12 great string quartets????

[ChamberNut]

Interesting book title;  perchance do you mean Melvin Berger  ...

http://www.amazon.ca/Guide-Chamber-Music-Melvin-Berger/dp/0486418790/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197061068&sr=1-3

Oops!  Yes, I meant Melvin.  Thanks for the correction, Feanor. 

[ChamberNut]

I don't listen to String Quartets much (I like piano in chamber music => Piano Trios, Piano Quartets and Piano Quintets).

Oh yes, so do I!  I enjoy piano and strings just as much as string quartets.  There are so many wonderful compositions in the above 3 categories you mentioned! 

[Don]

Ravel's in F Major??? I am stunned it hasn't been mentioned.
Mozart's "The Hunt"

Not quite a quartet but it came on a "string quartets" cd.

Mendelssohn's Octet in E flat Major

Just call it a Double Quartet.

[Valentino]

Keep 'em coming, Valentino   

I didn't really know about the G-major until recently. I hasn't got a name, like the Rosamunde, Death and the Maiden and Quartettsatz, so that's it was below my radar I guess. I picked up the Hagen Quartett recording at Arkiv Music since it's OOP at DG, and what can I say? 50 minutes of sheer emotional rollercoaster, even more so than the C-major quintet. D. 887 must be my big musical discovery this autumn.

[Fëanor]

I didn't really know about the G-major until recently. I hasn't got a name, like the Rosamunde, Death and the Maiden and Quartettsatz, so that's it was below my radar I guess. I picked up the Hagen Quartett recording at Arkiv Music since it's OOP at DG, and what can I say? 50 minutes of sheer emotional rollercoaster, even more so than the C-major quintet. D. 887 must be my big musical discovery this autumn.

Well, on that basis I'll have to get a copy of D. 887 -- don't have one a the moment.  Apparently is was the last string quartet that Schubert wrote.

[hippydippy]

Here's 12 I like

Maxwell Davis No. 5
Sculthorne No. 10
Glass No. 5
Nancarrow No. 1
Firsova No. 4
Bridge No. 4
Schubert No. 14
Sibelius No. 2
Corigliano No. 1
Janacek No. 2
Beamish No. 2
Leifs No. 2

[greg]

i won't give a list since i still need to hear more in this genre....
but my favorites are Bartok's (esp. 3, 4, 5), Shostakovich (13 maybe my fav), Crumb's Black Angels and Berg's Lyric Suite 


maybe that was a list 

[Fëanor]

Here's 12 I like

Maxwell Davis No. 5
Sculthorne No. 10
Glass No. 5
Nancarrow No. 1
Firsova No. 4
Bridge No. 4
Schubert No. 14
Sibelius No. 2
Corigliano No. 1
Janacek No. 2
Beamish No. 2
Leifs No. 2

Thanks indeed.  Now that's a "different" list.  Only a couple here that I've heard, actually.  My work is cut out.

[Kullervo]

Bridge No. 4

Great!

[Brahmsian]

I'm bumping this.

[Opus106]

I'm bumping this.

In a hurry, people could wrongly read an H in the place of the B.

Obligatory: You know, just sayin'...

[Brahmsian]

In a hurry, people could wrongly read an H in the place of the B.

Obligatory: You know, just sayin'...

I do love string quartets!!! 

........but not that much. 



Snyprrr, on the other hand........

[Valentino]

Beethoven op. 95. Can't get enough of it. Hagen Quartett is the obvious choice.

Shares disk with D. 887. A cracker.

[Fëanor]

I'm bumping this.

Thanks for the bump, Ray.

It's hard to get too much string quartet.  Tonight's listening:

= Alfred Schnittke: String Quartet No. 2 ~ Kronos Quartet
= Brian Ferneyhough: Fourth String Quartet ~ Arditti String Quartet; Brenda Mitchell (vocal)
= Wolfgang Rihm: String Quartet No. 5 ~ DoelenKwartet

Of these I think maybe I most enjoyed the Rihm this evening.

[Brahmsian]

Thanks for the bump, Ray.

It's hard to get too much string quartet.  Tonight's listening:

= Alfred Schnittke: String Quartet No. 2 ~ Kronos Quartet
= Brian Ferneyhough: Fourth String Quartet ~ Arditti String Quartet; Brenda Mitchell (vocal)
= Wolfgang Rihm: String Quartet No. 5 ~ DoelenKwartet

Of these I think maybe I most enjoyed the Rihm this evening.

I thought it would be fun, since a lot has changed and expanded in two years since I had posted two years ago.

I haven't heard Schnittke's quartets.  Only his incredibly eerie Piano Quintet.

[Spotswood]

No one has mentioned Brahms no. 3, one of my favorites. The thing about Brahms is that he wrote no more than three cahmber pieces in any one combination, so there's no one type of chamber music that dominated his output, the way the striong quartet dominated that of Haydn or Beethoven.

Carter has been mentioned (glad to see he appears on so many lists), so i'll just add the Ives No. 2. A terrrific work.

[Guido]

my favourites:
Goldschmidt 2nd (and the 3rd and 4th are v good too).
Ives 2
Crawford Seeger
Ades
Dutilleux
Jancek's two contributions
Faure
Szymanowski

[Guido]

And obviously all the famous greats too - Dvorak's last 2, Beethoven's late works, the last few by Schubert, Haydn's etc. etc.

[Fëanor]

my favourites:
Goldschmidt 2nd (and the 3rd and 4th are v good too).
Ives 2
Crawford Seeger
Ades
Dutilleux
Jancek's two contributions
Faure
Szymanowski

Thanks.  Interesting list.  I haven't heard anything by Goldschmidt or Seeger.  Nor have I heard string quartets by Ades or Faure, though I've heard some other chamber works by the two.

I must give Ives another go:  he's a composer I just haven't warmed up to.

[abidoful]

I love QTts!!
here it is;
1. Beethoven op. 127 (great, just great...)
2. Schubert last in G (late Schubert.... love it)
3. Schumann 1st in A (cute)
4. Tchaikovsky 3 in e flat minor (love it)
5. Franck (aaahhhh....)
6. Grieg (coolest quartet ever)
7. Melartin 2nd in g (neat and moving)
8. Faure (nostalgic)
9. Sibelius "Voces intimae" (POOOOOWWWWERRR!!!!!!!)
10. Väinö Raitio (precious, interesting, elusive)
11. Schönberg 1st op.7 (one of greatest quartets)
12. Berg op.3 (coool)