# Great 21st Century Quartets



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I'm not so keen on 21st century orchestral works, but find quartets more interesting. What are some great quartets that struck you? I saw a list of supposed 'greatest 21st century works so far' that had Johnathan Harvey's Quartet 4, but it didn't really get to me except for some interesting effects with electronics.






I was really impressed with Rihm's Quartet 12






Here is the score. It doesn't seem overly complex, which may be part of the appeal to me.

https://issuu.com/universaledition/docs/rihm-string-quartet-12


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Ge Gan-ru - String Quartet No. 5, The Fall of Baghdad.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Art Rock said:


> Ge Gan-ru - String Quartet No. 5, The Fall of Baghdad.


Ya, that's great. I thought the glissando funny, as it sounds like Chinese opera at 0:58. Here is a linkk. In fact it seems to take a lot of effects from Chinese opera.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Ge Gan-Ru is a great find. Never heard of him before. He combines classical Chinese with Cagian technique here. I find it mesmerizing, being a fan of Chinese Classical.


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## calvinpv (Apr 20, 2015)

Chaya Czernowin's _HIDDEN_ is probably one of the more interesting pieces for SQ. Basically, you have the string quartet stationed at the front of the auditorium and then three "layers" of loudspeakers on each of the four walls of the auditorium. One layer gives live playback of the SQ (though often manipulated) plus recorded everyday sounds like rain, night crickets, white noise, etc. The second layer does the same as the first but gives the impression that it's coming from behind the four walls (as if the walls were vibrating). The third layer is, again, like the first layer but gives the impression of coming from the deep interior of a cave. The intended result is that the four walls develop their own nooks and crannies and that we're tricked into thinking we are standing at the entrance of a cave with echoes bouncing off its jagged inner walls. I haven't heard this work live, but I can only imagine what kind of sound spatialization this creates.

You can preview the score here (there's a program note in the score).


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## Jacck (Dec 24, 2017)

Ondrej Adamek (b. 1979) - String Quartet Nº 2 Lo Que No 'Contamo' (2010)




I do not know if it is great or not, since I have very little comparison


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

There are 9 James Dillon quartets to date, two of them commercially recorded, I have recordings of 2,3,5,8 and 9, all played by Arditti. I think many of them are on YouTube.

The first thing to say is that this is a major cycle, and when, as I am sure it will be, Arditti finally release a Dillon box, it will be a fabulous thing. To be honest I'm starting to rate his quartets as highly as Ferneyhough's, if not higher, Ferneyhough being the obvious point of comparison in the early ones.

But the style's moved on from "New Complexity" and a couple of years ago Arditti played this, his 9th, at Harrogate. He's getting a voice like no other I have heard -- and I think it's wonderful. Great ostinato!






There are some notes on some of the quartets here

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07494467.2014.975551


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I like austere minimal music at the moment, I’ve somehow acquired the knack of not looking for patterns, just enjoying the sounds. I like Jurg Frey’s quartets. 

And at the other extreme, more German, I enjoy Beat Furrer’s 3rd quartet.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Dusapin's quartets 4 - 7 belong to this century.

Eotvos - his Siren Cycle (quartet with soprano) and Korrespondenz.

Kurtag - his Hommage à Jacob Obrecht and the 6 Moments Musicaux.

Maxwell Davies - his Naxos Quartets (all 8 were written in this century).


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Mandryka said:


> There are 9 James Dillon quartets to date, two of them commercially recorded, I have recordings of 2,3,5,8 and 9, all played by Arditti. I think many of them are on YouTube.
> 
> The first thing to say is that this is a major cycle, and when, as I am sure it will be, Arditti finally release a Dillon box, it will be a fabulous thing. To be honest I'm starting to rate his quartets as highly as Ferneyhough's, if not higher, Ferneyhough being the obvious point of comparison in the early ones.
> 
> But the style's moved on from "New Complexity" and a couple of years ago Arditti played this, his 9th, at Harrogate. He's getting a voice like no other I have heard -- and I think it's wonderful. Great ostinato!


That is excellent! I know (and like) some of his pieces, including the 2nd quartet, but this one is really good! Thank you for posting it.


