# Lesser known quartet composers



## ThankYouKiwi

Many of my favorite quartets were written by composers who're either relatively obscure, or just not particularly known for their quartets.

Schnittke
Szymanowski
Janacek
Prokofiev
Schulhoff
Honegger
Myaskovsky
Hindemith

These are some examples.

I'd love to hear some more lesser known quartet composer reccomendations from you all!


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## joen_cph

Yeah, the cycles by 

Villa Lobos, Malipiero, Ginastera, Weinberg/Vainberg, and Carl Nielsen

are among those I enjoy a lot too ... a lot of fresh and varied music in those cycles. Except Weinberg, they are all available in fine budget recordings. Ginastera has one quartet with a soprano.

Janacek's two are in my absolute, chosen top tier. The Hagen Quartet recording is the most expressive you'll hear.


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## ThankYouKiwi

joen_cph said:


> Yeah, the cycles by
> 
> Villa Lobos, Malipiero, Ginastera, Weinberg/Vainberg, and Carl Nielsen
> 
> are among those I enjoy a lot too ... a lot of fresh and varied music in those cycles. Except Weinberg, they are all available in fine budget recordings. Ginastera has one quartet with a soprano.
> 
> Janacek's two are in my absolute, chosen top tier. The Hagen Quartet recording is the most expressive you'll hear.


aaah yes I love Ginastera's, his first especially. It's basically just... a 7th Bartok quartet haha. I love Villa-Lobos and Nielsen's orchestral works, I'll have to look into their quartets.


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## Kreisler jr

I think the Janacek are too famous (deservedly so) for such a list...

Ives and K.A. Hartmann (2 each)

Hugo Wolf: A very bold quartet from the 1880s, maybe the most daring between late Beethoven and Reger/Schoenberg


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## GucciManeIsTheNewWebern

A Weinberg quartet was the topic of discussion in the Weekly Quartet thread a while ago. That was insanely good, this thread reminds me to go back and listen to some of that stuff again. Easily on par with Shosty.


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## Josquin13

I agree with you about Prokofiev and Janacek (& especially Prokofiev's two SQs, which deserve to be a lot better known than they are), plus several others, too. Some of my own picks would be,

--Charles Koechlin (pronounced Ké-kla): who composed three string quartets. I especially like his first quartet, which has grown on me with each new listen, and presently, I'd consider it to be one of the finest quartets of the French "impressionist" era:





https://www.earsense.org/chamber-mu.../?ri=8&rq=q=charles+koechlin&lid=-1&p=1&rc=24

--Koechlin, String Quartet No. 3, Op 72: 




--Joonas Kokkonen: who likewise composed three string quartets. Each quartet is excellent & underrated (although it could take several listens to appreciate this music). I may slightly prefer his No. 3, at least, at the moment, & especially its third movement:














--Peteris Vasks: who, to date, has composed five string quartets (the first three being more or less experimental): 



. I especially like Vasks' No. 4, as performed by the Navaara String Quartet:






--John Harbison: who has composed five quartets to date, if I'm not mistaken. I particularly like Harbison's first four quartets, as performed by the Lydian Quartet: 




--Vincent Persichetti: The Lydians have also recorded Persichetti's four quartets: 



, along with,

--William Schuman's String Quartets nos. 2, 3, & 5 for Harmonia Mundi, which I'd also consider underrated: http://www.lydianquartet.com/recordings/william-schuman-string-quartets-nos-2-3-and-5).

--John McCabe: I've recently discovered McCabe's remarkable String Quartet No. 7 "Summer Eaves", as performed by the Carducci Quartet: 



, and would like to hear more quartets by him.

https://www.amazon.com/Into-Ravine-...+quartet+ravine&qid=1619985870&s=music&sr=1-1

The following "In Flander's Fields"--vol. 2 CD of French "Impressionist" influenced string quartets by Belgian composers, Godfried Devreese and Prosper van Eechaute is worth checking out:

--Devreese, String Quartet (1925): 



--Eechaute, String Quartet No. 1, "à la mémoire de Maurice Ravel" (1933): 




The 6 string quartets by Joseph-Guy Ropartz and the sole quartet by Alberic Magnard are worth hearing, too:

--Ropartz, String Quartet No. 6:



--Magnard, String Quartet: https://www.earsense.org/chamber-music/Alberic-Magnard-String-Quartet-in-e-minor-Op-16/

Looking further back in music history, I consider Luigi Cherubini's string quartets to be underrated, as well:


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## progmatist

Rochberg isn't a household name, yet his 3rd string quartet is among the greatest ever written.


