What ones are your personal favorite string quartet cycles? :)
Haydn
Beethoven
Villa Lobos
Shostakovich
Carter
Ligeti, if his works qualify as a full cycle.
Bartok
Beethoven
Carter
Haydn
Mozart
Schoenberg
Among individual contributions, Berg, Boulez, Debussy, Ravel, and Webern stand out.
Haydn
Beethoven
Shostakovich
Bartok
Janacek
Prokofiev
Ligeti
Martinu
Dvorak
Bacewicz
Bartok
Beethoven
Haydn
Shostakovich
Villa Lobos
I can narrow it down to the following:
Ligeti
Bartók
Coates
Schoenberg
Sculthorpe
Nishimura
Beethoven
Prokofiev
Mozart
Ferneyhough
Carter
Schnittke
Shostakovich
Gubaidulina
Rihm
Sciarrino
Bloch
Miaskovsky
Shostakovich
Plus the two by Vaughan Williams
Beethoven
Haydn
Bartok
Shostakovich
Mozart (despite 11 early pieces, the mature 10 are good enough to rank highly)
Mendelssohn
Schumann
Brahms
Schubert
Dvorak (Dvorak's and Schubert's early quartets are often forgettable but both wrote at least 3 very good or even great quartets, so they deserve to be named if Brahms and Schumann are)
I hesitate to call less than 3 pieces a "cycle", otherwise I'd nominate Berg as well. Still not sufficiently familiar with Zemlinsky, Schoenberg... to rate them.
Quote from: Mahlerian on February 01, 2017, 06:25:31 PM
Bartok
Beethoven
Carter
Haydn
Mozart
Schoenberg
Good list.
I'll add Ferneyhough, Schumann, Xenakis and Dvořák. Maybe also Hindemith.
The two that would come on top of any list I might make would be Shostakovich and Bartok.
Leaving aside the big names
Dittersdorf
Boccherini
Arriaga
Spohr
Donizetti
Hugo Wolf's only SQ
And if we stretch the notion of strings to include guitar (which is not much of a stretch, actually), Paganini''s 15 quartets for guitar and strings
Haydn (although I still have quite a few to explore)
Beethoven
Schoenberg
Enesco (if only 2 can be considered a "cycle")
Carter
Cristóbal Halffter
Quote from: jessop on February 01, 2017, 07:29:14 PM
I can narrow it down to the following:
Ligeti
Bartók
Coates
Schoenberg
Sculthorpe
Nishimura
Beethoven
Prokofiev
Mozart
Ferneyhough
Carter
Schnittke
Shostakovich
Gubaidulina
Rihm
Sciarrino
I should also add Xenakis as I feel his string quartets are some of the most original works for string quartet of the latter half of the 20th century, and also they are some of his most beautiful compositions.
Also, having only heard about two or three string quartets by Ben Johnston in the past, I feel I should probably explore them more. I am listening to number 7 right now and it's really good fun! ^_^
Not mentioned enough:
Mendelssohn (6)
Janacek (2)
Schubert (Nos 12 through 15 constitute his cycle of mature quartets)
Schnittke (4)
Martinu (7)
Not mentioned at all:
Gorecki (3)
Szymanowski (2)
Glass (5, although No. 6 & No. 7 haven't been recorded)
Tchaikovsky (3)
Reich (I'm thinking of Different Trains and Triple Quartet)
Riley (there must be over a dozen of these)
Smetana (2)
Quote from: aesthetic on February 02, 2017, 02:16:00 AM
Not mentioned enough:
Mendelssohn (6)
Ah, yes I agree actually. I love these works but honestly I am not really familiar with the last
four of them as I am very familiar with the first two.
I am definitely going to add Schumann to my list of favourites as those quartets are, for me, some of the most enjoyable string quartets any Romantic era composer has composed.
Haydn
Mozart
Beethoven
Brahms
Dvorak
Janacek (if 2 counts as a cycle)
Prokofiev
Bartók
Shostakovich
Britten
Schnittke
Xenakis
Carter
Quote from: jessop on February 01, 2017, 07:29:14 PM
I can narrow it down to the following:
Ligeti
Bartók
Coates
Schoenberg
Sculthorpe
Nishimura
Beethoven
Prokofiev
Mozart
Ferneyhough
Carter
Schnittke
Shostakovich
Gubaidulina
Rihm
Sciarrino
Xenakis
Lachenmann? Dusapin? Scelsi? Hosokawa? You know it's not that easy :)
Haydn
Beethoven
Bartók
Nielsen
Shostakovich
Britten
Carter
Wuorinen
Bartók 6 is the only "cycle" I care about.
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on February 02, 2017, 06:30:29 AM
Haydn
Beethoven
Bartók
Nielsen
Shostakovich
Britten
Carter
Wuorinen
Well, and
Schoenberg, of course.
Quote from: Jo498 on February 01, 2017, 11:03:27 PM
Dvorak (Dvorak's and Schubert's early quartets are often forgettable but both wrote at least 3 very good or even great quartets, so they deserve to be named if Brahms and
Dvorak certainly wrote more than three great ones.
