HEINRICH ANDERS, acknowledged by Busch as his first real violin teacher, was born Heinrich Schweinefleisch in Beuel on 24 April 1877 and studied at the Cologne Conservatory with Gustav Hollander, graduating in 1893. He led the Duisburg Symphony Orchestra and from 1902 was second concertmaster of the Cologne City Orchestra, becoming first concertmaster in 1910. He taught at the Conservatory until 1922 and led an eponymous quartet – with Max Topstedt, Jean Schmitz (later Focco Klimmerboom) and Paul Ludwig (later Karl Schafer) – which was well known in the Rhineland. Anders appeared as a soloist at the Gurzenich and directed many of the popular summer concerts there. On Good Friday, 19 April 1935, he was performing the solo in the Benedictus of the Missa solemnis, with Max Fiedler conducting, when he broke off playing and died onstage.

GÖSTA ANDREASSON, born in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 9 December 1894 as Gustav Adolf Andreasson, had his violin lessons seriously disrupted in his teens by a bout of tuberculosis which affected a hip, leaving him with a limp. He studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm (1913–18) with Julius Ruthstrom, a pupil of Burmester, Heermann, Moser and Joachim, played in Ruthstrom's quartet (1916–18) and won the silver medal. From 1913 to 1917 Andreasson attended Leopold Auer's summer courses in Dresden, St Petersburg and Oslo. He played at the Royal Opera, Stockholm (1917–18), and for the Gothenburg Orkesterforening (1918–19), before moving to Berlin in 1919 to study with Busch. Berlin changed the course of his life, as he met his future wife and found his métier for the next 25 years. First appearing with the Busch Quartet in autumn 1920, he at once proved the perfect ‘second fiddle’.