Got favorite STRING QUARTETS ? ?

Feanor

Feanor

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OK, the string quartet is a sub-genre of classical music: does that make my question esoteric? I think we have already established that high-end system owners, (not that I'm one of those), DO NOT particularly gravitate to classical. Much less so, no doubt, to the string quartet, but it happens to be one that I listen to more than any other single classical form.

For those who care, "invention" of the string quartet is attributed to the great Classical Era composer, Franz Joseph Haydn. Those who care probably already know that a string quartet is comprised of two violins (1st & 2nd), one viola, and one cello. Any other combo isn't a string quartet although there are a smattering of 20th century SQ's that include a additional vocal part.

Enough background already. I'm always glad to get recommendations for string quartets that I might not have heard, or might not have paid sufficient attention to heretofore.

The following are 20 of my favorite quartets, (by no means an exhaustive list but a few that come readily to mind); I hope those "in the know" will recognize a fair diversity of eras and styles here:

  1. William Alwyn: No. 3
  2. Malcolm Arnold: No. 2
  3. Béla Bartók: No. 4
  4. Ludwig van Beethoven: C-sharp minor, Op.131
  5. Alban Berg: Lyric Suite for String Quartet
  6. Alexander Borodin: No. 2
  7. Benjamin Britten: No. 3, Op.94
  8. Elliott Carter: No. 1
  9. George Crumb: "Black Angels"; (opps! the main emsemble is a string quartet but there are other sound producers).
  10. Claude Debussy: Op.10 in G
  11. Henri Dutilleux: "Ainsi la nuit"
  12. Antonín Dvorák: No. 12, Op.96, "American"
  13. Franz Joseph Haydn: D major "Largo", Op.76/5, H.3/79
  14. Leoš Janácek: No. 1 "Kreutzer Sonata"
  15. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: C major, K.465 "Dissonance"
  16. Maurice Ravel: in F
  17. Arnold Schoenberg: No. 4, Op.37
  18. Franz Schubert: No. 14 in D "Death and Maiden"
  19. Dmitri Shostakovich: No. 8
  20. Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: No. 3 in E flat minor, Op.30

I could just as easily have included a different Bartok, Beethoven, Janacek, or Shostakovich than the particular one listed.
 
A big thumbs up on this post Bill, as much as I like quartets I have to admit my lack of knowledge in that field of orchestral music. So thank you very much and keep on posting.
 
I really like this series of Vox Haydn box sets but only have two of them. I just grabbed this picture from an eBay listing as I don't have my camera handy. Would love to have all ten from this series myself.

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RedSectorA said:
A big thumbs up on this post Bill, as much as I like quartets I have to admit my lack of knowledge in that field of orchestral music. So thank you very much and keep on posting.
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Thanks for your kind remarks. The string quartet has a very large repertoire well worth investigating.
 
MikeCh said:
I really like this series of Vox Haydn box sets but only have two of them. I just grabbed this picture from an eBay listing as I don't have my camera handy. Would love to have all ten from this series myself.
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Haydn wrote a lot of quartets. :happy: I certainly haven't heard them all much less own them. Probably his best know sets are Opus 20, Opus 33, and especially Opus 76.
 
I own the Kodaly Quartets collection of Haydn's entire String Quartet works...fantastic. Also have Haydn's entire symphonies by Adam Fischer, along with select symphonies by Furtwangler, and several others where specifically recommended (by sources like Penguin).

Big big fan of Haydn, Handel and Bach. I have tried to get nearly everything they ever composed that I could get my hands on.
 
LL21 said:
I own the Kodaly Quartets collection of Haydn's entire String Quartet works...fantastic. Also have Haydn's entire symphonies by Adam Fischer, along with select symphonies by Furtwangler, and several others where specifically recommended (by sources like Penguin).

Big big fan of Haydn, Handel and Bach. I have tried to get nearly everything they ever composed that I could get my hands on.
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I have some of the Kodaly Quartet's Haydn quartets, including all of Opus 20, the so-called "Sun" quartets. Also, I have some but not all of Haydn's symphonies by Fischer and the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra -- very nice.

Do you like the choral music of Haydn, Handel, and/or Bach? I have most of the Bach cantatas by recorded by Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan -- very nice -- plus some versions by other conductors.

