Hello all,
I'm fairly new here.
For ensembles, I'm very keen on the Takacs, as are a lot of you. I saw the Chilingirians earlier this year and they were superb! I'm also an enthusiast of the period approach taken by the Quatour Mosaiques.
I've always enjoyed the Lindseys' approach. I was sorry when they called it a day, after having seen them many times during their residence at Leicester University. Their final concert here was most memorable, finishing with Beethoven op131. Magnificent evening.

For pieces, Schubert's final quartet has a special place in my listening, as do any of Shostakovich's quartets; they are the intimate private utterances of a passionately troubled man.

Outside of the strictly quartet repertoire, a particular favourite is Chausson's Concert for piano, violin and string Quartet.
And I think I would also have to place an affectionate hand on Mozart's Trio (Divertimento) K563 in E flat.

Regards,
ZW

Dvorak's American quartet is a blast...so are the Beethoven Middle Period quartets.

Schnittke's 3rd Quartet as preformed by the Kronos Quartet is an absolute triumph! This work, even though it's somewhat dissonant it is still also extremely beautiful and romantic.

My old-fashioned side likes the Budapest Quartet. Obvious reasons.
My newfangled side (the side I like the least, I'm afraid) likes the Emerson and the St. Petersburg Quartets (Has anyone heard the St. Petersburg play Borodin's quartet? That is an astounding performance!)

There are many rather obscure and rarely recorder string quartets that are very delightful, including Abel's Quartet in a major op. 8 no 5, von Dittersdorff's Quartet no 5 in G major, all string quartets by Saint Georges, and John Marsh's string quartet in B flat major. Other good but not uncommon quartets I like are those by Cherubini, Donizetti, and Rossini.

My favourite quartet (I hope you mean the work and not the chamber orchestra) is Haydn's op. 20 no 2. Intensity. Variety. The whole op. 20 is his greatest quartet opus (better than the famous op. 76 - which very good too).

If I absolutely have to pick one, perhaps Op. 131 of Beethoven. I can't imagine living without all the other ones, though!

(I'm assuming "quartet" means just string quartets here.)

I like the Bartok Quartets, in particular No 5 and played by the Fine Arts Quartet. I had to transcribe the LP to a CD so the sound isn't that great but I like the slightly nervy performance*. Second would be the Juilliard rendering brought off with their usual verve.

As for Beethoven I'll go for the Op 95 played by the Juilliard.


*Just noticed, this has been remastered on CD.

These CDs arrived and the sound quality is far higher than I expected. The performances are magical. These people can play. They follow the score (the 5th at least) closely in dynamics and the articulations are brilliant. They have the ability to change from an easy lightness to darker timbre at will. My single criticsm is that the balance of just the occasional notes here and there might be better. It barely notices though.

As I said earlier, the performance is a little nervy but that gives it a vibrancy missing from the Juilliard (who are incidentally recorded far closer to the standard mezzoforte) and other recordings I've heard. I think I once heard these done by the Berg Quartet and simply didn't like them.

The recording is from 1959 when the simplest miking up was used with great care producing some of the super-fine recordings by Mercury and RCA. It holds up perfectly against modern digital recordings and....I've decided to throw away my CD transcription from the LPs. How did they manage to make LPs sound so BAD with so excellent source material????

Edit: The 3rd seems to make a lot more sense with these people than any I've heard. It's probably the most difficult of the set to listen to and come to terms with.

Apparently Beethoven rated this his favourite of the last quartets. No special recommendations for recordings, I play and old Hungarian CD by the Bartok Quartet that is coupled with op127. As good as I have heard of these pieces, but there are others. Alas for me of these only op135 is available on CD performed on gut strings. A rather poor effort by the Eroica Quartet.

There are so many quartets that I love it's hard to pick just one.

I love both Shostakovich's quartets (all of them 1-15) and Beethoven's late quartets. (I don't care for his early works.)

Lately however, I have been really giving a good listen to Tchakovsky's No. 1 and No. 3 quartets, especially the No. 3.

His third quartet is really striking in it's complexity, and sensuality. I really love this work.

__________________
Severance Hall, Cleveland, Ohio.
Home of The Cleveland Orchestra

I've had many favourite string quartets over the last 15+ years I've been mad keen on classical music.

Guess what. I have a very high regard for a lot of Haydn's music, and among his String Quartets, 76/3 and 76/4 stand out. Of course I love Mozart too, and my favourite is SQ 19 "Dissonance".

Who doesn't like Beethoven? He was tops for me for many years. As noted on another thread, I'm not that keen on the early SQs, but the Middle and Late SQs are obviously superb. Of the late SQs, I guess Op 131 is my favourite. Recently I made what turned out to be a splendid recording of Op 131 from a live event in London by the Emerson Quartet. I'd say this tops the lot in my collection. Among the middle SQs, I have to agree with an earlier poster that Juilliard Op 95 is exceptonally good. I love the Juilliard, especially for Mozart.

Over the past few years I have rather found that I enjoy Schubert's chamber works more than Beethoven. It's all personal taste and I wouldn't want to argue it objectively but I now prefer what I perceive to be the better melody, modulation, edginess of Schubert. I think his String Quintet D 956 is supreme among all chamber music, but confining attention to his String Quartets "Death & the Maiden" D 810 is the best, and the Takacs version of this an absolute must have. This is my current overall favourite SQ of all. I'd say Rosamunde D 804 is my next favourite, and the Tokyo SQ is good, extremely clear, and crisp. Next is No 15 D 887, and then No 12, "Quatettsatz, D 703. I just love this last one.

There are many other SQs I like, e.g Borodon SQ2 , Tchaikovsky SQ 1-3, Dvorak SQ 12, Shostakovich 8. I haven't yet been able to get into Bartok's 1-6, although one or two are beginning to appeal slightly.

Mango has echoed what I said about Beethoven's quartets. The difference between his early and late SQ is striking. In some ways, listening to the early SQ vs the late ones, you would almost get the immpression that they were written by different composers.

Yes, there is a HUGE difference between his late and early works. I love the late SQ, but the early ones leave me cold.

__________________
Severance Hall, Cleveland, Ohio.
Home of The Cleveland Orchestra

In fact, Cato, I said on another thread on 8 June:

"Beethoven's early string quartets are pretty lack-lustre in my view"

Posts which are now removed. Make of it what you like.

The early quartets are far less studied then the middle or late ones, which is why they are so often made a mess of. But I have recordings that would make you think again about Op18, cold is the last word that comes to mind. On an interpretive level op18 are as much of a challenge as any of the late quartets, maybe more so even, because it is clear they are so poorly understood by performers.

I suggest op18 were as good as it got for string quartets at the time of composition.