After my most enjoyable participation in piano quartet performances during our tour in America, I returned home to be involved in a peculiar experience – being a member of a short time of the famous Bohemian String Quartet in London. As a result of an urgent appeal from Broadwood & Sons, the well-known piano manufacturers – who gave series of chamber music concerts at the Aerolian Hall in Bond Street and in the provinces – I was called upon to play with this celebrated quartet at a moment’s notice, practically without rehearsal. The works included Schubert’s great D minor quartet Death and the Maiden, and I shall never forget the furious pace at which they took the last movement – full of fire and meticulous articulation; indeed the whole quartet was played with sparkling rhythm and crystal-clear precision. Fortunately I knew this Schubert quartet extremely well and found myself able to fall in with their ideas. Whenever I hear this quartet now it reminds me of my association with the Czechs, the cause of which to say the least of it was somewhat irregular. (…) Joseph Hofman the leader was a virtuoso, Josef Suk the second violin was a composer, a charming man and an excellent player; but the cellist, a most magnificent executant, had the objectionable habit of expectorating frequently during the course of the day- so much so that I felt that his equipment should have included a spittoon! Apart from this my collaboration with the Bohemians was for me an exciting and wonderful musical experience. << less