# String Quartets Post Schubert



## cort

After going through Haydn's string quartets I'm going to move on to Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. 

After that I know of Bartok and Shostakovich but not many others. 

What sets of string quartets would you recommend post-Schubert?


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## Manxfeeder

Schoenberg wrote four. Number 2 is the one to get familiar with because it's a turning point, but I like all four. Less famous but also worth hearing are Zemlinsky's.

I also like Anton Webern's quartet pieces.


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## SuperTonic

Dvorak and Brahms come to mind immediately.

You might find this thread useful:
The TC Top 100+ Recommended String Quartets List

I've been using it myself to explore the string quartet repertoire further.


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## Selby

Immediately move to France.

Debussy
Ravel
Faure
Saint-Saens (3)
Cras
Ganoud
Koechlin (3)
Durosoir (3)
Ropartz (7)
Milhaud (18) 
Dutilleux
(and many, many more)

Immediately buy this one disc album from Quatuor Ébène:
http://www.amazon.com/Ravel-Debussy...&qid=1427160994&sr=8-2&keywords=Quatuor+Ébène

US$5 new, yep. It has the Debussy, Ravel, and Faure. 
If you don't like it, go no further. 
When you fall in love with it, which you will, continue down the aforementioned list.









Good travels, good sir!

thread here about French SQs:
http://www.talkclassical.com/8073-what-about-french-string.html


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## GKC

Tchaikovsky no. 1
Borodin no. 2
Ravel 
Debussy
Schumann 1-3
Mendelssohn 1 and 2
Shosty nos. 3, 4, 7, 8, 9
Martinu nos. 3, 4, 5
Zemlinsky nos. 1, 4

are some of my favorites post Schubert


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## Guest

Some cats I like with AT LEAST 4.

Haydn
Mozart
Beethoven
Schubert
-------------
Mendelssohn
Dvorak
Reger
Nielsen
Schoenberg
Zemlinsky
Martinu
Bartok
Hindemith
Shostakovich
Haba
Carter
Holmboe
Scelsi
Gubaidulina
Norgard
Ferneyhough
Harvey
Rihm
Sciarrino
Dusapin
Haas
...and the list goes on and on and on...


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## MoonlightSonata

Shostakovich No. 15 is _amazing_.


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## Andreas

I'd add Schnittke and Nono to what's already been mentioned plus, personally, Górecki.


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## hpowders

Mendelssohn String Quartets 3-6.


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## Blancrocher

cort said:


> After going through Haydn's string quartets I'm going to move on to Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert


Don't forget their string _quintets_ while you're at it!


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## elgar's ghost

If you are looking for quartets which are directly after Schubert then we are talking Mendelssohn's op. 44 nos. 1-3 and op. 80, as hpowders suggested. After that I suppose the next logical steps are the three each by Schumann and Brahms but I would suggest bypassing those for a while and going onto Smetana's two wonderfully inventive quartets from 1876 and 1881, the second of which was composed in exceptionally difficult circumstances.


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## TurnaboutVox

Here's the latest version of our TC recommended string quartets list, a project which is still under construction. It currently has 180 works. Often the inclusion of one of a composer's works is a pointer to other works by the same composer which may be worth exploring.

http://www.talkclassical.com/34778-tc-top-100-recommended-post847974.html#post847974

It's not comprehensive, but it should give you some ideas for the post-Schubert era.


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## cort

SuperTonic said:


> Dvorak and Brahms come to mind immediately.
> 
> You might find this thread useful:
> The TC Top 100+ Recommended String Quartets List
> 
> I've been using it myself to explore the string quartet repertoire further.


Thanks - didn't know that was there


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## cort

Who knew? 

I didn't. After Debussy I knew nothing - and now I know. 

Thanks for opening up the world of modern French quartets for me 

(18 from Milhaud!)


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## cort

At least four - really - that is good news, indeed Apparently the string quartet did NOT die out in the 20th century -as I had heard somewhere.


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## cort

TurnaboutVox said:


> Here's the latest version of our TC recommended string quartets list, a project which is still under construction. It currently has 180 works. Often the inclusion of one of a composer's works is a pointer to other works by the same composer which may be worth exploring.
> 
> http://www.talkclassical.com/34778-tc-top-100-recommended-post847974.html#post847974
> 
> It's not comprehensive, but it should give you some ideas for the post-Schubert era.


It's comprehensive enough for me -that's very impressive - it could keep me occupied for years. Appreciate it.


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## cort

Smetana - no kidding - I had no idea...

Mendelssohn I will probably bypass but Schumann - absolutely and of course Brahms- which I have heard. 

Smetana, though - those I HAVE to check out.


