At the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont in 1964, four men, two violins, a viola and a cello formed the Guarneri String Quartet. The quartet has since become the longest lasting collaboration of any quartet in the United States.

The Guarneri String Quartet will feature three quartets by Ludwig von Beethoven at 8 p.m. Saturday in Schwab Auditorium. The performance is part of its 25th Anniversary Concert Series.

The works to be performed are Quartet in G Major, Opus 18, No. 2; Quartet in B-flat Major, Opus 18, No. 6; and Quartet in F Major, Opus 59, No. 1.

"The music of Beethoven is one of the monuments of Western civilization," said Donald Hopkins, associate professor in the School of Music.

Hopkins said Guarneri's appearance at the University is a valuable way to extend the students' knowledge of art and music.

"These quartets are a major achievement of Beethoven," he said.

Beethoven is very difficult to play from a musical point of view, Hopkins said, but it is among the most satisfying music for a quartet to play.

Hopkins said the longevity of the quartet can be attributed to the individual musicians' ability to work with one another and express their own ideas while accepting the other members' ideas.

"It's a big credit to them that they have stayed together this long."

"Chamber music playing requires a strong technical command of the instrument and a command on each individual's part on the musical value of the whole (quartet)," Hopkins said.

The quartet is comprised of Guarneri's members are violinists Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley, violist Michael Tree and cellist David Soyer.

Los Angeles native Steinhardt studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and has won several international awards. He made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the age of 14, and has since appeared with major orchestras.

Dalley is from Madison, Wis. and also debuted at age 14. He was formerly a member of the Oberlin Conservatory and the Oberlin String Quartet in Ohio and has performed worldwide.

Tree was born in Newark, N. J. and began his music studies at the age of five. At the Curtis Institute of Music, he studied under Efrem Zimbalist and others. When he was 20, he performed for the first time at Carnegie Hall.

Soyer, from Philadelphia, won the Youth Competition of the Philadelphia Orchestra and appeared as a soloist under Eugene Ormandy. He studied under Pablo Casals, Dirian Alexanian, and Emanuel Feuermann.

The Guarneri has played more than two thousand recitals, 350 of those in New York City alone. In 1982 they received the New York Seal of Recognition.

Guarneri's 25th Anniversary Concert Series includes recitals in South America and Japan. The quartet will also begin its 27th European tour, its 16th season of "Guarneri and Friends" at Lincoln Center, and its 24th season of performances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They will also perform three recitals at Carnegie Hall.

The members of the quartet are on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the University of Maryland. They received honorary doctorates of music from the University of South Florida in 1976, and from the State University of New York in 1983.

The Guarneri Quartet has also been featured in books such as Quartet by Helen Drees Ruttencutter, and The Art of Quartet Playing: The Guarneri in conversation with David Blum.