# Masterpieces Off the Beaten Track: Part One - String Quartets



## Alypius

I begin this thread as a place both to recommend and to seek recommendations of various little-known string quartet masterpieces. Obvious cases might be either little-known composers or little-known works by famous composers. I realize that "little known" is obviously a matter of degree. Here are some examples of little known composers:

*Joseph-Ermand Bonnal, String Quartets #1 & #2 (performed by the Quatuor Debussy)*










(This is hard to find and expensive as a CD, but an inexpensive download)

*Joseph-Guy Ropartz, String Quartets #1-#6 (performed by the Quatuor Stanislas)*










An example of a little-known work by a famous composer would be:

*Stravinsky's Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914)*

(composed not longer after the _Rite of Spring_). I only discovered it recently despite the fact that Stravinsky has, for decades, been a favorite composer of mine. But the work does not appear either in the big _Stravinsky Works_ box set or in the other major box set, _Boulez Conducts Stravinsky_ (which does include a disc of chamber works, including Stravinsky's _Double Canon for String Quartet_ and _Concertino for String Quartet_). The performance I know and recommend is by the Alban Berg Quartett:










(If anyone is familiar with a better, more recent performance, please recommend it):

So, what are, for you, some little-known string quartet masterpieces? 
Please also include any recommended performances.


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## Mahlerian

Alypius said:


> *Stravinsky's Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914)*
> 
> (composed not longer after the _Rite of Spring_). I only discovered it recently despite the fact that Stravinsky has, for decades, been a favorite composer of mine. But *the work does not appear either in the big Stravinsky Works box set or in the other major box set, Boulez Conducts Stravinsky* (which does include a disc of chamber works, including Stravinsky's _Double Canon for String Quartet_ and _Concertino for String Quartet_). The performance I know and recommend is by the Alban Berg Quartett:


Not _quite_ true. It appears in arrangement as the first three of the Four Etudes for Orchestra.

The String Quartet version is absent, though.

Anyway, for the thread, I'm kind of fond of Akio Yashiro's String Quartet, which is inflenced by Bartok and Berg. It's a cyclical work in four movements.


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## Dirge

These quartets aren't necessarily all that far off the beaten path, but they don't get much mention around here, so I decided to bring them up for consideration anyhow. I'm the only known fan of some of these works, so listen at your own risk ...

Rued LANGGAARD: String Quartet No. 3 (1924) • Miró Quartet [Bridge] ~ This odd little quartet seems to exist in a rift in a space-time music continuum between Schubertian Romanticism and 1920s Modernism. The relatively sane sonata-based first movement takes fairly Romantic thematic material and treats it in a fairly modern way that sounds a bit like streamlined Bartók. Things quickly get strange and surreal in the brief scherzo second movement, wherein a small portal to Hell tries to open in the middle of a tea party in Schubert's garden; indeed, the diabolical cello pizzicato-playing at movement's end seems to be ushering Schubert and his friends down a stairway to Hell. The humorously haunted tea-party music itself could be the theme for some Wodehouse-esque British sitcom from the '70s or '80s, while the ominous intrusions from the underworld might sound at home in a particularly scary episode of _Doctor Who._ The strangeness continues in the third/final movement, as a mock grand chorale/hymn tune comes down with a bad case of Janacek fever: the chorale tries to maintain its dignity and continue nobly on, but it keeps getting interrupted by tempestuous outbursts of the kind found in Janacek's string quartets. Some darkly repetitive, rather sinister-sounding episodes also get in the way, but the chorale manages to persevere and reassert itself at work's end, a bit worse for the wear. This work is more strange than good, but it's interesting and perversely likable nonetheless.

Frank BRIDGE: String Quartet No. 3 (1926) • Endellion String Quartet [Virgin] or Maggini Quartet [Naxos] ~ This is the highlight of Bridge's one-man English Expressionism movement of the 1920s and '30s and one of my favorite English or Expressionist string quartets of any decade. The work is laid out and structured traditionally enough, having a sonata-allegro first movement, an intermezzo second, and a sonata-rondo third/final. It's with tonality and harmonics that Bridge breaks with tradition: it's chromatic, with all twelve tones and a lot of dubious harmonies revolving around a nebulous C-major tonal center. Bridge chooses his thematic material very shrewdly in order to maximize the harmonic possibilities and give himself lots of room to expand and develop; this is very important, as the work is based entirely on thematic material (all manner of motifs) introduced in the slow introduction and at very start of the main Allegro section of the first movement. Just as some themes are naturally well-suited to fugal development, some thematic material is naturally well-suited to the kind of development Bridge employs here, or so I'm guessing.