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## cort

So many possibilities...


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## TurnaboutVox

cort said:


> Smetana - no kidding - I had no idea...
> 
> Mendelssohn I will probably bypass but Schumann - absolutely and of course Brahms- which I have heard.
> 
> Smetana, though - those I HAVE to check out.


Unsolicited advice, but...I shouldn't bypass Mendelssohn's string quartets, if I were you. They are very good indeed, certainly on a par with Schumann and Brahms, but very different.


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## KenOC

Don't miss Mendelssohn's 2nd String Quartet. A fine work more or less based on Beethoven's brand new Op. 132 quartet, it isn't exactly post-Schubert because Franz was still kicking (and Beethoven too).


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## QuietGuy

There's nothing I can add to this. If nothing else, try Debussy Ravel and Borodin 2. Fantastic!


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## cort

Cool....I do remember the splash the Emerson Quartet made with them some time ago....Any favorite recordings?


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## cort

Borodin is #17 on the top 100. Didn't even know he wrote quartets.


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## KenOC

Borodn's #2 is quite popular -- you'll hear some pop tunes in it!


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## SimonNZ

cort said:


> At least four - really - that is good news, indeed Apparently the string quartet did NOT die out in the 20th century -as I had heard somewhere.


Scroll to the bottom of this chronological list if you want to see just how alive it still is:

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


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## Guest

Dvorak, for me, is the most obvious. While his orchestral works are incredible, he really is a master at chamber music. Smetana, in that same vein. Brahms is quite good, but fairly underrated in his string quartets, whereas his quintets and sextets get high praise. After that, the one that has been really surprising to me is Britten. Interesting works - I was introduced to them through a recording by the Takacs Quartet. Finally - Barber! His string quartet contains the adagio that would later be adapted for larger forces as the Adagio for Strings, but I think the more intimate setting of a quartet makes it much more poignant!


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## Chronochromie

cort said:


> Who knew?
> 
> I didn't. After Debussy I knew nothing - and now I know.
> 
> Thanks for opening up the world of modern French quartets for me
> 
> (18 from Milhaud!)


Check out Honegger's quartets too.


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## Perotin

Grieg's string quartet is quite popular, and Prokofiev wrote two, not very popular, but I find them enjoyable nonetheless.


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## Triplets

OP seems to be asking about the lacunae between Schubert and Bartok. Other posters have mentioned great works here. I would whittle it down a bit.

While Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms wrote wonderful Quartets, I would start with Dovrak. His output in this genre is uneven. Start with his "American" Quartet and then concentrate on all with an Opus number above 50.
I would then explore the Debussy, Ravel, Janacek, & Smetena

That should occupy you for a while. Perhaps then backtrack through Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky.


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## Guest

cort said:


> At least four - really - that is good news, indeed Apparently the string quartet did NOT die out in the 20th century -as I had heard somewhere.


Whoever told you that probably forgot to mention that they hold the radical opinion that ALL music died out in the 20th century. Best to take such comments with a grain of salt


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## TurnaboutVox

cort said:


> Cool....I do remember the splash the Emerson Quartet made with them some time ago....Any favorite recordings?


Not quite sure which works you're referring to here, cort, but in the Debussy and Ravel quartets I like the Melos Quartet, the Quartetto Italiano and for a modern account the Belcea Quartet. In the Borodin #2 my favourite is the QI again, but I've heard many other good versions..


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## Albert7

Wow I am floored that no one here has mentioned both of Feldman's string quartets?!???????????

Definitely if you haven't heard those, then you haven't heard classical music .


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## Guest

Albert7 said:


> Wow I am floored that no one here has mentioned both of Feldman's string quartets?!???????????
> 
> Definitely if you haven't heard those, then you haven't heard classical music .


Please don't use hyperbole to turn Feldman into Callas 2.0, thanks


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## Vaneyes

Cort, there may be some singles and sets in the following that haven't been mentioned. Happy listening. :tiphat:

Franck, Chausson, Arnold, Bacewicz, Berio, Britten, Carter, Elgar, Enescu, Gerhard, Ginastera, Janacek, Krenek, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Maderna, Messiaen, Moeran, Miaskovsky, Penderecki, Prokofiev, Rawsthorne, Roussel, Sibelius, Szymanowski, RVW, Walton, Wuorinen.


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## Guest

Vaneyes said:


> Cort, there may be some singles and sets in the following that haven't been mentioned. Happy listening. :tiphat:
> 
> Franck, Chausson, Arnold, Bacewicz, Berio, Britten, Carter, Elgar, Enescu, Gerhard, Ginastera, Janacek, Krenek, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Maderna, Messiaen, Moeran, Miaskovsky, Penderecki, Prokofiev, Rawsthorne, Roussel, Sibelius, Szymanowski, RVW, Walton, Wuorinen.


