Slovak Quartet

The string quartet was founded in 1956 as the Bratislava Quartet; it took the name Slovak Quartet only in 1964. As a state ensemble it was attached to the Slovak Philharmonic and remained active until 1983.

It regularly gave premieres of works by Slovak composers and recorded for radio, television and for both domestic and foreign labels. In 1968 it won first prize in Stockholm at an anonymous competition in the interpretation of Béla Bartók's string quartets – for his Fourth Quartet – and subsequently appeared several times at the Stockholm festival of contemporary music, also with Slovak repertoire (Očenáš, Suchoň and others). In 1969 it received the Prize of the Union of Slovak Composers, and later a state prize.

Note: an ensemble had already appeared under the name Slovak Quartet at the Prague Spring in 1946, made up of Vojtech Gabriel, Alojz Nemec, Ladislav Hrdina and Emanuel Mysliveček; in a programme called Chamber Concert of Slovak Music it performed Andrej Očenáš's First String Quartet Pictures of the Soul and Šimon Jurovský's Melodies and Dialogues, Op. 14. Alojz Nemec links the two groups.

Note: the line-up changed over time. The Music Centre lists the members as Aladár Móži (first violin), Alojz Nemec (second violin), Milan Telecký (viola) and Jozef Podhoranský (cello), with František Tannenberger as a former member – yet the archive has Tannenberger documented at concerts in 1965, 1969 and 1970. Exactly when the cellists changed places has not been established.

Source of biographical data: the Music Centre (hc.sk), consulted on 3 September 2026.

Vzniklo roku 1948 z iniciatívy jeho primária Aladára Móžiho. Súbor do roku 1964 niesol názov Bratislavské kvarteto, ale v dôsledku jeho prudkého umeleckého rastu, najmä zahraničných úspechov, bolo premenované na reprezentačný súbor “Slovenské kvarteto”. Od roku svojho vzniku prekonalo niekoľko zmien. V roku 1956 sa okrem Móžiho vymenili všetci hráči. Za E. Weidingera nastúpil A. Nemec, za R. Hoffmanna M. Telecký a A. Berkyho J. Sikora. Tohto však roku 1962 vymenil Fr. Tannenberger. Kvarteto sa pričlenilo k bratislavskému rozhlasu, pre ktorý pravidelne nahráva domácu a svetovú tvorbu. V tejto novej zostave dosiahlo už niekoľko pozoruhodných zahraničných úspechov v Nemecku, Švédsku, Dánsku, Taliansku a spolu so Slovenským komorným orchestrom tvorí poprednú súčasť slovenskej komornej hry.