Quote from: amw on February 01, 2017, 11:41:05 PM
Good list.
I'll add Ferneyhough, Schumann, Xenakis and Dvořák. Maybe also Hindemith.
I'm not as familiar with any of those cycles as with the ones on my list, though I have really liked what I've heard of Hindemith and Schumann.
Quote from: Todd on February 02, 2017, 08:04:44 AM
Dvorak certainly wrote more than three great ones.
Certainly not certainly. I actually think he wrote only two really great ones (the last two) and another three or four pretty good ones. But there is also a half dozen meandering and fairly boring early works so that as a cycle or corpus I cannot rate it all that highly.
Quote from: Jo498 on February 02, 2017, 09:09:34 AMCertainly not certainly. I actually think he wrote only two really great ones (the last two) and another three or four pretty good ones. But there is also a half dozen meandering and fairly boring early works so that as a cycle or corpus I cannot rate it all that highly.
Agree that the earliest ones are not the best, but from the Ninth on, I would characterize them all as great works, though not late-LvB quality, or something like that.
Yeah I would definitely put 10, 11, 13, 14 up there with the best quartets between Beethoven and Bartók, and probably also 9 and 12 and the Cypresses as well. The rest are a bit meh but still worth hearing once in a while.
Quote from: nathanb on February 02, 2017, 06:12:41 AM
Lachenmann? Dusapin? Scelsi? Hosokawa? You know it's not that easy :)
Siiiiiiigh you're right. I don't have the best memory for music i really like.....
Updated list to fit in some others I love and to eliminate some which I don't love as much
Ligeti
Bartók
Coates
Schoenberg
Sculthorpe
Nishimura
Beethoven
Hosokawa
Scelsi
Ferneyhough
Carter
Schnittke
Shostakovich
Gubaidulina
Rihm
Sciarrino
Dillon
Schumann
And Ben Johnston will soon be joining this list I think
Siiiiiiiigh I have not ended up with a final list yet BUT I will try again and this time I will actually see if I can narrow it down any more.........
Ligeti
Bartók
Coates
Schoenberg
Nishimura
Beethoven
Hosokawa
Scelsi
Ferneyhough
Xenakis
Carter
Schnittke
Shostakovich
Gubaidulina
Schumann
Birtwistle
Lachenmann
Johnston
I think I am finally happy with my choices
I would very much like to hear the Diamond cycle, but they are so darn expensive.....
Those I listen to more often are:
Mozart
Beethoven
Schubert
Janáček
Schoenberg
Bartók
Carter
Beethoven
Haydn (what I have so far, still plenty to go)
Dvorak from 7 onwards
Shostakovich
Holmboe
Bartok (new discovery, and very good indeed)
Vine
I have Mozart's last 10 but I don't feel I know them well enough yet. I'm pretty sure I like Brahms and Schumann quite a bit, but again feel I'm still getting to know them.
Schubert's last 3 are great.
Various other 1s and 2s aren't what come to mind for "cycles".
Carl Vine's are very good indeed. And I agree that 2 Quartets are stretching te cycle concept quite a bit.
Hanging my head (just a little) in disgrace, I must thank Jeffrey and ørfeo for reminding me of the Villa-Lobos & Holmboe cycles, respectively.
Quote from: The new erato on February 03, 2017, 04:34:06 AM
[...] And I agree that 2 Quartets are stretching the cycle concept quite a bit.
+1
Quote from: The new erato on February 03, 2017, 04:34:06 AM
Carl Vine's are very good indeed.
SQ no.6 will premiere in August this year.
Beethoven (no doubt)
Shostakovich
Bartók
Hindemith
Schubert
Mendelssohn
Dvorák
Taneyev
Borodin
I'm a fan of Brahms, bit his string quartets are the weakest in his chamber output
Beethoven
Haydn Op 50
Bartok
David Post
Bloch
Schumann
Mozart Haydn and Prussian Quartets
Dvorak late quartets
Janacek
Smetana
I know the Brahms quartets are supposed to inferior, but I can never remember why, so I enjoy them anyway.
Oh, and David Diamond's quartets are great. I got them on sale. :D
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).
Bartok
Hindemith
Schoenberg
Carter
Diamond
Villa-Lobos
Malipiero
Quote from: Jo498 on February 08, 2017, 11:26:10 PM
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.
Beethoven, Bartok
Haydn, Mozart, Shostakovich
Carter, Schubert
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
Quote from: schnittkease on March 25, 2017, 07:52:58 PM
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.
In no particular order:
Janáček
Bartók
Shostakovich
Ives
Szymanowski
Schoenberg
Berg (I'm cheating as I'm including the Lyric Suite)
Quote from: Rons_talking on February 09, 2017, 10:41:51 AM
Bartok
Hindemith
Schoenberg
Carter
Diamond
Villa-Lobos
Malipiero
I forgot to mention Malipiero and totally agree.
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!