If you like Handel operas and oratorios you might check out the Classical Music Mayhem site, HERE. The big honcho there, Rod Corkin, is a Handel fanatic and has all these works in multiple versions.
 
Feanor said:
I have some of the Kodaly Quartet's Haydn quartets, including all of Opus 20, the so-called "Sun" quartets. Also, I have some but not all of Haydn's symphonies by Fischer and the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra -- very nice.

Do you like the choral music of Haydn, Handel, and/or Bach? I have most of the Bach cantatas by recorded by Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan -- very nice -- plus some versions by other conductors.

If you like Handel operas and oratorios you might check out the Classical Music Mayhem site, HERE. The big honcho there, Rod Corkin, is a Handel fanatic and has all these works in multiple versions.
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Thanks!! I have finally gotten all of the Suzuki Bach Cantatas...all 2nd hand and all for the price of just 1 of the 4 boxed sets which normally are super-expensive...but it took me nearly 2 years to find the last box which literally arrived this week!!! I have all/nearly all of the various choral pieces by Handel and Bach, and Haydn as well. I will check out Mayhem...thanks!
 
I love listening to string quartets. I probably have all you listed, but I am partial to the more modern style such as Shostakovich, Berg, Carter, Coates, etc.
 
BlueFox said:
I love listening to string quartets. I probably have all you listed, but I am partial to the more modern style such as Shostakovich, Berg, Carter, Coates, etc.
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All good ... well, I've got to work on the Coates a bit. I've got her Nos. 1, 5 and 6 by the Kreutzer Quartet but I've only listened 2-3 times.

I love Shostakovich's SQs (as you can imagine). I have only two complete sets, Eder and Fitzwilliam, and samplings of others; I think I slightly prefer the Fitzwilliam.

Carter is another favorite -- he's probably the greatest American composer, perhaps of all time, certainly of the latter half of the 20th century. I have all five SQs played by the Pacifica Quartet and the first four by the Arditti, (which were recorded before the 5th was composed); it's hard to say which of the two I prefer.

By the way, any thoughts on the SQs by Ferneyhough, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Maxwell Davies, Rihm, and/or Schnittke?
 
Feanor said:
All good ... well, I've got to work on the Coates a bit. I've got her Nos. 1, 5 and 6 by the Kreutzer Quartet but I've only listened 2-3 times.

I love Shostakovich's SQs (as you can imagine). I have only two complete sets, Eder and Fitzwilliam, and samplings of others; I think I slightly prefer the Fitzwilliam.

By the way, any thoughts on the SQs by Ferneyhough, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Maxwell Davies, Rihm, and/or Schnittke?
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I have the Fitzwilliam set. In fact, that was my exposure to Shostakovich, and I loved it. That is when I started looking for similar style in SQs. I also have the complete Shostakovich SQ set on SACD by the Mandlering Quartet. Also very nice.

I do have Ligeti, but I need to check Amazon for the others. I love how Amazon will flag that a CD has already been purchased. Otherwise I would buy the same CD every year or so.
 
BlueFox said:
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I do have Ligeti, but I need to check Amazon for the others. I love how Amazon will flag that a CD has already been purchased. Otherwise I would buy the same CD every year or so.
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I've bought multiple copies inadvertently: it's annoying. Nowadays it isn't quite the problem it once was because my whole collection is ripped to computer and It's relatively easily review what I've got before buying new stuff.
 
Don't you just love it! Some of us music and movie collections are so large that we repurchase the same titles occasionally!
I'm not talking about newer and better remastered ones; that too we keep buying, but about the exact same replications!
 
How many album's, LP's, CD's, DVD's, Blu-ray's titles, ...of the exact same copies do you have?
I got few myself; they become backup copies (home and travel) or Christmas presents among the family and friends.

Here's a little interesting fact: I got several copies of the same music titles on vinyl (records)!
Why? Because some are in better shape that's why. ... PF - DSOTM is just one example.

Sorry Bill; String Quartets, I would have to check my 'music library'.
 
NorthStar said:
How many albums, LPs, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, ...of the exact same copies do you have?
I got few myself; they become backup copies (home and travel) or Christmas presents among the family and friends.

Here's a little interesting fact: I got several copies of the same music titles on vinyl (records)!
Why? Because some are in better shape that's why. ... PF - DSOTM is just one example.

Sorry Bill; String Quartets, I would have to check my 'music library'.
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Since you ask, I probably have no more that a couple of duplicates still lying around. They would be CDs.