What makes the work go is the sheer vigor and intellectual rigor of Bridge's development -- this is one highly wrought, organic piece of music. Even when I can't specifically cite why -- which, sad to say, is a lot of the time, as my motif-recognition skills rather suck -- the music at any given point always "sounds" strongly related to the rest of the music; nothing comes across as extraneous or gratuitous or out of place. The themes built from the basic thematic material morph and develop in long stretches (especially in the first movement) that are worked out to the bitter end, giving the work a sinewy quality. The lyrical Intermezzo, a muted discussion between violins over a spare viola (pizzicato) and cello accompaniment, serves as a respite from the obsessive development and stressed, sighing lyricism of the first movement before Bridge ramps things back up in the combative, march-like final movement.

There's a certain Bergian lyrical and harmonic feel about a lot of the writing, though it seems to presage the Violin Concerto as much as look back on Berg's earlier works. The more vigorous rhythmic writing has a Bartók quality about it, and the Intermezzo verges on "night music," though I might term it "twilight music" in this case. If the prevailing mood of the work is post-war grim, it's not all grim, and the various signs of hope make strong impressions. Still, it's not the work you ask the quartet to play at your daughter's wedding.

Arthur HONEGGER: String Quartet No. 3 (1937) • Erato Quartet [Aura] ~ This concise, highly polyphonic quartet is a stepping stone in the path to the composer's Second Symphony; it's gruffer and rawer than the Symphony, and I'm not sure that I don't find it more interesting and compelling. The Allegro first movement is grim and gritty, with a strong Bartókian feel to its themes, but it sometimes moves in a relentless Shostakovich sort of way. The Adagio second movement is a gloomy but beautiful set of variations, with a slightly ominous repeated bass underlying much of it; Honegger lets the mood sink in for a while before he gives full voice to the movement through an aching lament on violin -- very effective and affecting, especially when answered by viola. The Toccata (Allegro) third/final movement contains the primordial nuts & bolts out of which the Second Symphony was erected, including the closing chorale.

Bohuslav MARTINU: String Quartet No. 5 (1938) • Panocha Quartet [Supraphon] or Maggini Quartet [Naxos] ~ This quartet is something of a chamber-music counterpart to the contemporaneous Double Concerto; both are earnest and passionate works not far removed in time or spirit from Bartók's _Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta_ and Divertimento. The Quartet also adds an element of personal anguish and frustration of a kind found in Janacek's _Intimate Letters._ It's Martinu's weightiest and, I think, best chamber work.

Heitor VILLA-LOBOS: String Quartet No. 9 (1945) • Cuarteto Latinoamericano [Dorian] ~ I find the 9th to be the most tightly argued and compelling of the 17 Villa-Lobos quartets. Quartets 1-6 are relatively folky and nationalistic in character, Quartets 10-17 speak neoclassicism with a Brazilian accent, while Quartets 7, 8 & 9 are atypically ambitious anomalies that defy pigeonholing. Villa-Lobos seems to make a conscious effort in these three quartets to overcome his "99% inspiration, 1% perspiration" assembly-line nature and confound his critics by writing thoroughly wrought "substantial" works with a bit of expressionist angst. He succeeds most admirably, I think, in #9, which is by far the least melodic (though still lyrical), least tonal (it's chromatic and atonal in a tonal way), least consonant, and most concentrated of all the quartets; indeed, it strikes me as the best Villa-Lobos work in any genre that I've come across ... Villa-Lobos for those who don't generally care for Villa-Lobos.

Roger SESSIONS: String Quartet No. 2 (1951) • Kohon Quartet [Vox] ~ This is the last work that Sessions composed before he began his gradual slide into serialism. It's an abstract, intensely wrought, emotionally raw and edgy work of hard-won chromatic lyricism, with the music tending to develop along complex polyphonic lines. It's cast in five movements -- Lento (double fugue), Allegro appassionato (sonata-allegro), Andante tranquillo (theme & variations), Presto (scherzo), Adagio -- and is dominated by the slow music. The mood is mostly plaintive, whether the music be calm or anxious/irritated, spare or dense, and it's presented in a Schoenberg/Berg expressionist sort of way, though it sometimes manifests itself in a more Old School/Beethoven sort of way.

