In 2023, the Emerson String Quartet will retire after more than forty years as one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles. In 1989, violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, violist Lawrence Dutton, and cellist David Finckel dropped by WFMT’s studios to talk with Studs Terkel about Beethoven, Bartok, commissions, and the Emerson’s mastery of such broad repertoire. The ESQ brings their farewell tour to Symphony Center on June 4, 2023, in a recital with their friend and frequent collaborator Emanuel Ax.
Emerson String Quartet (08/31/1989)
(Photo courtesy Emerson String Quartet)