The quartet took its name from the leader, the violinist Robert Krettly (b. 1891), who was the brother of the cellist Odette Krettly (one of the teachers of Pierre Fournier (1906–1986)).
Robert Krettly took part in the premiere of the Gabriel Fauré Pianoforte Trio in D minor op 120, in Paris on May 12, 1923, with Jacques Patté (cello) and Tatiana Sanzévitch (piano).[1] The quartet was in existence in March 1925, with Fournier as its cellist aged 19, when they premiered the string quartet by Catherine Murphy Urner at the Salle Pleyel, Paris.[2] This formation therefore preceded the appearance of Robert Krettly as second violin, with Jacques Thibaud (1st violin), Maurice Vieux (1884–1951) (viola) and André Hekking (cello),[3] in the premiere of the Gabriel Fauré string quartet (in E minor, op 121) at the Société Nationale de Musique in Paris on 12 June 1925.[4] Fournier had also studied with André Hekking, and with Lucien Capet.
In 1929 Andre Navarra (1911–1988) replaced Pierre Fournier as cellist,[5] and by 1931 François Broos had replaced Georges Taine at the viola desk. Navarra made his debut as a soloist in 1931, at the Concerts Colonne in Paris. Both Navarra and René Costard retired from the group in 1935, and in that year Costard established the French branch of Foldex maps.[6]
