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
Cavani String Quartet Cavani String Quartet The Cavani String Quartet is an American string quartet based in Cleveland, Ohio. The quartet is named for the 19th century violin makers Giovanni and Vincenzo Cavani. The quartet formed in 1984 and became the Quartet-in-Residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1988. They have collaborated for many years in special performances with the poet Mwatabu Okantah. The quartet has recorded music by Béla Bartók, Maurice Ravel, Antonín Dvořák, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Dan Welcher, Donald Erb, Ernest Chausson, Leo Brouwer, and James Primosch for the Albany, Azica, Gasparo, New World, and Pantheon labels. They won