Ernest BLOCH: String Quartet No. 3 (1952) • Griller Quartet [Decca] ~ This is a sturdy, big-boned work of assertive and unambiguous gestures that seems bent on reconciling Bloch's naturalized Americanism with his not-too-expressionist brand of Expressionism and a still-lingering Old World tie to Maurice Ravel neoclassicism. Rather than trying to homogenize these varyingly incongruous isms, Bloch lets them react with one another as they may. If the result has something of the character of a brawny lumberjack dancing the minuet at the Pooh-Bah's Ball, it's no less interesting for that.

Michael FINNISSY: _Plain Harmony_ • Kreutzer Quartet (1993/95) [Metier] ~ This work has no unified score, but is in four part books. However, the four parts seem to be partly synchronized, as there are many instances of unison rhythmic playing. I'm wildly guessing that these unison points are pre-designated points of synchronization and that the players are allowed a good deal of relative independence in the spans between these points -- which is my dubious understanding of how the violin and piano parts are related in Elliott Carter's Duo. At any rate, the work sounds like a slightly deranged fantasia on hymning tunes very much in the spirit of Ives. It's in three movements totaling just under ten minutes and is quite fetching throughout.

Charles WUORINEN: Fourth String Quartet (2000) • Brentano Quartet [Tzadik] ~ This vigorous and polyphonically rigorous quartet rewards those listeners for whom joy of structure and design and inter-relationships is the thing. It's polyphony is so industrious and highly wrought that the work has the air of a fugue about it but with a more dubiously defined and enigmatic set of rules ... a sort of serial fugal fantasy, if you will, with Wuorinen taking the scenic route to Parnassus. The architecture of the quartet is an elegant manifestation of its structural design, and vice versa -- think well-designed bridge or Eiffel Tower -- with no freeloading melodies or ornamentation: every note pitches in and contributes to the organic whole. The work is in a single movement and generally progresses, as the composer points out, "from slow to fast, from sparer to denser" -- and, one might add, from simpler to complexer, with the polyphony morphing from the chords of the opening to the stacks/layers of seemingly tenuously related voices at work's end. The nifty trick here is that Wuorinen manages to maintain a corporate sense of purpose even as the voices seem to grow increasingly independent of one another.

György KURTÁG: _Moments musicaux_ (2005) • Arditti Quartet [Radio France] ~ Kurtág lifted these six movements from earlier works (mostly from the ongoing series of _Játékok_ keyboard pieces) and re-arranged them for string quartet for use as compulsory test pieces in a string quartet competition. They were so popular with players and audiences alike that Kurtág shrewdly and hastily made a suite of them, dubbing it _Moments musicaux_ for publication. Judging from the results of a Google search, the work has been adopted by a good many ensembles and is being programmed very frequently. Indeed, _Moments musicaux_ threatens to become the octogenarian's "breakthrough" work, one that might appeal to listeners who find his other works to be too distilled and elusive -- Kurtág for the fetid masses. Although somewhat dark and introverted by normal standards, the pieces are colorful and accessible by Kurtág standards, and they're also quite varied and contrasted (yet complementary). The fifth movement, "… rappel des oiseaux …," is a glimmering, shimmering study on harmonics that has a small life of its own, as I've seen it programmed apart from the suite.


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## Alypius

Dirge said:


> These quartets aren't necessarily all that far off the beaten path, but they don't get much mention around here, so I decided to bring them up for consideration anyhow. I'm the only known fan of some of these works, so listen at your own risk ...
> 
> Rued LANGGAARD: String Quartet No. 3 (1924) • Miró Quartet [Bridge] ...
> Frank BRIDGE: String Quartet No. 3 (1926) • Endellion String Quartet [Virgin] or Maggini Quartet [Naxos]...
> Arthur HONEGGER: String Quartet No. 3 (1937) • Erato Quartet [Aura]...
> Bohuslav MARTINU: String Quartet No. 5 (1938) • Panocha Quartet [Supraphon] or Maggini Quartet [Naxos] ...
> Heitor VILLA-LOBOS: String Quartet No. 9 (1945) • Cuarteto Latinoamericano [Dorian] ...
> Roger SESSIONS: String Quartet No. 2 (1951) • Kohon Quartet [Vox] ...
> Ernest BLOCH: String Quartet No. 3 (1952) • Griller Quartet [Decca] ...
> Michael FINNISSY: _Plain Harmony_ • Kreutzer Quartet (1993/95) [Metier]....
> Charles WUORINEN: Fourth String Quartet (2000) • Brentano Quartet [Tzadik]...
> György KURTÁG: _Moments musicaux_ (2005) • Arditti Quartet [Radio France]


Dirge, Thanks so much for the recommendations and especially for the extensive comments on each. Of those, I only own the Martinu. I have other works by most of those composers, but not those particular ones. (The complete Villa-Lobos cycle is on my wishlist). I appreciate the listing. I was hoping that this thread might begin to take off. Hopefully your recommendations will spur others to jump in.


