Written almost 20 years after his String Quartet No. 2, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) composed the String Quartet No. 3, Op. 30 in 1927, ostensibly for a commission by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, although the work was largely already finished. It is the first of his string quartets to utilize the 12-tone system that he had developed, though Schoenberg returned to the traditional four-movement structure that he had rejected in his first two string quartets. The premiere performance was given on September 19, 1927, by the Kolisch Quartet. Reprint edition. (25:00)
