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MilesColtrane

(18,678 posts)
Sun Jan 1, 2012, 11:19 AM Jan 2012

Let's Talk About the String Quartet

I'm pretty ignorant of much classical music, but find myself listening to more of it lately. I am particularly enamored of the string quartet right now.

I need your input for the most important quartets written and your personal favorites.

Here's what I've been checking out. It's a start, I suppose, but there are huge wholes here...no Mozart, no Brahms:

The late Beethoven quartets
Schubert 12, 14, 15
The Debussy and the Ravel
Ralph Vaughan Williams 1 & 2
Prokofiev 1 & 2
The Bartok 6

Unfortunately, the genre seems to ebb and fall out of favor with composers at times.

I'm particularly trying to find pieces that bridge the Schubert/late Beethoven works to the Debussy and Ravel.

I also find myself wondering what composers who never published quartets (like Wagner and Mahler) would have done with them.



9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Let's Talk About the String Quartet (Original Post) MilesColtrane Jan 2012 OP
My favorites are the Shostakovich set of 15 - we have the NRaleighLiberal Jan 2012 #1
Thanks MilesColtrane Jan 2012 #2
That's leapfrogging a bit from what you want dmallind Jan 2012 #3
Thank you. MilesColtrane Jan 2012 #4
I agree tjwmason May 2012 #8
Here are a few you won't want to miss: GoddessOfGuinness Jan 2012 #5
Others pbrower2a Jan 2012 #6
Dvorak Grantuspeace Feb 2012 #7
Kick for Schubert's 15th BeyondGeography Jun 2013 #9

NRaleighLiberal

(59,940 posts)
1. My favorites are the Shostakovich set of 15 - we have the
Sun Jan 1, 2012, 11:44 AM
Jan 2012

Fitzwilliam set, usually heavily discounted -but brilliant.

dmallind

(10,437 posts)
3. That's leapfrogging a bit from what you want
Tue Jan 3, 2012, 01:13 PM
Jan 2012

I'm not the greatest fan of string quartets personally, although the simple addition of a piano makes them one of my favorite ensembles. But to go from Beethoven to Debussy etc I'd suggest......

1) Late Ludwig Spohr - he wrote 30-odd SQs and anything after 28 or so postdates Beethoven and continues the transition to Romanticism (bit of silly trivia - he also invented the chin-rest)

2) Brahms 1 and 2 (3 is fine, but a bit more lighthearted). Late-ish in his career and like his symphonies, very much intentionally extending Beethoven's progress

3) Dvorak wrote quite a few - not realy great game-changers in style but beautiful melodically and enjoyable - later ones after 9 or so would make more sense for your historical POV

4) Franck gets you into the late Romantic and the Francophone musical environment

Debussy's SQ is early on in his career so start with that one once you get to the impressionists if you want to monitor the progression of the style. Ravel's (again only one) was a good decade or more later

Sibelius is a useful contemporary for these but more in the Wagnerian musical tradition.

I'd then go to Faure perhaps and certainly Prokofoev before tackling Shostakovich if you want to get an idea of the arc of the String Quartet. It's good stuff, but way more modern in harmonic flexibility etc than any mentioned above.

tjwmason

(14,819 posts)
8. I agree
Tue May 22, 2012, 03:53 PM
May 2012

I think that in Shostakovich's case, the quartets were small enough to fly under the radar in a way that the symphonies weren't (though I love the symphonies too) and so he could express more of his angst and his position.

GoddessOfGuinness

(46,435 posts)
5. Here are a few you won't want to miss:
Thu Jan 12, 2012, 12:55 AM
Jan 2012

Mozart K.458 'Hunt'
K.465 'Dissonance'
Dvorak Op. 51 'Slavonic'
Op. 96 'American'
Glazunov #3 'Slavonic'
Tchaikovsky #1
and to go beyond Bartok: Henri Dutilleux Ainsi la nuit, written in 1976

Mahler wrote a quartet movement for piano and strings, though I've not listened to it. He also rescored Schubert's Death and the Maiden and Beethoven's Op 95 quartet for string orchestra.

pbrower2a

(132 posts)
6. Others
Thu Jan 12, 2012, 08:25 PM
Jan 2012

The quartets that follow Dvorak's "American" quartet are also fine. I have heard a string quartet arrangement of the Kunst der Fuge of J.S. Bach; it might show musicological incorrectness, but it is impressive.

Mendelssohn wrote some nice ones. As for Mahler's early quartet movements for piano and strings it doesn't quite fit this category. It suggests early Debussy with some characteristics from the shtetl. This is one unique work; Mahler went in a very different direction.

But haven't we forgotten the one composer of string quartets who wrote the largest number of masterpiece in the genre -- Franz Josef Haydn?

BeyondGeography

(39,284 posts)
9. Kick for Schubert's 15th
Sat Jun 15, 2013, 07:19 PM
Jun 2013

The Crimes and Misdemeanors quartet (sorry...). Listen to that intensely creative piece and think how much was lost when Schubert died at the age of 31. One of the great tragedies of the genre, but he did leave a mountain of gorgeousness behind.

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