The widow of the composer Alban Berg, Helene, attended an early private concert after which she gave her consent for the quartet to use her husband's name.
Their repertoire spanned from Early Classicism, Romanticism, to the Second Viennese School (Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern), Béla Bartók and embraced many contemporary composers.
"[2][3] Following an invitation of Walter Levin (founder of the LaSalle Quartet) the ABQ studied intensively for the better part of a year in the USA.
4), Zbigniew Bargielski ("Les temps ardente"), Luciano Berio ("Notturno"), and Kurt Schwertsik ("Adieu Satie").
The concert in memoriam Thomas Kakuska in the Wiener Konzerthaus' Großer Saal featured a who's-who of classical music, including an orchestra of friends and students of the quartet.
Among them were Angelika Kirchschlager, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Irvine Arditti, Magdalena Kožená, Thomas Quasthoff, Helmut Deutsch, Alois Posch, Heinrich Schiff, and Sir Simon Rattle; the orchestra was conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Beyond recording, the ABQ collaborated regularly with the likes of Maurizio Pollini, András Schiff, and Tabea Zimmermann.