The Juilliard Quartet is the house band of the Juilliard School of Music in New York. It was founded in 1946 by instigation of the school president William Schuman and first violinist Robert Mann (the grinning man left on the cover). Mann kept that position until his retirement 50 years later. When this recording was made in 1983, they already made around 100 recordings and played more than 500 different compositions. They were also the first to record the complete cycle of Bartók and Schönberg quartets.
Having said that, numerous personnel changes happened, with the only constant factor mister grinning man earlier mentioned. This is then the first, third, second and third generation of players for each of the instruments. That makes it not easy to find the right recording on Spotify, and I did not succeed. It is a bit like in jazz: the name of the ensemble might be the same, but who is actually playing?
This is not the first recording I write about of the illustrious quartet in one form or another. I also wrote about the Budapest Quartet, in some ways their forerunner. I should also mention the influence they have on others, like the Tokyo String Quartet and the Emerson String Quartet who were all taught by the members of the Juilliard.