# Under the radar string quartets / cycles..................



## Itullian

I really enjoy string quartets and have most of the better known cycles.
Any lesser known cycles you would recommend.
Old or new, that doesn't matter.
thank you :tiphat:


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## GioCar

Fabio Vacchi's String Quartets.

There is a beautiful recordings by Decca with Quartetto di Cremona


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## Art Rock

Villa Lobos
Myaskovsky
Gubaidulina


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## ptr

A few Swedish that I'm imprinted on:

Hilding Rosenberg (12½)
Willhelm Stenhammar (6)
Lars-Erik Larsson (3½)
Dag Wirén (5)
Åke Hermanson (2)

/ptr


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## User in F minor

Gian Francesco Malipiero's.


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## Guest

I second Villa-Lobos, Gubaidulina, and Stenhammar and nominate Vagn Holmboe as well.


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## Blancrocher

Respighi's "Doric Quartet"


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## Whistler Fred

Lejaren Hiller's wildly eclectic and electrifying Quartet No. 6. Actually, I'd love to see all of his string quartets recorded by some enterprising group and record label.


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## elgar's ghost

These spring to mind but I don't know if they are sufficiently under the radar for you:

Hindemith 1-7 (Danish Quartet on cpo - three-disc set)
Mathias 1-3 (Medea Quartet on Metier)
Rawsthorne 1-3 (Maggini Quartet on Naxos)
Zemlinsky 1-4 (Artis Quartett on Nimbus - two separate discs)
Bridge 1-4 (Maggini Quartet again on Naxos - two separate discs)
Korngold 1-3 (Flesch Quartet on Brilliant - two-disc set, originally two separate discs on ASV)


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## Ukko

Kodaly's string quartets are pleasant, interesting, and nothing like Bartók's.


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## Guest

I thought of Hindemith, but thought perhaps he was just barely "on the radar" already. Also, to the OP, are you saying you're aware of all the famous cycles/quartets or generally all the quartets from the famous composers? Just wondering if I should mention quartets from composers not generally known for chamber music (Saint-Saens maybe? the other Sibelius quartets? maybe Vaughan Williams?)


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## Quartetfore

Ropartz if you like post Ravel. I think that he composed 6 quartets. Another French composer would be Milhaud, a large number of works. If you like Russian Romantic works, Glazunov composed six very fine works.


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## jurianbai

Which era do you like?

On the Classical era, I just listen to Frederich Fesca's Volume 1 quartets by Diogenes and strongly recommend that.

Romantic
Luigi Cherubini's cycle - 6 quartets
Antonia Bazzini 4 quartets
Louis Spohr - 23 quartets

last year I found excellent cycle by the Lachner brother
Frank Lachner - 6 quartets
Ignaz Lachner - 8 quartets
and..
Felicien David - 2 quartets

Late Romantic
Borislav Martinu - 6 quartets
Zygmunt Noskowski - 4 quartets (? not really remember..)

... I hope those under your radar still


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## TurnaboutVox

These are less well known string quartet cycles I have enjoyed (In addition to Hindemith, Bridge and Zemlinsky):

Max Reger (5)
Arthur Honegger (3)
Arnold Bax (3)
Pavel Haas (3)
Carl Neilsen (4/5)
Bohuslav Martinu (7)


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## Guest

jurianbai said:


> Borislav Martinu - 6 quartets


This man's life story was such a tragedy...he was always ever so slightly eclipsed by his cousin Bohuslav, who wrote 7 quartets.


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## jurianbai

arcaneholocaust said:


> This man's life story was such a tragedy...he was always ever so slightly eclipsed by his cousin Bohuslav, who wrote 7 quartets.


thanks for corrections. Bohuslav and 7 indeed.


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## Guest

Actually I googled "Borislav" on the off-chance there was just another Martinu out there. Seems like it's an acceptable variant or something since I got plenty of hits. But yeah, 7. Whatevs.


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## Itullian

Thank you everyone. A lot of great suggestions here.
I'll add a couple.
Maxwell-Davis and Robert Simpson.


