String Quartet Cycles

[Late]

I was reading a number of reviews on Amazon yesterday (some of the reviews for classical discs are exceptionally well-written), when I came across a review (responding to the review before it) that put forth a list of the "most important" string quartet cycles composed in the 20th century. A subjective argument to be sure, but it got me wondering. Anyway, here's what the reviewer listed:

• Bartok

• Shostakovich

• Schoenberg

• Carter

• Martinu

• Villa-Lobos

• Milhaud

• Britten

• Hindemith

I'm not even familiar with the music of Bohuslav Martinu, but the list made me want to check his work out. I know that "most important" is an incredibly ambiguous term, but — accepting the subjectivity of it all — how would you make a similar list? Let's try to give some criteria. How about:

• string quartet cycles (as opposed to chamber works with strings)

• meriting historical significance/cultural permanence either inside or outside the "cannon" of string quartet cycles

I'm interested in reading what you have to say — not so much for "debate" but rather because I love string quartets and am always on the lookout for composers I've never been exposed to. If you could list what representative ensemble/recording you like, that would be great too.

Thanks for the input!

[7/4]

Maybe this previous thread can help:

Post-Beethoven String Quartets, Other than Bartok and Shostakovich

I'm not too sure I can help, since my tastes in recent classical music lean towards mayhem or minimalism. Maybe Terry Rileys string quartets? Cadenza on the Night Plain or Salome Dances for Peace for example.

And there's always the Morton Feldman string quartets.

[Late]

Yeah, I read through that thread (a good one), and I guess this thread is somewhat similar in its query. Actually, because of that thread, I've been checking out sound samples of Dvorak, Krenek, Smetana, et al. In fact, I have a Dvorak box set in my cart right now at Amazon. But then there's the Villa-Lobos box set ...

My ears lean toward "mayhem" as well. Through the Naive/Montaigne label, I've heard work for strings by Nono, Maderna, Xenakis, Rihm, Kagel, Feldman, and Ohana — all composers who serve up moments of mayhem (or minimalism with Feldman), but I suppose, with this thread, I was trying to ask the "everyone should have in their classical collection" type of question, only with the 20th century brackets.

[7/4]

In that case, Cadenza on the Night Plain.

[Joe]

Gloria Coates

http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/bio23504.htm

[WD45]

There was some discussion of Milhaud's String Quartets here:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=5737

I would like to echo once again my love for his first String Quartet.

[A Lark Ascending]

The four string quartets of Frank Bridge are fascinating - they chart a journey from Romanticism to 1920s abstraction. The two Janacek quartets are hardly a cycle - but are wonderfully distinctive examples of 20thC chamber music.

I'm not sure if the Bridge fall into the 'everyone should have in their collection' concept (a foreign idea to me)...but they'll reward the curious listener who enjoys discovering music with its own voice.

[7/4]

My ears lean toward "mayhem" as well. Through the Naive/Montaigne label, I've heard work for strings by Nono, Maderna, Xenakis, Rihm, Kagel, Feldman, and Ohana — all composers who serve up moments of mayhem (or minimalism with Feldman),

It's a shame that label folded. The Xenakis chamber music disk is essential:

Iannis Xenakis 1: Musique de chamber 1955-1990

- Auvidis Montaigne 782005 (1992)

(Claude Helffer - piano, Arditti String Quartet)

[Late]

There was some discussion of Milhaud's String Quartets here:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=5737

I would like to echo once again my love for his first String Quartet.

I read that thread too, but now the Milhaud box set on Naive is out-of-print (or at least not for sale new or used at Amazon). I was getting all excited about hearing it! I'll unearth a copy somewhere/some time.

Will add Coates and Bridge to the list. The "everyone should have" idea I think is more fetishism than anything, but sometimes it helps to discover new voices.

It's odd how we discover certain composers in our own way and time. Example: I've barely heard a note of Dvorak's chamber works, but was exposed to Penderecki's chamber works at a fairly young age (14), and now the latter feels like a household name.

[Late]

My ears lean toward "mayhem" as well. Through the Naive/Montaigne label, I've heard work for strings by Nono, Maderna, Xenakis, Rihm, Kagel, Feldman, and Ohana — all composers who serve up moments of mayhem (or minimalism with Feldman),

It's a shame that label folded. The Xenakis chamber music disk is essential:

Iannis Xenakis 1: Musique de chamber 1955-1990

- Auvidis Montaigne 782005 (1992)

(Claude Helffer - piano, Arditti String Quartet)

Wow, didn't know that. I got most of my copies from CDUniverse about three years ago. Tower still carries some at around $11.99. The only one I could never find was the Arditti's version of the Schoenberg quartets. (I also could never find Arditti's Scelsi, but a generous board member helped me out.) A very cool reissue program/label. Actually, last I checked, CDUniverse had the super-rare From U.S.A disc for under $10!

[A Lark Ascending]

It's odd how we discover certain composers in our own way and time. Example: I've barely heard a note of Dvorak's chamber works, but was exposed to Penderecki's chamber works at a fairly young age (14), and now the latter feels like a household name.

Very true - and a good thing, in my view. I love visiting other people's houses and seeing how their record collections look, each reflecting very different experiences.

The idea of 'the key works' has some meaning for academic trying to trace significance or influence and might have some use for people wanting to make a start and wanting a few sure-fire recommendations. But the real fun comes from following your own instincts off the text-book path. I find most of the mid to late 19thC (string quartets or classical music in general) has little interest for me, yet I get great pleasure in exploring supposedly 'minor' composers in the early 20th. It would be a sad old world if we all built our collections from what someone else has told us 'everyone should have'.

