The Budapest Quartet was a string quartet established in Budapest, Hungary in 1886 by Jenő Hubay and David Popper.
Johannes Brahms performed with the quartet and thought it was the best he had heard.
This quartet went under a variety of names. Outside Hungary, it was usually called "Quartet Hubay-Popper". Within Hungary it was called "Hungarian Quartet" or "Budapest Quartet". This was because Hungarians were fiercely patriotic.
They performed for twenty-seven years.
Composition
The quartet's initial composition was:
Herzfeld played in the years 1886-1889 and 1897-1899. There are also Wilhelm Grünfeld (concertmaster of Budapest Opera) who played in 1888 the 2nd violin and 1889 József Bloch (later a teacher at the Music Academy). After there two students of Hubay played the 2nd violin: in 1894 János Farkas and from 1895 Rudolf Kemény. Elderling left the quartet soon. Violist from 1888 was Josef Waldbauer and from 1898 Gustav Szerémi.