...please SQs me...

[snyprrr]

I christen thee the great and everlasting STRING QUARTET THREAD.
STRING QUARTET THREAD    STRING QUARTET THREADFrom this day forward you will be the noblest and most enduring thread on GMG, beloved by all, I command it!

Since there is no possible way to pull this off, I will simply list my absolute favorite SQs and hopefully the variety will generate some interest. Of course, some of my favs may be yours too (there ARE masterpieces for a reason, no?), but I would rather have this freewheeling than to degenerate into a Haydn/Mozart/LvB/Bartok fest.
So, here goes:

Beethoven "late quartets" vs. Spohr
Lekeu Molto Adagio~ (Tchai-mvmtBb)
Borodin No.1

(Busoni/Wolf)
Schoenberg No.1 Op.7/String Trio
Webern 6 Bagatelles
Berg Op.3

Debussy/Ravel

Sibelius Voces Intimae

Haas 1-2
Janacek 1-2
Schullhoff 1-2
Hindemith in Eb 5-6
Szymanowski 1-2
Prokofiev 1-2

Rainier
Bartok 3
Villa-Lobos 5
Bloch 1
Linde

(Frank Martin (1967))

Shostakovich (4-5), (6), 7*, (9), 11*, (12-14), 15*
Britten 3

Carter 1
Sessions 2
Babbitt 3-4
Hiller 6...(at this point,anyone with a "6" or "7"!)

Boulez Livre pour quatour

Berio Sincronie, Notturno, Glossa
Ligeti 2

Holliger (1973)

Dutilleux Ainsi la Nuit

Haubenstock-Ramati in memoriam kristi zimerl
Halffter 3
Nono Fragment-Stille. An Diotima
Xenakis Tetras
Sciarrino 6 quartetti brevi
all Ruzicka
Zorn Dean Man, ...memento mori...
Estrada ishi ioni

Henze 4-5
Schnittke 4
Rihm 3-8

Dillon 2
Hersant 2?
Boucourechliev 3
Grosskopf 1
Nishimura 3 Avian
Norgard 10

Harrison String Quartet Set
Glass 5
Nyman 1
Feldman 1
Saariaho Nymphea w/electronics

I certainly haven't heard it all. We'll see how it goes. I might have to modify later. But remember, this is the world famous STRING QUARTET THREAD, where we're always looking for another hidden masterpiece!

[karlhenning]

Hindemith string quartets are quite a serious gap in my listening yet.

[snyprrr]

Hindemith SQs seperate nicely into 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 (not counting No0-5-6 are the ones I referred to).

Krenek, also!

Toch, Wellesz, Weigl, Zeisl, Hartmann, Schmidt, Eisler, and Weill round out the top 10 German-ish composers of SQs during the war years.

Pfitzner gets special mention, too, for his valedectory No.3.

[Guido]

You appear to be missing the Goldschmidt quartets, of which the second is the finest piece that was composed in 1936 (how's that for a controversial statement!). The third and fourth are also very fine.

[The new erato]

Recording info for the more obscure stuff would be appreciated as I'm a string quartet slut myself (having just ordered the Boris Tchaikovsky from Northern Flowers and Lars-Erik Larsson from Dapbne). What about that Bo Linde for instance?

[snyprrr]

Linde is in storage. I believe it's a Caprice, but it comes with Wiren 3&4 and Bortz No.3. All the composers have different performers, the Wiren being the great Fresk Quartet (of which I have their Sibelius/Sallinen, and some of the Rosenberg box). The Wiren No.3 is a gem of a "Swedish" quartet, somewhat like Villa-Lobos' No.5. The Linde is one of the most inevitable things I've ever heard. Perfection.

My collection isn't handy, but I'll answer as I can.

[Sergeant Rock]

It's good to see Bloch 1 on your list.

Sarge

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Martinu.

Haas.

Zemlinsky.

Mozart.

Brahms.

[karlhenning]

It's good to see Bloch 1 on your list.

Sarge

On the lines of a musician's musician, that string quartet may well be writer's Bloch.

[snyprrr]

Guido-(or anyone)
I was checking Goldschmidt, the Largo cds and the Decca. It seems all 4 SQs are available, and cheap. Which might be the absolute best one to try out?

Best of '36 IS saying something bold!

[Guido]

Guido-(or anyone)
I was checking Goldschmidt, the Largo cds and the Decca. It seems all 4 SQs are available, and cheap. Which might be the absolute best one to try out?

Best of '36 IS saying something bold!

No.2 first definitely - I adore it - especially the amazing Passacaglia slow movement. Being a jew, he had to leave Germany in the 1935, and this was the first piece he wrote when coming to England. He had had a great career as an emerging composer in Germany but was subsequently almost completely ignored in England, until the 80s when his music was rediscovered by Simon Rattle and others, and luckily the by now very old composer was able to witness his music's renaissance and he began to compose again after a 25 year hiatus. He died in 1996 after Yo-Yo Ma played his cello concerto in New York and both his operas had been staged - it is wonderful and moving for me to see his work recognised before he died - so many composers didn't have this luxury. String quartet no.3 and 4 date from this late period, his style having changed little since the 50s, so was outdated, but the quality remains. His chamber masterpiece is certainly the second quartet, but these later two are also mighty fine. This is tough, contrapuntal music, but it is tonal and under all the barb lies a romantic core and harmony which occassionally pokes through like glorious islands of light.

As to the claim of it being "the best of 1936", it's actually not my claim, but Norman Lebrecht's who brefriended the composer in his later years. Just out of interest, what other great compositions were written in 1936?

[Lethevich]

As to the claim of it being "the best of 1936", it's actually not my claim, but Norman Lebrecht's who brefriended the composer in his later years. Just out of interest, what other great compositions were written in 1936?

Sorry to butt in - Wikipedia is useful for such questions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_in_music#Classical_music

[Guido]

Sorry to butt in - Wikipedia is useful for such questions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_in_music#Classical_music

I tried to find an article like that, but couldn't locate one. Cheers! On that list the only works I like as much as the Goldschmidt is Shostakovich's Symphony no.4 and Barber's Symphony no.1 (and the adagio for strings op.11!). Oh and the Prokovief pieces. I think it deserves to be be mentioned in the same breath in its more modest way. It's a fantastic score.

[Maciek]

Nice thread. Nice thread title too.

Some of my favorites not on your list are:
Bryars 2
Gorecki 2
Pawel Szymanski 5 pieces
Pawel Szymanski 2 pieces

I'm sure I'm forgetting something...

Never heard Nyman 1. I have 2, 3 and 4. Wouldn't recommend them to anyone. But Nyman is a hit and miss composer for me - who knows, maybe SQ 1 is the 1 I'm looking for... 0:)

[Guido]

Nice thread. Nice thread title too.

Some of my favorites not on your list are:
Bryars 2
Gorecki 2
Pawel Szymanski 5 pieces
Pawel Szymanski 2 pieces

I'm sure I'm forgetting something...

Never heard Nyman 1. I have 2, 3 and 4. Wouldn't recommend them to anyone. But Nyman is a hit and miss composer for me - who knows, maybe SQ 1 is the 1 I'm looking for... 0:)

haven't heard any of 'em. The Bryars especially intrigues me... What's the Gorecki like?

[The new erato]

I tried to find an article like that, but couldn't locate one. Cheers! On that list the only works I like as much as the Goldschmidt is Shostakovich's Symphony no.4 and Barber's Symphony no.1 (and the adagio for strings op.11!). Oh and the Prokovief pieces. I think it deserves to be be mentioned in the same breath in its more modest way. It's a fantastic score.

And by all means; don't forget stuff like "A Fine Romance" by Fred Astaire - I'm a sucker for stuff like that.

[snyprrr]

Thanks all for indulging my deliciousness...

1936:

Bax 3
Cowell 3-4
Honegger 2-3
Krenek 6                ...spirit of Berg...
Schoenberg 4
Zemlinsky 4
Maconchy 2
Sessions 1

Just for starters that's pretty good competition (that's almost like someone's own Top10!!!), but keep in mind that Bartok, Bridge, Webern, and many others, would put their final SQ thoughts on paper all before @1939. ALL the heavy duty SQs came out of this period.

Special Honors to Sessions 1, which I didn't expect to draw me in with its morbid expressionism. Reminds me of Pettersson's Cto1 for Violin and SQ.I love that piece;many others don't.

haven't heard any of 'em. The Bryars especially intrigues me... What's the Gorecki like?

