Best String Quartet...Ever.

I was wondering how folks rated string quartets in comparison with one another?

I have listened to a good amount of string quartets--Haydn opus 20, 33, 74, 76, Beethoven opus 18, 59 (1 and 2), 131, Mozart (all), Schubert (all), Pleyel, Hummel, Spohr, Schumann, Mendelssohn (all) Dvorak (all), Bartok (all), Brahms (all 3!), Schostokovich (3,8,11,...), as well a some of Glass, Gorecki, and Janacek.

While I have many favorites--Mozart's Dissonance and Hoffmeister, Beethoven op.18 1, 2, and 4- Mendelssohn's 1st, Janacek no 2--I don't think any can compare with Schubert's 15th for sheer beauty, scale, and detailed writing. Here Schubert cements and expands on the personal voice he found with nos 13 and 14, and creates a powerful and endlessly inventive symphonic quartet. Some have compared it to Mahler, which I can understand, or to Brahms. The scherzo is decidedly Mendelssohnian, before the fact. I know those in the know go crazy for late Beethoven, but he leaves me cold, for what I have heard. With no 15, Schubert seems to me to have thrown off the weight of Ludwig, and made his own music with great rapture and gusto. When I hear this piece, I truly lament his passing so young (31 yrs.). As other have pointed out, at that same age, Beethoven would have only just completed his opus 18, and all his great symphonies would still be ahead of him. Maybe the greatest tragedy in music...

I was wondering if there are any quartet lovers out there who have an opinion? (rhetorical!).

I can't help it, but the late Beethoven Quartet's are on another level (especially op. 131) to me. I haven't heard any other quartet, maybe even composition, that communicates so directly and so profoundly.

I certainly respect your view. I relisten to opus 131 occassionally, and hope to "get it". I'm planning on venturing into the other late quartets as well, as they are simply required listening for anyone serious about the genre.

Ludwig Von's late works are descibed as very personal and experimental. This would explain their highly individual nature. Schubert, for his part, while capable of writing intimate music, was never straying far from the more public idioms of his time (though I wouldn't describe him as an academic by any stretch--his use of three subjects and extended sojourns in to distant keys were novel and later adopted by the romantics...).

I don't look at this difference as a fault either way. In one case, you have a man who had acheived great fame and established himself, turning to music for music's sake. On the other, a prodigy who struggled with extended forms for some time, despite his considerable gifts, finally emerging into his full powers and this under the shadow of Beethoven.

A young composer can't write an experienced composer's music, if only from a psychological perspective...

I definitely agree with Beethoven's late string quartets as well - and particularly, as mentioned, op. 131 (but 130 and 132 are awesome as well!).

Lachenmanns string quartets are all great. Pure beauty.

I also really agree with Jan

I certainly respect your view. I relisten to opus 131 occassionally, and hope to "get it". I'm planning on venturing into the other late quartets as well, as they are simply required listening for anyone serious about the genre.

Ludwig Von's late works are descibed as very personal and experimental. This would explain their highly individual nature. Schubert, for his part, while capable of writing intimate music, was never straying far from the more public idioms of his time (though I wouldn't describe him as an academic by any stretch--his use of three subjects and extended sojourns in to distant keys were novel and later adopted by the romantics...).

I don't look at this difference as a fault either way. In one case, you have a man who had acheived great fame and established himself, turning to music for music's sake. On the other, a prodigy who struggled with extended forms for some time, despite his considerable gifts, finally emerging into his full powers and this under the shadow of Beethoven.

A young composer can't write an experienced composer's music, if only from a psychological perspective...

What makes Beethoven's late string quartets amazing to me is the degree of introspectiveness without loosing the musicality. I do think it takes some knowledge of Beethoven's live, especially at the time he wrote it in. He was deaf when he wrote it and I can so clearly hear a isolated man desperate for so many things a humanbeing is in need of. And in all this dispair there is a clear sence of 'love' for the world. I assume he inspired it on his faith. But all assumptions aside it just sounds so immensly personal to me. Assumptions in front again, I think he tries to portray his most personal feeling for the sake of just expressing himself and is so capable of doing so.

I still admire sheer personal emotional expression above anything else in music and therefor Beety is my man.

I think Bartok 4 is the one I'm thinking of. it's nasty as hell.

Ravel is of course a favorite of mine. I'm also a fan of Schoenberg 2, Hindemith 7, Bartok 4 and 5, Shostakovich 15, and especially Ives 1.

Among others...