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## science

It's always intimidating to venture that something is off the beaten path because it might turn out that I have simply not beaten enough paths, but I will risk:

- Arriaga 
- Dohnányi & Kodály (look for the Guarneri quartet's Hungarian album)
- Sculthorpe #8 (Kronos Q recorded it on their debut album) 
- Enescu 
- Ge Gan-ru, especially #5 "Fall of Baghdad"


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## TurnaboutVox

I have trodden a few paths to death. There's still an awful lot of undergrowth for me to explore.

I agree with Dirge about the Bridge 3rd, Martinu 5th and Honegger 3rd quartets.

Can I add some personal favourites (I can't analyse them as Dirge did with his recommendations: I just like them). They might not be far enough off the beaten track for you, though.

*Hindemith:* 3rd, Op. 16 (Amar Quartet), 4th, Op. 22 (Prague Quartet, Juilliard Quartet) and 5th, Op. 32 (Amar Quartet, Sonare Quartet) string quartets 
*Honegger:* 2nd string quartet H. 103 (Erato Quartet)
*Bridge:* 2nd and 4th string quartet (4th is his masterpiece, in my opinion.) (Maggini Quartet) 
*Bax:* string quartet No. 2 in A minor (Maggini Quartet)
*Delius:* string quartet (Fitzwilliam Quartet, Britten Quartet)
*Grieg:* string quartet Op. 27 (Emerson Quartet)
*Sibelius:* string quartet Op. 56 'Voces intimae' (Fitzwilliam, Emerson quartets)
*Nielsen:* No. 3, Op. 14 and 4, Op. 44 (I'm familiar with the deleted Carl Neilsen Quartet version. The Young Danish and Oslo Quartets seem to be widely recommended now).
*Reger:* string quartet Op. 109, but also Op. 54/1 and 2 (Drolc Quartet)
*Zemlinsky:* string quartets Nos. 3, Op. 19 and 4, Op. 25 (Escher Quartet)


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## Alypius

Turnabout & Science, Thanks for the recommendations. The majority of those are new to me. (I do have The Emersons performance of Sibelius'). It is good to see this thread begin to pick up some steam.

I got a copy of the complete Hindemith cycle by the Danish Quartet (CPO, 1997) a couple of months ago:










It's a superb performance, but I'm still finding my way around them.

One of my longtime favorites is a lesser-known sequence by the American composer George Rochberg (1918-2005). These mark a transition from serialism back to a sort of neo-romantic style. His abandonment of serialism was controversial at the time. He reportedly chose tonalism in part because he didn't find serialism adequate to express a grief he felt at the loss of his son. That said, these still contain edgy harmonics and powerful rhythms:










One great lesser known pair of string quartets are by two Belgian composers, Gottfried Devresse (1893-1972) and Prosper van Eechaute (1904-1964). These are in the French tradition of Debussy and Ravel:


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## Dirge

TurnaboutVox said:


> *Hindemith:* 3rd, Op. 16 (Amar Quartet), 4th, Op. 22 (Prague Quartet, Juilliard Quartet) and 5th, Op. 32 (Amar Quartet, Sonare Quartet) string quartets
> *Honegger:* 2nd string quartet H. 103 (Erato Quartet)
> *Bridge:* 2nd and 4th string quartet (4th is his masterpiece, in my opinion.) (Maggini Quartet)
> *Bax:* string quartet No. 2 in A minor (Maggini Quartet)
> *Delius:* string quartet (Fitzwilliam Quartet, Britten Quartet)
> *Grieg:* string quartet Op. 27 (Emerson Quartet)
> *Sibelius:* string quartet Op. 56 'Voces intimae' (Fitzwilliam, Emerson quartets)
> *Nielsen:* No. 3, Op. 14 and 4, Op. 44 (I'm familiar with the deleted Carl Neilsen Quartet version. The Young Danish and Oslo Quartets seem to be widely recommended now).
> *Reger:* string quartet Op. 109, but also Op. 54/1 and 2 (Drolc Quartet)
> *Zemlinsky:* string quartets Nos. 3, Op. 19 and 4, Op. 25 (Escher Quartet)


I came close to including the Sibelius "Voces intimae" (Tetzlaff Quartett) and Hindemith Op. 22 (Zehetmair Quartett) quartets on my own list, but my list was getting way too lengthy and sacrifices had to be made. Both works were well off the beaten path only 15 or 20 years ago, but they've gotten a fair amount of attention in the meanwhile and threaten to become popular among listeners of unpopular music. Honegger's quartets, on the other hand, seem to be as far off the beaten path as ever.