Speaking of LPs, I don't listen to them any more. My LP collection was small from the start and I just can't be bothered anymore with the rituals of handling and playing that medium; (I know some people love the medium and the rituals).

Classical music is available today mainly on CD. There is small but useful selection on SACD and hi-rez download but nothing like the 100s of thousands on CD. There is a completely insignificant selection available on LP -- except for ancient, well-worn 2nd hand copies.

No snobbery intended, but the string quartet is something of a recondite, connoisseurs' genre, as is chamber music in general.
 
I love chamber music and as we speak right now I am listening to a String Quartet on the r.a.d.i.o. ...And that's where I'm tuned since early this morning.
...Now a new tune just kicked in; solo piano - avant-gardiste classical.

Classical music is big in my life, and people like John (Bachtoven) here are a good lift for discovering new Classical music from Hybrid Multichannel SACDs. There is more great music on SACDs out there than what we believe. John know some great sources, and expanding oneself's musical horizon is what this true high-end audio hobby for audiophiles is all about, nothing else truly matters.
...You can be a jazz lover from the 40s, 50s and 60s, and simply buy all the remastered LPs (200gr, 45s, etc.) of the same titles you loved all your life and that's just great because I love jazz music too.
...And there is so much magical stuff out there that we know nothing about, and the pursuit of discovering the unknown musical treasures is what keeps me alive in this 2014 technological world we live in (GPS cars, Virtual strip joints, Internet watches, spying government agencies, tablets, smarteverything, and all that iJazz stuff).


And you don't need to mention stuff like "snob"; I went to classical school and grew up with classical chamber music. ...And frequented drug dealers too.
What is a connoisseur, ...it's an explorateur, un decouvreur, it's someone who learn the trades of appreciating life's true beneficial values.
You're one of them Bill; your music selections demonstrate that.
 
NorthStar said:
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And you don't need to mention stuff like "snob"; I went to classical school and grew up with classical chamber music. ...And frequented drug dealers too.
What is a connoisseur, ...it's an explorateur, un decouvreur, it's someone who learn the trades of appreciating life's true beneficial values.
You're one of them Bill; your music selections demonstrate that.
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Kind of you to say, Bob. I do have an admission to make, though.

I have absolutely know musical training; I don't play or read music. In the last decade or so I've read up a number of books and Internet sources on the subject of classical music and that's the beginning and end of it.

My musical appreciation is a strange story. We had no music at home except popular tunes on AM radio among the soap ads. All the way through high school and most of the way through college I had no real interest in any kind of music. Some friends were interested in the then-popular folk music idiom and that got me started with music in general.

As for classical music, here's the TRUE STORY of what originally piqued my interest ...

One day I was on the Montreal transit bus coming home from classes; there were two Jewish ladies on the bus and one was bragging about her son, the doctor (... remember: this is true). She said words to the effect, "We never listened to music at home, but since his practice is doing so well, he's had some time and become interested in classical music -- can you imagine, classical music!? They go to concerts all the time. It make a mother proud." I figured if the doctor can acquire an interest in classical, so can I.
 
I'm not sure exactly how I became so involved with chamber music, string quartets. While I have always been a music fan, when younger it was exclusively rock and roll. In that genre, I am a guitar fan, and love songs with great guitar solos (Freebird for example). At some point I added some classical titles (Holst, The Planets, Mozart, etc.) and occasionally listened to it.

Back around 2007 I started building what would evolve into my current stereo. I also had a job (write software) where I would sometimes work from home. I found that having classical music, with no lyrics, in the background seemed to have a beneficial effect on my thinking. Since I have been partial to string instruments, I started buying more CDs with violins, violas, cellos, and no singing. I do have some symphonies, but I really do not care for the bombastic noise of horns and drums.

Anyway, on some other forum, somebody recommended the Fitzwilliam Quartet collection of Shostakovich's string quartets, and I bought it. I immediately fell in love with it, and started buying every string quartet, chamber music, etc. I could find on Amazon. I just did a rough count, and I have about 150 CDs waiting to be played to determine if they are worthy enough to be ripped to the music server. I probably have already ripped 500 CDs to it in the classical folder.

Anyway, the music server is now on random shuffle and a Bax SQ just finished, and Lillian Fuchs is now playing.
 
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