Now, I only mentioned composers with four or more quartets, so I understand that I missed Ligeti, Ginastera, Berio, Britten, etc...

But you tricked me into thinking I forgot Carter!

Umm...also...erm...Messiaen?


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## tortkis

cort said:


> Smetana - no kidding - I had no idea...
> 
> Mendelssohn I will probably bypass but Schumann - absolutely and of course Brahms- which I have heard.
> 
> Smetana, though - those I HAVE to check out.


Czech composers, Smetana, Dvořák, Janáček, and Martinů, wrote very good string quartets. They are rich in texture, tuneful, and beautiful. I like Stamitz Quartet's 15-disc set a lot, which contains all the string quartets of these composers. The mp3 album is incredibly cheap, good even just for sampling some of them.

Stamitz Quartet: Czech String Quartets (Brilliant Classics)








http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CMQNCZA


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## KenOC

tortkis said:


> Stamitz Quartet: Czech String Quartets (Brilliant Classics)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CMQNCZA


At $8.99, one of the great bargains on the Internet. ALL the quartets of Smetana, Dvořák, Janáček, and Martinů.


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## Guest

KenOC said:


> At $8.99, one of the great bargains on the Internet. ALL the quartets of Smetana, Dvořák, Janáček, and Martinů,


But but but...how could they forget Alois Haba?


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## mtmailey

cort said:


> After going through Haydn's string quartets I'm going to move on to Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.
> 
> After that I know of Bartok and Shostakovich but not many others.
> 
> What sets of string quartets would you recommend post-Schubert?


TCHAIKOVSKY,DVORAK & Elgar .


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## Oliver

Elliot Carter composed 5 stunning quartets. Essential listening.


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## Avey

The French is an obvious choice. Something in the water. Or air. Location and all.

But so is *Dvorak*! Like, just dive in. The fourteen are essential, yo.


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## Avey

Oliver said:


> Elliot Carter composed 5 stunning quartets. Essential listening.


But now we are getting _waaaay_ past Schubert.


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## HaydnBearstheClock

Mendelssohn's String Quartets are highly recommended, they're very good. No. 6 in F minor is probably the strongest, but all are of very high quality.


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## Haydn man

Got to agree with those before me
Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Dvorak are worth anyone's listening time


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## Rangstrom

There are so many: some recent discoveries for me include Pohjola, Alwyn, Ireland, Weinberg and Diamond.


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## DebussyDoesDallas

As a fairly recent convert to string quartets and enthusiastic fan of the genre's Viennese Mount Rushmore of Haydn/Mozart/Beet/Schubert, I'd also recommend moving on to French composers such as Debussy and Ravel. The general consensus seems to be that they're the first to mark a radical shift in sound and style and thus can't really suffer in comparison with their predecessors, while a listener smitten with the Big 4 might not readily grok the Romantics in their shadows.


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## cort

> Scroll to the bottom of this chronological list if you want to see just how alive it still is:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rtet_composers


That is amazing...and gratifying!


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## cort

It looks like everybody who was anybody - every major composer - has kept giving the string quartets a shot. Another hill to climb - another challenge to meet for any serious composer. I believe I read somewhere that creating a good string quartet is amongst the more difficult things to do in classical music.


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## cort

With praise like that though, I have to check out Feldman :tiphat:

I see the second in particular might be a bit of a challenge 



> Later, he began to produce his very long works, often in one continuous movement, rarely shorter than half an hour in length and often much longer. These works include Violin and String Quartet (1985, around 2 hours), For Philip Guston (1984, around four hours) and, most extreme,* the String Quartet II (1983, which is over six hours long without a break.*) Typically, these pieces maintain a very slow developmental pace (if not static) and tend to be made up of mostly very quiet sounds. Feldman said himself that quiet sounds had begun to be the only ones that interested him. In a 1982 lecture, Feldman noted: "Do we have anything in music for example that really wipes everything out? That just cleans everything away?"


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## cort

Yes, Britten - I love Britten...I think he did three (?)

And Messaien or however you spell his name - I remember that famous quartet. Haven't gotten into the knotty Carter and his 4 string quartets....I will take them on at some point though.


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## cort

What a deal!

Unfortunately I don't know how to do MP3's. Can I download to my computer and play from there or do I need an MP3 player? I am way behind on MP's...

I've seen some other great deals on MP3's...