[7/4]

Wow, didn't know that. I got most of my copies from CDUniverse about three years ago. Tower still carries some at around $11.99. The only one I could never find was the Arditti's version of the Schoenberg quartets. (I also could never find Arditti's Scelsi, but a generous board member helped me out.) A very cool reissue program/label. Actually, last I checked, CDUniverse had the super-rare From U.S.A disc for under $10!

I didn't know it was super rare! Everything must be cheap because the distributors are getting rid of their remaining stock. I saw a couple of titles on Amazon, DMG had a bunch of their cds on sale recently.

[Late]

But the real fun comes from following your own instincts off the text-book path. ... It would be a sad old world if we all built our collections from what someone else has told us 'everyone should have'.

Very true. (Though it's also fun to check in on others' instincts!)

Clem, just got done listening to some Holmboe sound samples. Very fine stuff. Goes way up on the list.

I might regret starting this thread ... $ :rsmile: $

[Larry Kart]

Anglo-Irish composer Elizabeth Maconchy:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/fyfeholt/macnaghten.htm

who wrote 13 string quartets -- all very good (in what was initially a kind of personal offshoot of Bartok and then became all her) all recorded, all those recordings now probably oop. (I have them -- I think thanks to Berkshire at one time.)

[7/4]

Actually, last I checked, CDUniverse had the super-rare From U.S.A disc for under $10!

They still have it for 12.49.

[MichL]

I was reading a number of reviews on Amazon yesterday (some of the reviews for classical discs are exceptionally well-written), when I came across a review (responding to the review before it) that put forth a list of the "most important" string quartet cycles composed in the 20th century. A subjective argument to be sure, but it got me wondering. Anyway, here's what the reviewer listed:

• Bartok

• Shostakovich

• Schoenberg

• Carter

• Martinu

• Villa-Lobos

• Milhaud

• Britten

• Hindemith

I'm not even familiar with the music of Bohuslav Martinu, but the list made me want to check his work out. I know that "most important" is an incredibly ambiguous term, but — accepting the subjectivity of it all — how would you make a similar list? Let's try to give some criteria. How about:

• string quartet cycles (as opposed to chamber works with strings)

• meriting historical significance/cultural permanence either inside or outside the "cannon" of string quartet cycles

I'm interested in reading what you have to say — not so much for "debate" but rather because I love string quartets and am always on the lookout for composers I've never been exposed to. If you could list what representative ensemble/recording you like, that would be great too.

Thanks for the input!

Here are some that I don't think have been mentioned:

Krenek

Erenst Bloch

I would 2nd or 3rd the Bridge cycle.

Michael

M

[7/4]

Might be interesting:

Late 20th/21st Century Modern String Quartets

[7/4]

Wow, didn't know that. I got most of my copies from CDUniverse about three years ago. Tower still carries some at around $11.99. The only one I could never find was the Arditti's version of the Schoenberg quartets. (I also could never find Arditti's Scelsi, but a generous board member helped me out.) A very cool reissue program/label. Actually, last I checked, CDUniverse had the super-rare From U.S.A disc for under $10!

I didn't know it was super rare! Everything must be cheap because the distributors are getting rid of their remaining stock. I saw a couple of titles on Amazon, DMG had a bunch of their cds on sale recently.

I was checking and while DMG has titles by Montaigne, they're not on sale. Word on Montaigne is they are not releasing any new titles and not repressing anything when they sell out stock.

[tonym]

Personally, I think the Bax cycle on Naxos performed by the Maggini Quartet is fantastic. All the most rewarding attributes of the quartet format are present; intimacy, spaciousness, dialogue and bringing the composer's own voice to the fore.

IIRC the same group have performed Britten's cycle too.

[Larry Kart]

Rawsthorne 1-3 on Naxos with the Maggini. There's also a Flesch Quartet disc of the Rawsthorne quartets disc that includes an early quartet from 1935. The Maggini performances are better, but I keep both discs.

[Larry Kart]

Don't forget Janacek and Szymanowki. Only two each, but...

[Larry Kart]

These two Andrew Imbrie (3&5) quartets (Sessions-like tough but quite individual) have never worn out their welcome with me:

http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Imbrie-String...5057&sr=1-1

[Rooster_Ties]

Pressed for time this morning, but had to mention Zemlinsky.

He kind of bridges two centuries (his first quartet is from 1896), but the rest all date from the teens, 20's, and 30's.

Thorny, meaty stuff. Very rewarding.

Trivia: my wife and I had the scherzo from his first string quartet played at our wedding!! (His first quartet is tuneful, late-Romantic fare -- a wonderful work, IMHO.)

All of his subsequent quartets (2-4) were serial, or thorny enough that an uneducated rube like myself might confuse them with being serial (after not having listened to them in a couple years).

Edited February 29, 2008 by Rooster_Ties

[Spontooneous]

Another advocate for the Krenek cycle here. A long evolutionary arc.

Might not need to hear the whole Martinu cycle -- he was quite the scribbler -- but the Fifth is an extraordinary work.

[Larry Kart]

Zemlinsky and Krenek.

Rochberg. And I used to own them all, or all that were recorded. What a feeling of enlightment/liberation when I realized they needed to be dumped.