Very easy....where on more than one occasion you call upon someone to compare another composer's specific work to Beethoven's and you will "destroy" it!

Let's get this back on topic (and lighten up a bit)! What about Borodin's #2 Quartet?

Maybe so, but I still say it's a shame that we now won't get to hear gems from Rod's extensive period instruments collection...

That was tongue in cheek bravado for god's sake. A vain attempt to add some life where none exists. Forgive me but I am not one of the living corpses I witness every weekend in Oxford Circus HMV Classical Department. Last week there was an old man with a live cat draped around his shoulders wandering about the Wagner section!

I'll post them anyway in my own topic, together with stuff from my Handel collection which is 5 times bigger! Who said I was a Beethoven obsessive...? Roll on my genuine favourite topic, Handel vs Bach!!! I 'destroyed' the Bachian Robert Newman in this battle already at my own now defunked Handel forum :-) I presume this at least meets with general approval!

Proviso: Anyone who listens to the tracks by default accepts my right to present them. Don't call me an obsessive AFTER you've has a good listen!

But back on topic, Beethoven is truly the king of the string quartet, pick whichever one you like to be the best.

Nice! I can't wait to hear some. And really, there should be no problem with simply uploading the mp3's, if the "combat" nature is suppressed. Having said that, I am usually game for a substantial discussion/argument...

Well, given your misguided insistence on the superiority of Handel, the discussion will probably end up going on for much longer than it deserves

Sadly, no argument from me there Haydn has some very nice quartets, and definitely a ton of them, but I don't enjoy them nearly as much as Beethoven's. The late quartets speak of some different universe altogether.

The music speaks for itself, I need say not a word.

Ah I see you have your own favourite, so be it, but all Rob could present was a succession of chorales and other choruses from church cantatas, whereas I offered some of Handel's oratorio epics! No contest really, hope you or somebody can do better than Rob.


And yet Tchaikovsky thought they were rubbish. You see, in the world of music you can't buy or work or study your way to good taste. You've either got it, or you haven't.

I'll add to that Borodin's 1st Quartet.

I got both quartets yesterday, and I was really impressed by how beautiful both these quartets are.

Betthoven's 16th quartet and also the 14th, without a doubt.

Shostakovich's 8th quartet, as well as the 13th and the 15th are high on my list (especially the heartbreaking 8th).

Barber's 4tet, especially for the adagio.

Debussy's & Ravel's 4tets are quite good & I've heard one (his only one?) by Faure that I thought was beautiful...

But those two Beethoven quartets are pure bliss.

~ josh

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"There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law.” ~ Claude Debussy

I think Shostakovich's 8th is my favorite...at least this week.

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"I can't listen to Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata too often. It makes me want to say kind and stupid things to people, and to pat them on the head. But now, in a Revolution, I must beat them on the head, and beat them without mercy."
~Vladimir Ilyich Lenin 1918

I am going to check this one out tomorrow!

Oh, yes-- Shostakovich's 8th 4tet is one of the most saddest pieces of music ever written... Without reading TOO much into it, there is the D - Eb - C - B motif which spells our DSCH (in German) which appears all over the place in that piece. Shostakovich wrote this originally as a sort of "suicide note" (this was right after he was given "an offer he couldn't refuse" to officially join the Communist party). He actually quotes other pieces of his throughout as well.

The second movement is terrifying and the demonic waltz of the third movement has some black humour (the odd note being held out for an inordinate amount of time, as if its a machine that's stuck or broken).

While it was written with the pretense of it being about war-torn Europe, he had confided that it was also about himself. Getting the "offer" was the straw that broke the camel's back-- thankfully there was a close circle of friends that convinced him to not commit suicide.

The D-Eb-C-B motif shows up prominently at the end of his 10th Symphony as well in the finale, which I've always taken as a big "f*** you Stalin, I'm still alive you bastard!" (damn! that's what I feel when that moment happens!) The very end has always struck me as an odd ending for a symphony supposedly mourning the death of Stalin-- it sounds to me more like "Ding dong the witch is dead!" LOL I believe he (yet again) got into trouble with the "authorities" on that because of the gleeful ending, and Shostakovich once again had to play the "What? Who? Me?" role.

Yeah, I cannot more highly recommend Shostakovich's 8th 4tet. Incidentally, there is a string orchestra arrangement of it, entitled "Chamber Symphony" (op. 110a). I still prefer the original 4tet version, but the string orchestra version is worth exploring too.

~josh

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"There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law.” ~ Claude Debussy