The Kodály String Quartet ranks among the foremost veteran chamber ensembles worldwide. Four students at Budapest’s renowned Franz Liszt Academy of Music established its roots in 1966 by forming the Sebastyan Quartet.
That same year the newly created ensemble earned official distinction through victory at the Geneva International Quartet Competition. In 1968 the Sebastyan Quartet captured first place at the Leo Weiner Quartet Competition in Budapest, an event named for the violinist-composer whose teaching in chamber music helped secure the worldwide prestige of Hungarian string quartets.
The group received the Ferenc Liszt Award in 1970. Violinist Attila Falvay entered as first violin in 1980, creating a stable personnel that endured more than ten years alongside Tamás Szabó, violist Gabor Fias, and cellist János Devich. The Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Education then authorized the ensemble to adopt the name Kodály String Quartet in tribute to composer Zoltán Kodály. The quartet launched an active schedule of performances across Europe, the Soviet Union, and Japan before extending its reach to major musical centers on every continent. During the 1990s cellist Devich departed and was succeeded by György Éder, founder of the Éder String Quartet and an experienced chamber musician. At the millennium’s turn, Fias also stepped down; violist János Fejérvári joined the remaining members.
The ensemble maintains the core quartet literature while giving special attention to Hungarian works by Kodály, Dohnányi, Bartók, and other twentieth-century composers. It completed an extensive recorded survey of Franz Joseph Haydn’s quartets and earned the Classic CD Magazine Award for the Best Chamber Music Release of 1993 for its account of the Op. 64 set. Additional recordings have appeared on several labels, among them Naxos, where the quartet continues a projected cycle of the Franz Schubert string quartets.
In 1990 the Hungarian government conferred upon the group the title Merited Artist of the Hungarian Republic, and in 1996 it received the Bartók-Pásztory Award, established in memory of the composer’s widow, Ditta Bartók-Pásztory.