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## worov

Alan Hovhaness' string quartets are excellent too. They have been recorded by the Shanghai Quartet (Delos).


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## Alypius

I have the complete Haydn quartets and all the mature quartets of Mozart. But what about other composers of string quartets from the classical era?

What would be 10 or so string quartets from classical-era composers _besides_ Haydn and Mozart? Pleyel? Boccherini?

(bejart and HaydnBearstheClock are the obvious people to answer this, but others may have similar expertise).


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## QuietGuy

Copland: Two Pieces for String Quartet -


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## TurnaboutVox

Alypius said:


> I have the complete Haydn quartets and all the mature quartets of Mozart. But what about other composers of string quartets from the classical era?
> 
> What would, say, 10 string quartet record from classical-era composers _besides_ Haydn and Mozart? Pleyel? Boccherini?
> 
> (bejart and HaydnBearstheClock are the obvious people to answer this, but others may have similar expertise).


I haven't heard all that much from this era, Alypius, but Hummel and Onslow's string quartets seem good (I need to investigate much more of Onslow's work).


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## Guest

I suppose I should have read the OP. I have refrained from posting in this thread because I figured "off the beaten path" referred to stylistic weirdness, rather than general obscurity. Perhaps I'll post later, but I can certainly second anything by Hindemith, Reger, Sibelius, and Zemlinsky, at the least.


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## altiste

I've just discovered the string quartet music of Romano Crivici and have been listening to his CD _Luminous_: http://www.crivici.com/discography/luminous/


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## bejart

Alypius said:


> I have the complete Haydn quartets and all the mature quartets of Mozart. But what about other composers of string quartets from the classical era?
> 
> What would be 10 or so string quartets from classical-era composers _besides_ Haydn and Mozart? Pleyel? Boccherini?
> 
> (bejart and HaydnBearstheClock are the obvious people to answer this, but others may have similar expertise).


Although Boccherini wrote some very nice string quartets, his string quintets are much better. Pleyel's are quite good.

Take a look at Vanhal, Dittersdorf, the 2 Vranicky brothers, as well as the quartets by Reicha and Fesca, both of whom recently had new CDs released. Also, the late string quartets of Nicolas Zmeskall are worth a listen.

Some musical scholars believe that Pavel Vranicky's string quartets surpass those of Mozart, both in quality as well as quantity. He wrote at least 56 and possibly as many as 73. His Op.16 and Op.23 sets are recommended.


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## Alypius

bejart said:


> Although Boccherini wrote some very nice string quartets, his string quintets are much better. Pleyel's are quite good.
> 
> Take a look at Vanhal, Dittersdorf, the 2 Vranicky brothers, as well as the quartets by Reicha and Fesca, both of whom recently had new CDs released. Also, the late string quartets of Nicolas Zmeskall are worth a listen.
> 
> Some musical scholars believe that Pavel Vranicky's string quartets surpass those of Mozart, both in quality as well as quantity. He wrote at least 56 and possibly as many as 73. His Op.16 and Op.23 sets are recommended.


bejart, Thanks so much. That's the advice that I was looking for. I have Boccherini's piano quintets, but not his string quintets. The rest are just names to me. Any recommended performances? Here's a recent Vanhal I've come across; and a pair of Dittsdorf. Recommended?


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## bejart

Alypius says ---
"bejart, Thanks so much...... Here's a recent Vanhal I've come across..... Recommended?"

I reviewed the Vanhal on Amazon.com and am reacquainting myself with the Dittersdorf. It's been awhile since I listened to those recordings.

Here are some others I reviewed on Amazon ---


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## Alypius

bejart said:


> Alypius says ---
> "bejart, Thanks so much...... Here's a recent Vanhal I've come across..... Recommended?"
> 
> I reviewed the Vanhal on Amazon.com and am reacquainting myself with the Dittersdorf. It's been awhile since I listened to those recordings.
> 
> Here are some others I reviewed on Amazon ---
> 
> View attachment 44507
> View attachment 44508
> 
> View attachment 44510
> View attachment 44509


bejart, Thanks for those recommendations. I look forward to reading your reviews. I've added them to my wishlist.


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## bejart

One more composer that I almost forgot that should not be missed --
Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga (1806-1826) wrote 3 stunning string quartets. There are numerous recordings, I have these:


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## KenOC

bejart said:


> One more composer that I almost forgot that should not be missed --
> Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga (1806-1826) wrote 3 stunning string quartets.


