Style of Interpretation
The interpretations of contemporary music by the Amar Quartet met with unanimous enthusiasm amongst composer and reviewers. Anton Webern wrote to Alban Berg from the music festival in Salzburg in 1922 about performances of his Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5 and Schönberg's F-sharp minor Quartet, Op. 10 as follows: «I don't need to tell you about the incredible effect of the F-sharp minor Quartet. Or maybe I do: for it was a very rare event. The Hindemith Quartet played excellently. As far as my Quartet was concerned: performance (Hindemith) very good. Really played like music.»
The Quartet attracted particular interest when they interpreted Hindemith's own works. A critic was both fascinated and amazed when he wrote the following in November 1927 after a concert in Zurich: «Hindemith writes for his viola, his quartet, so that they follow his lead, only that his viola part sometimes jerks through the ensemble like a snake and carries everything away with it. The result is that the artists can perform their pieces in a tempo that would make one dizzy without sacrificing a single note. For example, if the first movement of the ‹String Trio› (Op. 34) could be performed more modestly, it might be seen that the piece is actually quite pretty.»