In vague preferential order:

Dutilleux Ainsi La Nuit

Simpson 7 (His 9th is generally considered his best, but I can't stand it)

Shostakovich 11 (and 13)

Ligeti 2

Penderecki 2

Lutoslawski

I'm listening to Lachenmann's string quartets right now - I can't believe I've never heard of this guy! And ditto Kurtag.

Hadyn rocks. Even when I hear the late Beethoven or Shosty I hear a deference to Haydn.

Take for example this one:

YouTube - Haydn Quartet op 77/2 1st movt - Mosa

Admittedly I haven't listened to many string quartets at all being an orchestral person at heart. However, I will say that Beethoven's Gro

Admittedly I haven't listened to many string quartets at all being an orchestral person at heart. However, I will say that Beethoven's Gro

I absolutely love Brahms' string quartets...especially #3 in B flat major which I am studying right now. Until I heard his string quartets I really didn't know how much of a bad donkey he really was. I think the compact instrumentation of a quartet hass a huge appeal to me. Brahms' economy is astounding.

I've always listened to classical music since I was a kid but generally played guitar focusing on improvisation for the last 25 yrs. Now that I am delving into composing I am going back and SERIOUSLY listening with a "different" ear.

So I need to make my way back to the Beethoven string quartets and get familiar with them. My first exposure to Shostakovich was his string quartets and I tried repeatedly to get into them but couldn't. Odd thing is I can't give you an exact reason why...I have set them aside to come back to them later but they just didn't grab me and I found them oddly distant.

Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra is one of my favorite pieces ever so I am looking forward to hearing the master's string quartets as well.

If all you've heard of Bartok is Concerto for Orchestra, you may be surprised at his string quartets - either pleasantly or unpleasantly.

Of all the quartets I've heard I think I like Bart

If all you've heard of Bartok is Concerto for Orchestra, you maybe surprised at his string quartets - either pleasantly or unpleasantly.

It's funny you say that because I do recall hearing a brief few minutes of one a few years back from a violin teacher at the music studio we worked at. They were not what I expected. Can't wait to hear with a fresh ear.

I love Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, if that counts ... not a full multi-movement string quartet, but still. Other Beethoven quartets are great, too: Op. 132 in particular.

And then there's Bartok 4 and 5, Shosty 4, 7, 8, and 11 ... and that's about it. Never been much of a string quartet guy, but these pieces are amazing.

I love Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, if that counts ... not a full multi-movement string quartet, but still.

Well, it was the last movement of the string quartet Op. 130. He just took it out again subsequently, made it into its own opus and replaced the finale of Op. 130 with a different one, because his publisher thought the string quartet wouldn't sell with this weird monstrosity at the end.

Well, it was the last movement of the string quartet Op. 130. He just took it out again subsequently, made it into its own opus and replaced the finale of Op. 130 with a different one, because his publisher thought the string quartet wouldn't sell with this weird monstrosity at the end.

Honestly, I think Op. 130 is better with the alternate ending, and the Grosse Fuge on its own ... somehow, the fugue seems too big (er, not sure how to put it: too grand, too self-contained) for the rest of the piece.

Oddly, I think of the ode to joy in his ninth symphony in the same way. But I'm sure it's just me. After all, it seems popular to include Grosse Fuge on CD's with Op. 130, sometimes in place of the alternate ending. (I've heard somewhere they're doing that a lot with live performances, too, but I don't get out much and listen to most my music on CD. Would you happen to know if this is true?)

I like Bartok's 4th and the parts of heard of his 6th of his string quartets best. On my listening list is Griffes's Two Sketches on Indian Themes.

I am quite fond on the Debussy quartet, nobody mentioned yet...

Henri Dutilleux, Ainsi la nuit is the best string quartet ever...

Oh, and Spoon284: I'm glad you brought up the Lutoslawski quartet. I can't believe I didn't mention it. I actually heard an awesome performance of it just yesterday, accompanied with a lecture given by the person who played first violin in the quartet that premiered the piece in 1965 (Walter Levin, of the former LaSalle quartet). The lecture was quite enjoyable too.

Wow, I'm extremely jealous :P We never get pieces like that performed out here in Australia...

@Morgri: glad to see I'm not the only one!

And I have one more nomination: Roger Sessions' first string quartet. I'm not a huge fan of his later dodecaphonic stuff, but I really like this piece.

morton feldman's both string quartets approaches infinity

Morton Feldman's string quartets both approach boredom.

Well, in my opinion. :P I know, I'm a philistine!