Might add that Arriaga wrote these quartets at about 16 -- he died at 19. One of the great "might have beens" of music history.


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## Alypius

bejart said:


> One more composer that I almost forgot that should not be missed --
> Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga (1806-1826) wrote 3 stunning string quartets. There are numerous recordings, I have these:
> 
> View attachment 44587
> View attachment 44588


bejart, Thanks for those recommendations. I've added them to my list. I had only heard the name. I appreciate it.


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## Guest

I don't know if they are _masterpieces_, but I enjoy these quartets by Seppo Pohjola (b.1960):


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## SONNET CLV

Kontrapunctus said:


> I don't know if they are _masterpieces_, but I enjoy these quartets by Seppo Pohjola (b.1960):


I recently picked up that same disc. A fascinating listen.

I'll contribute two sets of Complete Quartets to this post:









Elizabeth MACONCHY (1907-1994) 
Complete String Quartets 
String Quartet No. 1 (1932/33) 
String Quartet No. 2 (1936) 
String Quartet No. 3 (1938) 
String Quartet No. 4 (1942/43) 
String Quartet No. 5 (1948) 
String Quartet No. 6 (1950) 
String Quartet No. 7 (1955) 
String Quartet No. 8 (1967) 
String Quartet No. 9 (1968) 
String Quartet No. 10 (1972) 
String Quartet No. 11 (1976) 
String Quartet No. 12 (1979) 
String Quartet No. 13 Quartetto Corto (1984) 
Hanson String Quartet (Quartets 1-4) Bingham String Quartet (Quartets 5-8) Mistry String Quartet (Quartets 9-13) 
Rec. St, Martin's Church, East Woodhay, 19-21 April 1989 (Quartets 1-4) Radley College, Abingdon, 28-30 March 1989 (Quartets 5-8); Radley College, Abingdon, 5-7 April 1989 (Quartets 9-13) DDD 
FORUM FRC 9301 [3 CDs: 59:00 + 69:27 + 64:02]

Read more: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/May04/Maconchy_quartets.htm#ixzz34xqh7qBh

and









Disc: 1

1. Str Qt No.1 'Rispettie E Strambotti' 
2. Str Qt No.2 'Stornelli E Ballate' 
3. Str Qt No.3 'Cantari Alla Madrigalesca' 
4. Str Qt No.4

Disc: 2

1. Str Qt No.5 'Dei Capricci' 
2. Str Qt No.6 'L'arca Di Noe' 
3. Str Qt No.7 
4. Str Qt No.8 'Per Elizabetta'

I've gotten hours of pleasure from these two collections. And they're rather off the beaten track.

I tend to collect String Quartet recordings (along with Symphonies) and so have quite a few -- several sets of most of the standard masterpieces (Beethoven, Mozart, Bartok, Shostakovich) and all the Haydn's. But it's often the more obscure quartets that spin most often on my turntable (as yesterday with the Milton Babbitt Quartet No. 3 on LP from Turnabout/Vox) or my CD player, like the Schoenberg Quartets I enjoyed a few days ago. Probably the Quartet I actually listen to more than any other is the Ravel Quartet. I have several versions of that piece, on both LP record and CD, and I never tire of hearing it one more time.


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## Alypius

Over on the "Current Listening" thread, people have recently been listening to Vagn Holmboe's string quartets. I just discovered his quartets just a couple of months ago -- thanks, in part, to recommendations of them on TC. Among many fine cycles by 20th century composers, his 20+ quartets are among the best. My favorites are the later ones: #13, #17, #20, and the posthumous op. 197 ("Quartetto sereno"). The performance by the Kontra Quartet is outstanding, and DaCapo has boxed them for a very reasonable price.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Verdi's string quartet, last time I heard it, was lovely although I wish I could remember the content properly...I will have to hear it again.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Peter Sculthorpe's 8th strin quartet has had a number of excellent recordings, I think more than his other ones.


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## GioCar

Fabio Vacchi's string quartets










For those who are not familiar with this contemporary composer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabio_Vacchi


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## Alypius

GioCar said:


> Fabio Vacchi's string quartets
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> For those who are not familiar with this contemporary composer
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabio_Vacchi


Gio, I've looked for this record on Amazon, Presto, ArkivMusic, and MDT. Any suggestions where to find it? Where to hear clips of it?


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## GioCar

Alypius said:


> Gio, I've looked for this record on Amazon, Presto, ArkivMusic, and MDT. Any suggestions where to find it? Where to hear clips of it?


