Your favorite string quartet cycle/s

[Daverz]

I do no think the Brahms' quartets are considered inferior. It's only that there are comparably few for a "cycle" (reputedly he destroyed a dozen? early quartets/attempts) and they might not be quite as accessible as some other Brahms chamber music, so they don't tend to be among the favorites among Brahms's chamber music (as compared to e.g. Beethoven where the other chamber music is dwarved by the quartets).

Yes, inferior was probably the wrong word.  It just seems that every liner note I've ever read seems to feel the need to apologize for these works in some way.

[NJ Joe]

Beethoven, Bartok
Haydn, Mozart, Shostakovich
Carter, Schubert

[schnittkease]

12 favorites of mine. Cycles that have not been discussed yet are bolded.

Bloch
Dvořák
Ferneyhough
Holmboe
Janáček
Milhaud
Myaskovsky
Shebalin
Shostakovich
Toch
Villa-Lobos
Wellesz

[Madiel]

12 favorites of mine. Cycles that have not been discussed yet are bolded.

Bloch
Dvořák
Ferneyhough
Holmboe
Janáček
Milhaud
Myaskovsky
Shebalin
Shostakovich
Toch
Villa-Lobos
Wellesz

Very interesting list.

[Mirror Image]

In no particular order:

Janáček
Bartók
Shostakovich
Ives
Szymanowski
Schoenberg
Berg (I'm cheating as I'm including the Lyric Suite)

[vandermolen]

Bartok
Hindemith
Schoenberg
Carter
Diamond
Villa-Lobos
Malipiero

I forgot to mention Malipiero and totally agree.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Martinu
Beethoven
Mozart (post-youth)
Bartok
Britten
Brahms
Shostakovich
Prokofiev
Janacek
Schoenberg
Dvorak

(What I wouldn't give for another one from Debussy & Ravel)

I should probably hear Schnittke's others.

Oops...Schubert!