I looked up Stamitz himself or one of the Stamitz's by the way - quite a prolific Czech composer. It's interesting how music develops in different areas. I wonder who started off the beautiful, lush sounds associated with many composers in that region?



> Carl Stamitz wrote more than 50 symphonies, at least 38 symphonies concertantes and more than 60 concertos for violin, viola, viola d'amore, cello, clarinet, Basset horn, flute, bassoon and other instruments.[3] He also wrote a large volume of chamber music. Some of the clarinet and viola concertos that Stamitz composed are considered to be among the finest available from the period.
> 
> During the period when he lived in Paris, Stamitz began to cooperate with the Bohemian born clarinet virtuoso Joseph Beer (1744-1811), which proved fruitful for both Stamitz and Beer. At least one of Stamitz's clarinet concertos (the concerto No. 6 in E-flat major) seems to have been composed jointly by the two men, as both of their names appear on the title page of the Viennese manuscript. Stamitz was the first composer to specify a left-hand pizzicato (an important virtuoso device) in a musical composition.[4] This occurs in his Viola Concerto in D major, where the passage in question is designated by an "0" above the notes.
> 
> Stamitz's cello concertos were written for Frederick William II of Prussia, who was a gifted amateur musician: both Mozart and Beethoven wrote music for the king.
> 
> Style[edit]
> Stylistically, Stamitz's music is not too far removed from the galante works of the young Mozart, or those of Haydn's middle period. Stamitz's works are characterized by regular periods and appealing melodies, with the voices quite often led in thirds, sixths and tenths. The writing for the solo instruments is idiomatic and virtuosic, but not excessively so.
> 
> The opening movements of Stamitz's concertos and orchestral works are regularly constructed in sonata form, with an extensive double exposition. Their structure is additive in nature and does not exhibit the thematic development that is considered typical of the Viennese classical style. The middle movements are expressive and lyrical, sometimes called 'Romance' and usually constructed according to the Liedform (ABA, ABA' or AA'B). The final movement is often (and in the concertos almost always) a French-style rondo.
> 
> Just as his teacher Franz Xaver Richter had done, Stamitz preferred minor keys, as he generally used a variety of (sometimes remote) keys.


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## cort

> Not quite sure which works you're referring to here, cort, but in the Debussy and Ravel quartets I like the Melos Quartet, the Quartetto Italiano and for a modern account the Belcea Quartet. In the Borodin #2 my favourite is the QI again, but I've heard many other good versions..


Thanks for those.

It was Mendelssohn - Melos perhaps?


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## cort

DrMike said:


> Dvorak, for me, is the most obvious. While his orchestral works are incredible, he really is a master at chamber music. Smetana, in that same vein. Brahms is quite good, but fairly underrated in his string quartets, whereas his quintets and sextets get high praise. After that, the one that has been really surprising to me is Britten. Interesting works - I was introduced to them through a recording by the Takacs Quartet. Finally - Barber! His string quartet contains the adagio that would later be adapted for larger forces as the Adagio for Strings, but I think the more intimate setting of a quartet makes it much more poignant!


Dvorak is getting a lot of votes...I would not have thought of him. Love the Britten - thanks


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## cort

Triplets said:


> OP seems to be asking about the lacunae between Schubert and Bartok. Other posters have mentioned great works here. I would whittle it down a bit.
> 
> While Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms wrote wonderful Quartets, I would start with Dovrak. His output in this genre is uneven. Start with his "American" Quartet and then concentrate on all with an Opus number above 50.
> I would then explore the Debussy, Ravel, Janacek, & Smetena
> 
> That should occupy you for a while. Perhaps then backtrack through Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky.


Thanks for advice on the Dvorak - lots of listening ahead..


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## tortkis

cort said:


> What a deal!
> 
> Unfortunately I don't know how to do MP3's. Can I download to my computer and play from there or do I need an MP3 player? I am way behind on MP's...
> 
> I've seen some other great deals on MP3's...


If you purchase mp3 at amazon, you can either download the mp3 files (you need a mp3 player like iTunes), play stream on amazon web site (on "Digital Music" page, there is a button "Your Music Library" around the upper right corner), or play stream using amazon music application for PC/Mac or app for smartphone. Similar with Google play: you can download mp3 files or stream purchased music on PC/Mac/smartphone.


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## cort

tortkis said:


> If you purchase mp3 at amazon, you can either download the mp3 files (you need a mp3 player like iTunes), play stream on amazon web site (on "Digital Music" page, there is a button "Your Music Library" around the upper right corner), or play stream using amazon music application for PC/Mac or app for smartphone. Similar with Google play: you can download mp3 files or stream purchased music on PC/Mac/smartphone.


Thanks - appreciate it.


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