"You ask me whether the average quartet of amateurs, of lovers of string
music, can get much out of the more modern quartets. I would say yes,
but with some serious reservations. There has been much beautiful music
written, but most of it is complicated. In the case of the older
quartets, Haydn, Mozart, etc., even if they are not played well, the
performers can still obtain an idea of the music, of its thought
content. But in the modern quartets, unless each individual player has
mastered every technical difficulty, the musical idea does not pierce
through, there is no effect.
"I remember when we rehearsed the first Schönberg quartet. It was in
1913, at a Chicago hotel, and we had no score, but only the separate
parts. The results, at our first attempt, were so dreadful that we
stopped after a few pages. It was not till I had secured a score,
studied it and again tried it that we began to see a light. Finally
there was not one measure which we did not understand. But Schönberg,
Reger, Ravel quartets make too great a demand on the technical ability
of the average quartet amateur.