Rudolf Kolisch with his sister Gertrud and Arnold Schönberg on the Lido Island in Venice, 1925. Source: Arnold Schönberg Center – Vienna, ID 2854
Portrait of Rudolf Kolisch from the album "Dem Lehrer Arnold Schönberg" [To the Teacher Arnold Schönberg]. 13.09.1924. Source: Arnold Schönberg Center, Vienna, ID 3232, https://archive.schoenberg.at
Rudolf Kolisch
A leading violin virtuoso of his time, after left hand injury around 1905 he learned to hold the violin in his right hand and bow left-handed. He studied violin playing with Julius Egghard Jr in Vienna, as well as music theory and composition with Hermann Grädener and Franz Schreker. He developed his knowledge by attending Guido Adler’s lectures at the University of Vienna and may have met Koffler in that period. In 1919–21 he was a pupil of Arnold Schönberg and a member of his Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen. In 1924 Schönberg married Kolisch’s sister Gertrud and Rudolf became his brother-in-law.
Concert announcement for Kolisch-Quartett, Signale für die musikalische Welt, 27.02.1929, p. 290
In 1922 Kolisch founded a string quartet of his name (the Vienna String Quartet till 1931), which won international fame in 1927–39 thanks to intense touring and world premieres of major works such as Schönberg’s String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4, Anton Webern’s string trio and quartet, Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite, and Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 6. Kolisch was a highly regarded performer of works by the Second Viennese School and an artist who put the ‘Viennese espressivo’ theory into practice. In 1940 he emigrated from Paris to the United States, where in 1942 he set up a new ensemble – the Pro Arte Quartet. He also worked as a professor of violin and chamber music performance. He conducted summer courses of new music in Europe and his own chamber music masterclasses at the Schönberg-Haus in Mödling.
On April 26, 1930, the Kolisch Quartett performed Schönberg's First and Second String Quartets in Lwów.
St. Łobaczewska, "The Kolisch String Quartet," Gazeta Lwowska 1930 No. 239 (16.10)
Koffler invited them to the concert organized by the ISCM Lwów Branch, and the performance was well-received by the audience, which the composer reported in a letter to Schönberg. In 1930, the Kolisch ensemble also performed twice in Lwów (in April and October) at public concerts, playing works by Beethoven, Haydn, Brahms, and Debussy.
Koffler and Kolisch probably also met at ISCM festivals. A surviving letter suggests that the Kolisch Quartett was to be the first performer of Koffler’s String Quartet, (Op. 19 in the manuscript), but this performance never took place.