Bartok's String Quartet No. 5 was commissioned by the formidable Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, leading patron of chamber music in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century. Bartok is alleged to have composed the work in a one-month span of isolation in 1934, and it received its premiere in Washington, D.C. by the Kolisch Quartet in 1935. The String Quartet No. 5 was published shortly thereafter by Universal Edition, who now incorporates the score into their UE Study Score Series in a handsome