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## RxCello

Luigi Cherubini! (of all people) Six of them, and a string quintet in E minor (with added cello) that I've not been able to find a recording of. I may just have to print out the parts from IMSLP and invite my string friends over to play it.


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## elgar's ghost

RxCello said:


> Luigi Cherubini! (of all people) Six of them, and a string quintet in E minor (with added cello) that I've not been able to find a recording of. I may just have to print out the parts from IMSLP and invite my string friends over to play it.


RxCello - see link below. Hope this helps.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61pjQe8bHKL._SY450_.jpg


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## Alypius

The 20 (or 21) string quartets of Vagn Holmboe are a recent discovery for me. Simply extraordinary.

















Someone earlier commended Kodaly's two quartets. A fine new performance by the Dante Quartet on Hyperion:


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## Alypius

I forgot to mention a couple of other discoveries over the last year: Joseph-Ermand Bonnal, who has two (performed by the Debussy Quartet in release from 2000). The CD is very hard to find, but downloads from Amazon or iTunes are very reasonably priced. These are very much in the style of the string quartets of Debussy and Ravel. So too are a fascinating pairing of Belgian composers, Godfried Devreese and Prosper van Eechaute, on recording entitled _In Flanders', Vol. 2_ (Phraedra, 1993). These can be heard on YouTube:


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## ptr

Some low-flyin' Russian Quartets:

*Vadim Salmanov* (6?)

*Boris Tischenko* (6)

*Boris Tchaikovsky* (6)

*Nikolai Miaskovsky* (13)

*Sergey Taneyev* (>12)

All of these are available from the St Petersburg based label "Northern Flowers" (I'm not associated, just a fan!)

/ptr


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## MagneticGhost

Edmund Rubbra - 4 string quartets (easily obtainable on Naxos)
Darius Milhaud - I've not heard all of his quartets yet - but the ones I have listened to have inspired me to seek out the rest. Great music. He's written quite a few, 18 I think.


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## revdrdave

ptr said:


> A few Swedish that I'm imprinted on:
> Hilding Rosenberg (12½)
> /ptr


Yes, I was scrolling to the end of the thread to add my suggestion--Hilding Rosenberg--but you beat me to it. I think Rosenberg's are among the most fascinating, least appreciated string quartets of the 20th century.


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## Alypius

Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996) has 17 quartets. The one I'm familiar with is #13. Over the last few years, the Danel Quartet has been steadily recording Weinberg's quartets and recently completed the cycle in 6 volumes. And these have received consistently excellent reviews. Well, I just stumbled across a notice on the website of their label (CPO) that says that they're going to box up the series. Here's the link:

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Mieczyslaw-Weinberg-S%E4mtliche-Streichquartette/hnum/4079777


























I figured that that this might be of interest. Looks like it is now available.


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## Quartetfore

If you like mid to late 19th century music, then you ought to look into the String Quartets and Sextets of Eduard Franck. A student of Schumann and a friend of Mendelssohn, his music does have a trace of the Mendelssohn style. His Quartet op.49 is a very good work, and the String Sextets are I think outstanding.


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## PeterF

I have looked for "under the radar" string quartets for many years and have added many to my collection.
My interest lies primarily in the classical and romantic periods. I will put together a list of some I enjoy in a separate post.
Need to look over my collection to make certain I come up with a good list.


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## PeterF

Spent some time looking through my CD collection and discovered 46 composers of string quartets that would seem to qualify as "under the radar". I have just one string quartet by some of them, but there are others on my list of 46 composers for whom I have multiple string quartets.
Unless someone requests that I list all 46 composers, perhaps just a few will serve as examples.

Kozeluh, Vranicky, Gade, Berwald, Rheinberger, Chadwick, Goldmark, Volkmann, Langgaard and Pleyel.


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## Albert7

Reger...

but especially Ferneyhough's 6 string quartets.


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## Heliogabo

Yes Reger's quartets are great.
I would like to mention Kronos quartet's cycle of Schnittke. Very impressive to me.


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## PMarlowe

Here's a nice anthology I found. If anyone has recommendations of other get-your-feet-wet sets, I'd be interested.


