David Blum founded New York's Esterhazy Orchestra and l'Orchestre Symphonique Genevois in Geneva, Switzerland. A frequent contributor to the New Yorker and the New York Times, he wrote The Art of Quartet Playing, also from Cornell, and Casals and the Art of Interpretation.

"This is a book about the artistic credos of five superb musicians. It is literate, well crafted, readable, and holds one's interest from beginning to end. Arnold Steinhardt (of Guarneri Quartet fame) provides an excellent forward. the author tries to get inside his subjects and describe what makes them the artists they are."—McClain, American Record Guide, September/October 2000.