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## starthrower

Roberto Gerhard
Scelsi
Per Norgard
Ernst Krenek
Egon Wellesz
Karl Hartmann


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## elgar's ghost

Great suggestions so far. I would also add Hans Werner Henze (five between 1947 and 1977) and Paul Dessau (seven between 1932 and 1975). Both cycles were recorded for Wergo and cpo respectively.


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## Kreisler jr

Zemlinsky is probably well known these days.
For other late romantics also Reger (5+ a very early one) and Pfitzner (4). Dohnanyi (3) is more accessible than these other two although his piano quintets and mixed sextet are better, I think. There are also 3 by Korngold but I have only heard one and was not sufficiently enticed to get the others.

For early/mid 19th century romantic classicists, both Spohr and Onslow wrote a lot of them and it might be worth checking out a sample (I think Naxos and cpo have at least a selection). A bit more romantic (between Beethoven and Schumann) is Robert Volkmann (6, cpo)


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## Kjetil Heggelund

Since no-one mentioned Cherubini...oh, and Gubaidulina and Peter Maxwell Davies!


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## Josquin13

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> Since no-one mentioned Cherubini...oh, and Gubaidulina and Peter Maxwell Davies!


I mentioned Cherubini's string quartets favorably, as "underrated".


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## Merl

I think Jos et al have covered everyone I was going to mention. Great suggestions, folks


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## MarkW

I'll second (or third, or whatever) Nielsen.


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## Art Rock

Not mentioned yet: Ben Johnston (1926-2019), for me one of the main finds of recent years. From wiki: Johnston's compositional style is eclectic. He uses serial processes, folk song idioms (string quartets 4, 5, and 10), repetitive processes, traditional forms like fugue and variations, and intuitive processes.


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## SanAntone

*Krzysztof Meyer* has written 15 string quartets many recorded on Naxos by the Wieniawski String Quartet.

View attachment 154846


15 String Quartets

No. 1, Op. 8 (1963)
No. 2, Op. 23 (1969)
No. 3, Op. 27 (1971)
No. 4, Op. 33 (1974)
No. 5, Op. 42 (1977)
No. 6, Op. 51 (1981)
No. 7, Op. 65 (1985)
No. 8, Op. 67 (1985)
No. 9, Op. 74 (1990)
No. 10, Op. 82 (1994)
No. 11, Op. 95 (2001)
No. 12, Op. 103 (2005)
No. 13, Op. 113 (2010)
No. 14, Op. 122 (2014)
No. 15, Op. 131 (2017)


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## Andante Largo

Dobrzyński, Ignacy Feliks (1807 – 1867)
Elsner, Józef (1769 - 1854)
Fuchs, Robert (1847 - 1927) 
Gernsheim, Friedrich (1839 – 1916)
Gretchaninov, Alexander (1864 - 1956)
Hummel, Johann Nepomuk (1778 – 1837)
Lessel, Franciszek (1780 - 1838) 
Melartin, Erkki (1875 – 1937)
Noskowski, Zygmunt (1846 - 1909)
Paganini, Niccolò (1782 - 1840)
Perosi, Lorenzo (1872 – 1956)
Reinecke, Carl (1824 - 1910)
Rheinberger, Josef (1839 – 1901)
Sibelius, Jean (1865 – 1957) 
Stenhammar, Wilhelm (1871 – 1927)
Żeleński, Władysław (1837 – 1921)

Each of these composers composed at least 3 quartets. Most quartets were composed by Paganini - 22 and by Perosi - 18.