I bought it a couple of years ago, but I see it's available in the Amazon .it store, or (maybe better for you) in the .co.uk one.
It's downloadable from Qobuz as well.


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## Alypius

*John Adams, String Quartet (2011)*










I revisited this work this morning partly because of this thread. I hadn't really listened to it much since 2011, and since I've been listening to string quartets a lot in the last 3 years, I wanted to see if that listening pushed this up to that "masterpiece" status. I'm not sure it does, but it remains an intriguing work. It received very fine reviews on its release, but I've seen little reference to it since then. It is, on the one hand, more "minimalist" in some of its structure than most of Adams' post-1985 works (i.e. after _Harmonielehre)_. And yet it shows a maturity of structure and, at the same time, a self-conscious dialogue with the longer musical tradition that is characteristic of his works of his mature style (here again, I date _Harmonielehre_ as the tipping point of his mature style).

I also reread the liner notes which John Adams wrote. He's a wonderfully self-conscious composer and actually quite a fine writer. He begins by situating in his work within the larger tradition of the string quartet:



> "Normally impatient with traditional titles, I uncharacteristically defaulted to 'String Quartet' for this one. The only other time I'd employed such a generic title was with the 1993 Violin Concerto. It may be that the choice of such an unadorned name for both works reflected a certain awe that I felt in approaching the medium. Historically speaking, both the violin concerto and the string quartet represent for me the epitome of the union of musical form and content. The models from the past, be they from the classical period of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, from the Romantic period of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms, or from the twentieth century-from Schoenberg, Berg, and Bartók all the way up to Ligeti and Carter-constitute a compendium of those composers' most eloquent and Apollonian statements."


He then offers a fine analysis of the structure and flow of his work:



> "My quartet is case in a uniquely asymmetrical from: a single long first part and a much shorter second. The first part is itself divided into four distinct sections that, taken together, create a fully formed musical structure. Opening with a rippling sixteenth-note figuration punctuated by the offbeat plucking of the cello, the music rapidly evolves into a sequence of intensely lyrical episodes that ride the engine of a regular pulsation, an easily identifiable vestige of my minimalist past.
> 
> A passage of becalmed stasis provides a relief from the restlessness of the opening; and this is followed by the eruption of a jaunty scherzo section, characterized by fractured dance steps and high-wire melodies for the violins. The energy winds down, and Part One concludes with a slower, muted music, similar to the opening in its restless inner movement. Only in itse very last minute does the energy, now sounding as if blanketed by a layer of heavy cloth or snow, finally settle down to a short-lived slumber.
> 
> Part Two begins with bouncing octaves (not unlike the opening of Son of Chamber Symphony), a high-strung, nervous staccato that charges the entire remaining movement with a driven energy that will only occasionally break for pockets of espressivo that recall the earlier movement. The frequent appearance of the opening bars' Morse code figuration at critical structural points anchors the music's growth. A final coda pushes tempi and activity to the extreme. I make the kind of ensemble and emotional demands on the players that are only possible in that exhilarity and utopian world of virtuoso chamber music."


This is a work with promise -- and worth careful study.


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## zvioliny

The Grieg string quartets are very rarely heard (from what I've seen). His second string quartet is incomplete so it only has the first two movements. I very much recommend them.


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## revdrdave

The series of quartets by Hilding Rosenberg, IMHO one of the more compelling series of the 20th century.


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## violadude

One string quartet cycle I really love is the one by Sergei Taneyev. Three earlier quartets (labeled #7, 8 and 9) and then a core of 6 more mature quartets which are consistently awesome and meaty works. I like Taneyev because he has a good amount of that Russian melancholic lyricism and passion without sacrificing the thematic tightness of the German tradition. He is sometimes called the Russian Brahms and I think that's a fairly appropriate title.

Anyway, very short summary on the main quartets.

#1 is probably the most "Russian" sounding. It's very melancholic and has a lot of great melodies.





 Here's a sample of that one, let me know what you think, Alypius (or anyone else)

#2 is set in a very rich C major sonority. It's certainly more optomistic than the gloomy 1st quartet but it's far from a "happy" piece. It's one of those C major pieces that leaves itself open and goes lots of different places in a short amount of time in terms of mood and sound. Also, this is the one that probably reminds me most of Brahms. Lot's of thematic invention in this one.

