartets on the BIS label. Escher String Quartet The Escher String Quartet is an American string quartet based in New York City, where they serve as Artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln