Favorite Bartok String Quartets?

Started by Thatfabulousalien, January 13, 2017, 03:02:36 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Which one would you choose?

#1
1 (4.5%)
#2
3 (13.6%)
#3
5 (22.7%)
#4
10 (45.5%)
#5
10 (45.5%)
#6
4 (18.2%)

Total Members Voted: 22

Print
Go Down Pages1
User actions

Thatfabulousalien

January 13, 2017, 03:02:36 PM
I'm just listening to the complete set right now (as I do) and I come to feel they all express different things through their intense and chromatic harmony.

Anyway, each quartet is (if I'm allowed to say) a masterpiece in the SQ genre. So tightly written and so expressive but also because of his signature style, also quite abrasive and heavy when needed.

Which quartet is your favorite?

The first I came in contact with was the third (which I also brought the score straight after), it's one of the tightest constantly pulsating quartets I've heard still.
The 2nd, with it's unforgettable allegro is also hard to get out of my head.

The 4th is a remarkable feat, so well-crafted. I love the 5, the 6th. It's hard to choose, what are your thoughts and favorites?  :D

Sergeant Rock

#1
January 13, 2017, 04:34:17 PM
#3 ...because it's the shortest  ;)

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

North Star

#2
January 13, 2017, 04:48:31 PM
It's been a while since I've heard any of the works, but nos. 4 & 5 have always been the standouts for me - I think those are also the first two I got to know, and that might bias my judgment. Anyway, as you say, all of them are masterpieces. I recall the 6th being perhaps a more subtle work than the 4th and 5th, though - maybe I would prefer that now. I'll be revisiting all six soon...
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

NikF

#3
January 13, 2017, 05:45:59 PM
String Quartet No.4
"You overestimate my power of attraction," he told her. "No, I don't," she replied sharply, "and neither do you".

Todd

#4
January 13, 2017, 05:57:58 PM
4, 6, 3, 5, 2, 1.  Bartok is up their with Haydn and Beethoven and DSCH in this genre.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Dancing Divertimentian

#5
January 13, 2017, 07:19:01 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on January 13, 2017, 04:34:17 PM
#3 ...because it's the shortest  ;)

Sarge

$:)

Bunch 'em all in one listening session, I say... ;D
Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

Mandryka

#6
January 13, 2017, 09:53:16 PM
The more I listen to these things the more I think that the high point is 3.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

The new erato

#7
January 13, 2017, 11:02:40 PM
Quote from: Todd on January 13, 2017, 05:57:58 PM
4, 6, 3, 5, 2, 1.  Bartok is up their with Haydn and Beethoven and DSCH in this genre.
Yes, those are the 4 greats. I voted for 3 & 5, could as well have been no 4. I always had somewhat mixed feelings about no 6.

ComposerOfAvantGarde

#8
January 14, 2017, 02:09:28 AM
I ended up voting 2 and 5 even though they are only two of my four favourites

aligreto

#9
January 14, 2017, 02:28:24 AM
Quote from: Todd on January 13, 2017, 05:57:58 PM
....  Bartok is up their with Haydn and Beethoven and DSCH in this genre.

I have no particular favourite but I would certainly echo Todd's sentiments.

Mandryka

#10
January 14, 2017, 04:47:54 AM
Quote from: The new erato on January 13, 2017, 11:02:40 PM
I always had somewhat mixed feelings about no 6.

I agree with this
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Jo498

#11
January 14, 2017, 04:54:06 AM
4 and 5 are my favorites (and they are probably my favorite 20th century String quartets after Berg's Lyric Suite). Then probably 6. 3 is too tough and dense for me in most interpretations and I never really got into the first two.
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Mahlerian

#12
January 14, 2017, 05:42:50 AM
No. 3, 4, and 5 are the most engrossing, I find, and compete with Schoenberg's and Berg's Quartets as the best of the century.
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

James

#13
January 14, 2017, 06:17:33 AM
SQ 6, the zenith of the cycle, love that mesto "motto", the germ for the entire thing on all levels ..
the work is a beautiful clarification/distillation of what came before, also very inventive and fresh.
The ending gets me every time .. the deepest reaching SQ.
Action is the only truth

SymphonicAddict

#14
January 17, 2017, 04:37:03 PM
4 and 5 are the best. No doubt

(poco) Sforzando

#15
January 18, 2017, 05:49:36 AM
Quote from: Dancing Divertimentian on January 13, 2017, 07:19:01 PM
$:)

Bunch 'em all in one listening session, I say... ;D

The Emerson Quartet has done that on several occasions. My fave: 5.
"I don't know what sforzando means, though it clearly means something."

ComposerOfAvantGarde

#16
January 23, 2017, 05:42:11 PM
I just realised you asked for our singular favourites but gave us the option of voting for two. Why?

amw

#17
January 23, 2017, 08:18:25 PM
If I had to rate them I'd go 3 4 5 2 6 1. Agree that 3 seems to have become more prominent in my estimation over time. (for ages my clear favourite was 4, but evidently not so much at this point, 15 years after I first got to know the cycle)
Print
Go Up Pages1
User actions