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## StDior (May 28, 2015)

Very strong genre nowadays, lot of intriguing pieces.
Here are my 10+1 favourites, all are written after 2000:

Czernowin: Hidden
Haas, G. F.: String Quartet No. 3 "In iij. Noct"
Haas, G. F.: String Quartet No. 7
Kurtág: Six Moments Musicaux
Lachenmann: Grido
Manoury: Stringendo
Manoury: Tensio
Nørgård: String Quartet No. 10 "Høsttidløs" 
Poppe: Tier
Rihm: String Quartet no. 13
+1
Sculthorpe: String Quartet no. 16 (the 3rd mvmt is fine)


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Thanks all for suggestions. Been trying them out. I clicked on Haas Quartet 5 by accident when looking up his 7th. Don't normally like spectral music, but I thought it was interesting.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Rather than picking out individual works, here's a bunch of new quartet albums I've enjoyed over the last few years:

Marc Mellits: String quartets 3-5 (Quatuor Debussy)
Caroline Shaw: "Orange" (Attacca Quartet)
"Blueprinting" - various composers (Aizuri Quartet)
"Spin Cycle" - various composers (Afiara Quartet) - interesting experiment in which the original works are "remixed" by Skratch Bastid, then the composers themselves respond to the remixes
Alec Roth: String quartets (Allegri Quartet)
Michael Ippolito: "Songlines" (Attacca Quartet)
John Luther Adams: The Wind in High Places (JACK Quartet)
Steve Reich: WTC 9/11 (Kronos Quartet)
Michael Gordon: "Clouded Yellow" (Kronos Quartet)


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

I am pretty impressed with the quartets by Fred Lerdahl.

Quartet no. 2 was completed in 2010, and no. 3 is from 2008.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

^ I really like the Lerdahl. They're a throwback to the older 20th C masters.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Phil loves classical said:


> ^ I really like the Lerdahl. They're a throwback to the older 20th C masters.


Early c20 masters maybe.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

It's good to know the string quartet is alive and well. I'm not sure, though, that the jury is in yet on "greatest" of the 21st century quartets. Not only is it rather too early to tell what might be the great, influential works of this century, but there are several decades left to go before we can fully assess the century. I'd like to see you all then.

But for now the best we can do is listen to what is out there being composed and hopefully find some moving, pleasurable quartets to take with us on our way.

I've long explored string quartets (as I relish doing with symphonies) and have heard most of the acclaimed ones and hundreds of lesser known. I tend to enjoy those which offer new approaches, but I'm rather disappointed to hear that not a lot of "new" techniques have hit my eardrums since the experimental flourishing of the string quartet in say the late 1950's to 1970's. Milton Babbitt and George Crumb are hard to better, but they're already old school.

I checked my box set from NEOS, "Darmstadt Aural Documents Box 3 - Ensembles", a 2016 release, to see what it had to offer in the way of String Quartets, and Disc 1 has some fine pieces by Hanns Jelinek, Herbert Brün, Franco Evangelisti, John Cage, and Iannis Xenakis -- but they are all 20th century. Disc 2 features a 24 minute quartet titled _Muri IIIb_ by Pierluigi Billone, dating to 2010 and performed by the esteemed Arditti Quartet. And on Disc 6 is Michael Reudenbach's 2004 quartet titled _und aber_, performed by the Kairos Quartet. Neither work struck me as a keeper, though Billone's quartet featured just about everything you can expect from a contemporary string composition; the Reudenbach was, unfortunately, from that "quiet school" of composition, and I'm at the age where straining to hear what is going on is not really much fun.

I continue on the search for great string quartets, so I'll keep listening.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

History tells us that we can't reliably agree on what the greatest works of the last 20 years are. It is likely but not certain that "we" are aware of them but it is also likely that some of our top choices will later be seem to be mistaken. This is part of the excitement of contemporary music: it talks to us now and posterity need not worry us.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I revisited this quartet. It's quite easy to follow for me now. For me it's similar to Jazz where they go from one idea or pattern to another, either by contrast or similarity. It's very linear. I never bought the whole time-standing-still business, or just points of sound. But there is no grand design, which I was looking for originally.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

I've recommended this here before. It really is a lot of fun. The performances are on a high level, too.


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