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## PeterF

I am perhaps what might be termed a “string quartet junkie”. Over many years I have searched out and acquired a large library of strings quartets on compact disc. Many of them by composers who are not well known.

Here are just a few by composers that I especially enjoy.

Argiel
Burgmuller
Czerny
Eybler
F. Fesca
Herzogenberg
Kozeluh
Molique
Raff
Reicha
Ries
Rheinberger
Rubinstein
Rott


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## Roger Knox

joen_cph said:


> Yeah, the cycles by
> 
> Villa Lobos, Malipiero, Ginastera, Weinberg/Vainberg, and Carl Nielsen
> 
> are among those I enjoy a lot too ... a lot of fresh and varied music in those cycles. Except Weinberg, they are all available in fine budget recordings. Ginastera has one quartet with a soprano.
> 
> Janacek's two are in my absolute, chosen top tier. The Hagen Quartet recording is the most expressive you'll hear.


Glad to know that the two Janacek quartets are tops for you. I listened to them over and over after first hearing them many years ago.


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## starthrower

Ernst Toch quartets available on CPO


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## CnC Bartok

Am I missing something? Some of the major major bodies of work for the string quartet came from

Bohuslav Martinů
Vagn Holmboe
Grazyna Bacewicz
Andrzej Panufnik
Aulis Sallinen

Has anyone mentioned these?? Or are they part of the furniture, as it were?

There is a single, wonderful quartet by Vítězslava Kaprálová, a very fine work indeed.

And going back in time to another who died tragically young, Juan Arriaga composed three fabulous quartets before dying just short of his 20th birthday.


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## starthrower

CnC Bartok said:


> Am I missing something? Some of the major major bodies of work for the string quartet came from
> 
> Bohuslav Martinů
> Vagn Holmboe
> Grazyna Bacewicz
> Andrzej Panufnik
> Aulis Sallinen
> 
> Has anyone mentioned these?? Or are they part of the furniture, as it were?


I have both CPO orchestral boxes by Sallinen, and Panufnik but I was not aware of their quartets. I listen to the Bacewicz quartets on Naxos. And there are the Vasks quartets. Merl mentioned them in his blog.


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## Radames

Louis Spohr wrote 36 string quartets. I have only heard a couple. But that's a lot of quartets.


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## Kreisler jr

Onslow had even more, also the Lachners have a bunch between them, I am not sure if all of them have been recorded. I heard a few of Spohr and Onslow but I tended to prefer their mixed/larger ensemble chamber music. Even Donizetti has about 16 early quartets that have been recorded for cpo.


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## CnC Bartok

starthrower said:


> I have both CPO orchestral boxes by Sallinen, and Panufnik but I was not aware of their quartets. I listen to the Bacewicz quartets on Naxos. And there are the Vasks quartets. Merl mentioned them in his blog.


There are three Panufnik quartets, and they are pretty thorny and intense, but I like his sound world, and found them quite powerful. As to Sallinen, I believe he's composed more than the first five recorded about 20 years ago on Ondine. Again, if you're familiar with the Symphonies, you'll know what sort of thing to expect. No.3 is actually quite well-known, a set of variations on a Finnish folk tune, and an impossibly long subtitle!

Edit: there is a sixth quartet now, from 2014. Haven't heard it, sorry.


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## PeterF

Radames said:


> Louis Spohr wrote 36 string quartets. I have only heard a couple. But that's a lot of quartets.


Yes, Spohr must have composed all day, every day. Apart from his numerous string quartets, Spohr wrote :A number of string quintets, Double Quintets, piano trios, a string sextet, nonet, septet, piano quintet, quintet for piano & strings, violin concertos, clarinet concertos, symphonies, concerto for string quartet and orchestra, concertos for violin, harp and orchestra.

I am a big admirer of his works, and have almost all of them in my cd collection.


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## KevMan

For the last month I've listened too all
Of Schoenberg's Quartets and now I'm 
In the process of trying to locate my
Peter Maxwell Davies Naxos series 
So far I've found the first two disc...
My cd collection is in three different 
Places..but I'm working on it and enjoying every minute of it.


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