I'd like to, if I may. Nyman 1 IS the one Maciek...yup, recommended by no less than the Arditti's rep. list. I'll be honest: can't stand Nyman or Glass, but Kronos Plays Philip Glass is just one of my fav cds period, and when I grudgingly got the Nyman, I was really really surprised by SQ1. It's minimalism is that early rough and gruff kind, totally fake but totally convincing, like an SQ "Sgt. Pepper". Nyman 2 sounds like a raga; SQ3 more conventionally soundtrackish.

The only reason I got the Nyman was to keep Bryars company. I have the Balanescu SQ/Argo on both, plus Volans. This is the triumv...how do you say?...of "British" minimalism.

Bryars usually starts off mellow, then the minimal rythmn thing comes in until the end, which goes back to the top mellow. Bryars SQs 1-2 are the best of this kind of stuff. All 3 composers make a great retrospective.

Szymanski 5 Pieces were on Brodsky SQ's "Lament"? What are they like?


Guido (or Maciek), I don't know if you want to hear my opinion of Gorecki's SQs, any of them, I'm sorry, but I have to just say it:

The discordant, simple Bartokian grinding on the repetitve Shostakovich like rythmns, the really long slow movements with repetitive melodies...I'm sorry, I can barely take SQ1 (@15min), but 2-3,... 3 lasting 50min. Please tell me his melodies aren't rudimentary. In No.3's first slow mvmt, please tell me you hear "Hark the Herald Angel Sing." When I first made myself listen through all 50 min. of No.3 (same length as Schoenberg and Bloch's masterpieces), I was angry at Gorecki, an unexplainable feeling of being cheated by the composer who wooed me with Sym3. To me, they ALL sound like Shostakovich SQ8, musically one of my least fav SQs ever. Seriously.
I wish I could point to an SQ, and say, here, look, this composer did it the right way; but, is Gorecki really just slumming Shosty, or am I missing masterpiece theater? Gorecki's SQ's make me feel judgmental and uncomfortable discussing with fans onboard, but I can't deny my reaction. Please, someone put me straight.

[snyprrr]

Maciek, do you have a Top10 of obscure Polish SQs (no Pender,Luto, Bacew). And why not Bacewicz SQ4 on your list? I know you have the Zielinski (is that right?).

[snyprrr]

Please read my virgin listening review of Pijper's SQs 1-5 on the Dutch Composers thread.

[Maciek]

Szymanski's 5 pieces if definitely a neglected late 20th century masterpiece, no doubt about it. The playing on Lament is a bit saccharine but very fine nonetheless (it may be the other pieces on that disc that make me perceive it that way). There's another one on EMI (EMI Poland, to be exact), played by the Silesians, perhaps a bit more "intellectual". I prefer the latter but it's probably a matter of taste.

Actually, as far as Bacewicz is concerned, the 7th is my favorite. But I really like all the ones I've heard. I think it's Adrian Thomas who says that from no. 3 on her cycle is one of the most substantial 20th century quartet cycles written by a composer other than Bartok.

Interesting what you say about Gorecki and Shostakovich, though I don't really hear it that way. To me, Gorecki is very firmly rooted in the 1950s avantgarde - he just takes a step in a very different direction to all the others. But what he does is in a way a consequence of avantgarde thinking (which was, in some respects, very minimalistic). And yes, the melodies are rudimentary, that's part of the point. Have you heard any of his avantgarde-period music? That may make it easier to understand what he's doing. I usually don't really think of Gorecki's melodies as melodies but rather as sort formal building blocks. The music is stripped down to the bare, "formal" essentials. It's a sort of (deliberately) "empty" (or "emptied") form. Though perhaps in some piece (and that would include the 3rd quartet) melody does come into it, at least a bit. But then that's where I start to like it a bit less. I don't know, maybe to appreciate the Gorecki quartets you need to know the music he is quoting? Waclaw of Szamotuly, gorale folk music, Szymanowski etc. Though I can see Szymanowski is on your list, so it's probably not helping. Or maybe you're listening to the wrong performance? The old Silesians recording on Olympia is unsurpassable (only includes nos 1 and 2) but I don't think Kronos do a bad job, so it's probably not that either. Odd, though, that you enjoy Glass and Bryars, whose quartets are very similar to Gorecki's 3rd, I think, even if they arrived there from a completely different direction. Oh, well, there are lots of people around who don't like Gorecki, I think the fans (including myself) can easily live with that. (BTW, do you know the 2nd Symphony or the Harpsichord Cto?)