The Quartet was on tour in Paris in 1938 when Nazi Germany annexed Austria. Because of their association with Schoenberg (whose music had been banned by the Nazis) and because most of the members of the Quartet were considered Jewish according to the Nazi legal definition, they did not return to Vienna. They set up their headquarters in Paris and toured from there. Béla Bartók's String Quartet No. 6 is dedicated to the Kolisch Quartet, and it was they who gave its premiere at The Town Hall in New York City on 20 January 1941. They were on tour in the United States when that country entered the war and civilian transport across the ocean suddenly became unavailable. Rather than continue with the Quartet in the face of great uncertainty about the future, the cellist and violist soon took jobs with major U.S. orchestras (Philadelphia and Boston, respectively). The Quartet continued to play concerts with replacement players for some time, but when the second violinist left to join an orchestra in San Francisco, the Quartet finally disbanded. Recordings The Kolisch Quartet recorded several albums of string quartets of Franz Schubert and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on 78s for the Columbia Records and RCA record labels. In 1937 they recorded the four string quartets of Arnold Schoenberg privately under the composer's supervision; these were re-issued several years later as LP recordings on the "Alco" label. All the commercial recordings of the Kolisch Quartet are currently available on compact discs. Bartók: Quartet No. 5 Mozart: Quartet in C major, K 465; Jascha Veissi, viola; Stefan Auber, cello (Columbia M439) Mozart: Quartet in D major, K 575 'Cello' or 'Solo' (Columbia LX 337-8). Schoenberg: Quartets 1-4 Schubert: Quartet in A minor, Op. 29 (Columbia LX 286-9). Schubert: Quartettsatz in C minor (Columbia LX 289). Schubert: Quartet in G major, Op. 161 (Columbia LX 357-60). Sources R.D. Darrell, The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music (New York 1936). External links Stefan Auber papers, 1920-1982 Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Kolisch Quartet