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## AnotherSpin

You may want to check string quartets by modern Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. I love his music, and my favorites are Silent Songs for voice and piano and some piano music.


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## Guest

If you're after "under the radar" string quartets of the classical period, I can highly recommend
*Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga*, the so-called 'Spanish Mozart'. 
A short extract here as a taster: 



And the Wiki entry : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Crisóstomo_Arriaga


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## pjang23

I've been really impressed with Ernest Bloch's string quartets (5 in total plus some smaller works such as Paysages). I recommend the performances by the Portland String Quartet.

























The shorter pieces come paired with his excellent piano quintets, also worth checking out.


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## Heliogabo

Silvestre Revueltas string quartets are worth hearing. The best recording available is here by Cuarteto Latinoamericano


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## PMarlowe

Not sure if he is under or over the radar, but I'm enjoying the string quartets of Villa-Lobos I've heard so far. Perhaps he already was mentioned. (I did not read all of the posts here.)


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## hpowders

The Charles Ives string quartets.


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## Heliogabo

Korngold´s string quartets.


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## Sina

Per Nørgård's string quartets, especially 7 to 10 performed by Kroger Quartet on this Dacapo release:
http://www.dacapo-records.dk/en/recording-string-quartets-7--8--9-and-10.aspx

Or Gloria Coates 10 string quartets released on Naxos by Kreutzer Quartet. This is the first:


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## Sappho

Six String Quartets, op. 2, by Antonio Sacchini. There is only a single recording as far as I am aware, and the sheet music is relatively difficult to obtain. Which is a shame – the first and final movements have a sanguine energy I haven't quite heard from any other composer.

Unfortunately there's only one of those on YouTube, and incidentally it's the weakest of the lot.  I could upload one of the others (which are all more spirited, and more lyrical, and more energetic...) if there is interest from anyone.


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## PeterF

It seems that in very recent weeks I have discovered a number of string quartets that looked so good I decided to acquire them.
As I said in a previous post, my interest is focused on the classical and romantic periods. I haven't yet listened to all the quartets referred to below, but am working my way through them. Have enjoyed all I have heard to this point.

Fesca - 8 quartets
Czerny - 4 quartets
Reicha - 4 quartets
Romberg - 6 quartets
von Herzogenberg - 1 quartet
Blanc - 3 quartets
Raff - 4 quartets


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## Musicophile

Did I miss Smetana in the list? The Pavel Haas quartet has just done a brilliant recording.


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## Aecio

Just my personal opinion, and even if somebody else has already talked about some of the items on the list :

- The 3 by Ginastera, specially the 1&2
- All the 3 by Arriaga
- The 3 by Koechlin, specially the 1st
- The 6 by Stenhammar, specially from the 3rd to the 6th. If I had to choose only one shamefully neglected SQ cycle my vote will be for Stenhammar...


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## Iain

Itullian said:


> I really enjoy string quartets and have most of the better known cycles.
> Any lesser known cycles you would recommend.
> Old or new, that doesn't matter.
> thank you :tiphat:


There's the Ravel and Debussy string quartets:








... and for the more adventurous, Fragmente - Stille, An Diotima; 'Hay que caminar' Sognando by Luigi Nono as performed by the Arditti String Quartet:








These modern works are rumoured to be two of the most difficult works to play. Arditti perform it flawlessly. Sadly OOP, but readily available via 320 kpb/s MP3 or 16/44.1 FLAC downloads.


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## Omicron9

I'll add the string quartets of William Walton. Fascinating pieces and sadly overlooked. Here's his no. 2:


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## Pugg

Musicophile said:


> Did I miss Smetana in the list? The Pavel Haas quartet has just done a brilliant recording.
> 
> View attachment 73536


SUPERB in every way.


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## Chordalrock

Tippett and Hilding Rosenberg.


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## majlis

Sergey&Alexander Taneyev
Vissarion Shebalin
Stenhammar
Glazunov
Joahim Raff


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## starthrower

Britten by Britten Quartet
Krenek Petersen Quartet
Karl Hartmann/Hanns Eisler Quartets on Nimbus label
Bacewicz by Lutoslawski Quartet
Scelsi by Arditti Quartet


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