HAGEN: A FAMILY THAT PLAYS TOGETHER

No, insisted Veronika Hagen, she and her two brothers--who are 75% of the Hagen Quartet--do not quibble over hotel beds or whether one gets more solo time in a concert than another.

Actually, said the 22-year-old violist, respect for the music and a burgeoning sense of professionalism have quashed the minor sibling and artistic rivalries that existed when the former soloists started the quartet in 1981.

“We have the good parts of the family spirit working for us now,” said Veronika, the middle Hagen. “But honestly, we just don’t quarrel . . . too much. We respect each other’s need for personal--and musical--space.”

The Austrian quartet, which made its American debut in Los Angeles during the Olympic Arts Festival in 1984, will appear in concert tonight at 8:15 at the Laguna Beach High School Auditorium. The ensemble includes the three Hagens--Veronika, violinist Lukas and cellist Clemens--and violinist Annette Bik. Veronika said the group’s similar views on the works they perform has led to an “agreeable agreement on the way we play music.”

“The thing of it (the quartet) being three-quarters Hagens doesn’t matter so much when you’re playing Mozart or Schubert,” she continued. “When you love the composer and respect the music, you become just musicians trying to bring understanding to the piece.”

The desire to bring audiences to understand and love the works they play has led the Hagen Quartet to include many pieces by contemporary composers in their recitals--but not when they tour America.

“We offered a work by (Soviet composer Alfred) Schnitke as part of our American programs, but no one wanted to hear it, I think,” Veronika said. “In Europe, we program at least one contemporary work each concert: something by (Hungarian composer Gyorgy) Ligeti, (Austrian composer Boris) Blacher or (Austrian composer Anton) Webern, perhaps. It’s very important, to us and to the audience. Americans, I think, are still resisting modern-sounding music. I understand this; it’s difficult to learn to love it. But the more you hear, the more you are loving the music. That’s part of our job: to make sure audiences get to hear this music.”

As proof of their commitment to bathe the relatively unwashed in contemporary music--although the most modern work they brought was by Bartok--the Hagens doubled the length of their North American tour this year, playing for four weeks in such cities as New York, Toronto, San Francisco and Boston and on such college campuses as Stanford, UC Berkeley and Harvard.

Although they enjoy their time in concert on these campuses, teaching as a resident quartet at a university is not on the players’ agendas--not yet, anyway.

“We’re too young to be teaching anybody right now,” Veronika said with a laugh. “I mean, the oldest of us is 24--just the age when you finish your advanced degree. But at least we don’t take lessons any more, though a few of our more grown-up friends give us advice now and again.”

The quartet numbers among those “friends” violinist Gidon Kremer, cellist Heinrich Schiff and most of the Salzburger Mozarteum ensemble, of which the paterfamilias of the Hagen clan is principal violist.

Already the winners of numerous awards and even a couple of commissions (including one from the Austrian Ministry of Culture), the Hagen Quartet clearly has some of its biggest challenges still ahead. Just ahead, as Veronika reminded: “The thing we love doing best is working on the piece of music we have before us. That’s something we never quarrel about, I assure you.”