#3 is one of those pieces that is a two movement sonata form-Theme and Variations structure. The first movement goes back to having more of a Russian sound than the 2nd quartet. This movement actually has a main theme that slightly recalls the Dorian mode rather than the d minor scale. It's very sad and elegiac sounding but I wouldn't say it's gloomy like quartet #1. Then the theme and variations are based off of an original theme that is quite a graceful and relatively cheerful dance melody. The theme is quite a contrast from the first movement but the variations are extremely diverse and expansive, so the mood of the first movement does come back.

#4 is the "most dissonant" one, if that term can even hold some accuracy. It's nothing too crazy but definitely it's a noticeable difference from the other quartets. It's a very fiery quartet. This one has a lot of anger and angst bubbling underneath the surface and can be quite terse at times compare to the others. But it's still melodic as well as thematically tight as always.

#5 is the happiest sounding one. It's also the shortest, most restrained and the least "Romantic" sounding. The textures are quite sparse in this one compared to the generally rich textures of the other ones. It's somewhat Haydnesque but would never be mistaken for Haydn at all, a loose comparison. Perhaps Taneyev wanted to write something lighter after the "demon exorcism" that was the 4th quartet.

#6 is quite enigmatic I think but it's actually probably my favorite. It's sort of hard to describe the sound world of the 6th but it sounds very sorrowful without sounding traditionally "sad". Many of the main themes and melodies sound like they express a sighing sort of feeling. Some parts can sound a bit "20th century-ish" but it never goes tooo far with it, just bits and pieces here and there. By this time, there is some quite advanced writing I think. I love the harmonic world of this quartet too.


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## Alypius

violadude said:


> One string quartet cycle I really love is the one by Sergei Taneyev. Three earlier quartets (labeled #7, 8 and 9) and then a core of 6 more mature quartets which are consistently awesome and meaty works. I like Taneyev because he has a good amount of that Russian melancholic lyricism and passion without sacrificing the thematic tightness of the German tradition. He is sometimes called the Russian Brahms and I think that's a fairly appropriate title...


violadude, Thanks so much for the survey of the Taneyev cycle. What performance are you drawing upon? The YouTube draws on the Taneyev Quartet, who seem to have done the complete cycle. I presume that was originally done on a Russian label, but now seems available on Northern Flowers. Those older Russian recordings can be quite dry, even brittle, in their sound, but the YouTube here sounds quite good. And there is a new cycle by Carpe Diem Quartet (who do quite a range of material from Dvorak to Moravec), but which seems to be incomplete (3 volumes thus far: 1&3 on vol. 1; 2&4 on vol. 2; 5&7 on vol. 3; thus they seem to be missing #6, #8 & 9. I had not realized that #7-#9 were actually very early works that had not been part of his catalogue and were found only after his death. In any case, thanks.


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## violadude

Alypius said:


> violadude, Thanks so much for the survey of the Taneyev cycle. What performance are you drawing upon? The YouTube draws on the Taneyev Quartet, who seem to have done the complete cycle. I presume that was originally done on a Russian label, but now seems available on Northern Flowers. Those older Russian recordings can be quite dry, even brittle, in their sound, but the YouTube here sounds quite good. And there is a new cycle by Carpe Diem Quartet (who do quite a range of material from Dvorak to Moravec), but which seems to be incomplete (3 volumes thus far: 1&3 on vol. 1; 2&4 on vol. 2; 5&7 on vol. 3; thus they seem to be missing #6, #8 & 9. I had not realized that #7-#9 were actually very early works that had not been part of his catalogue and were found only after his death. In any case, thanks.


I think I like the Carpe Diem the best from what I've heard, but like you said it is incomplete at the moment so the collection in my Itunes library is a combination of both. I've never heard the older interpretations you are talking about.

The earlier quartets are nice but are not refined enough imo and are too long for their own good sometimes, much like Dvorak's early quartets.


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## azumbrunn

If you want to look at the classical / early romantic period George Onslow is certainly the first to look at. Onslow worked with great ambition and skill. None of the 60-times-the-same-quartet sort of stuff that characterizes the work of "Kleinmeisters" like Pleyel or Michael Haydn and even Boccherini. Not all of Onslow's have been recorded, but if you play yourself you can find most of them on IMSLP. Onslow is not all that easy to play though. 
Another recommendation is Louis Spohr. The quality of his work is uneven, but his best stuff is very good indeed. I love op. 29/1 in e flat with Spohr's musical signature in it, but I am not even sure there is a recording out there (the one I am aware of was on LP and not very good). The sheet music is available from Bärenreiter. Alert: The first violin part is hard!


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## Rangstrom

Volume 17 (and final) of Marco Polo's survey of the complete quartets of Spohr just arrived in the mail today. I checked and I bought volume one in 1990.


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