String quartets from the 20th century to today

Earlier quartets like Beethoven's incredible set are great, but I really like modern quartets too. I've heard all of Bartok's, which I of course love, both of Ligeti's, and 3 of Schoenberg's. I've also heard Berg's Lyric Suite, a couple of Carter's, and both of Keay's, who just joined the site, as it happens. I haven't really found a lot of modern quartets by living composers, though, except for Carter's and Keay's. What are some really nice contemporary quartets I should look into?

EDIT:

Bartok's 4th and 5th, Schoenberg's 3rd, Ligeti's 1st, Carter's 1st, and Keay's 2nd are all incredible pieces, btw.

The Britten quartets are fabulous. They really show off Britten's amazingness.

Kurt

Ruth Crawford Seeger.

Amazon.com: Ruth Crawford Seeger: Portrait

Very hip and haunting music...

Uh... Shostakovich... duh.

of course!

Check out American Tryptich by Peter Shickele - it's a little different than other 'modern' quartets, but it's a really great piece.

Also, check out John's Book of Alleged Dances by John Adams. It's for string quartet and tape, which is a track of prepared piano recorded, sampled and looped to act as a percussion track supporting the quartet. It creates a really unique sound. The quartet hacks away with a lot of rhythmic intensity for the whole half an hour or so.

Uh... Shostakovich... duh.

lol yeah I've heard a lot of his. The 2nd and 8th ones are amazing.

Uh... Shostakovich... duh.

I like them too.

Actually I am not that big a fan of most of the Shostakovitch quartets, but I have a performance of several of them by the Borodin SQ. Maybe there are better performances?

If you want to hear rather unique string quartets, Gloria Coates has been recorded on the Naxos set. Wonderful, unique voice and very well-constructed

Ruth Crawford Seeger.

Amazon.com: Ruth Crawford Seeger: Portrait

Very hip and haunting music...

i've been looking all over for that, but never ran into it!

i've been looking all over for that, but never ran into it!

Yah...she flies under the radar; can be a bit hard to track down, I've found.

:thumbsup:

i made Chocolate Moose from scratch. Was friggin amazing. But now...i feel sick.

Yes...this has no relevance to string quartets.

Duh.

Perhaps if you'd been a little more careful, you'd have made a perfectly fluffy and delicious Chocolate Mousse that would have danced on your tongue and not made you sick - silly silly boy. ;) But I digress yet further.

Shostakovitch #1. Love it, love it.

What?! Do my eyes decieve me? How can there be no mention of Ravel's string quartet? It's one of the most beautiful I've ever heard.

Some of Shosty's are nice as well and a few of Bartok's are amazing (if sort of strange).

I'd mention Debussy's as well but it just barely missed the cut-off date for the 20th century. ;)

Perhaps if you'd been a little more careful, you'd have made a perfectly fluffy and delicious Chocolate Mousse that would have danced on your tongue and not made you sick - silly silly boy. ;) But I digress yet further.

Shostakovitch #1. Love it, love it.

What if I want it to be spelt with two 'o's.

JEEZ some people are just so picky :P

ahahaha, im only joking by the way. i do agree that a chocolate flavoured piece of meat would make me sick. but i assure you, i ate 'ousse' and not 'oose'. Damn, i should really use spell check more often.

Szymanowski! His second quartet is great.

I'd say Elliott Carter's string quartets are by far the greatest string quartets of our time and a true landmark in the genre, as important as Bartok's set of string quartets or even Beethoven's. Each of Carter's five string quartets is a masterpiece (BTW, a lot of Carter pieces, including his wonderful Symphonia and some shorter new pieces, will be performed at Tanglewood this summer).

If you like Carter, you may also enjoy Brian Ferneyhough's string quartets, which are also really amazing and arguably the most complex string quartets ever written.

Complex = good?

Oooh! Post #2, and it's a stinger!!!

From Carter I've only heard the second quartet so far and from Ferneyhough "Dum Transisset I-IV", the newest one (I heard it at the first performance, together with Birtwhistle's "The Tree of Strings" quartet, also first performance). I really like both of them and I'd like to listen to them and other string quartets of Carter and Ferneyhough a bit more, even though they aren't my absolute favourites. And Copperwave is certainly right in pointing out that of course complexity guarantees in no way quality. Even though with Ferneyhough it's a bit a special case. In his music complexity is actually more than just a side-effect, it's a musical principle which does in fact have some merits when seen from a certain perspective. But going into that would require a detailed discussion about Ferneyhough which isn't really the point of this thread.

In general, I agree with Robin that simplicity, even naivity (but not fatuousness) can be a musical virtue. I say can because of course, like complexity, simplicity alone also doesn't guarantee for a good piece.

But all that aside, I just remembered that I forgot to mention one composer who's string quartets I absolutely adore: Helmut Lachenmann. Not only do I find all three of them incredibly beautiful and always a joy to listen to, I also find them some of the most unique, almost "revolutionary" pieces ever written for this ensemble.

For those who aren't familiar with Lachenmann: His music is mainly known for his broad use of extended instrumental techniques to a degree where there's much more noise than clear tones. (This has of course also changed over the years, but this is what Lachenmann is known for.) Now, that alone isn't very special. I mean, Cage did it, Crumb did it, and lots of others. Even Mozart used col legno effects.

The difference in Lachenmann's music however is that he doesn't use these sounds just as "cool sounds to play with", but he explores them to the finest details and builds a vocabulary out of them. And they aren't just used as isolated sounds either, but always in the context of their creation: Not only the sound of a violin played with excessive bow pressure matters, but also the physical act of producing this sound. The instrument is treated not only as a producer of sound, but as a musical object itself, which is the actual centre of his pieces. That's why he calls his music "musique concr

There are Prokofiev's two string quartets....

What?! Do my eyes decieve me? How can there be no mention of Ravel's string quartet? It's one of the most beautiful I've ever heard.

Some of Shosty's are nice as well and a few of Bartok's are amazing (if sort of strange).

I'd mention Debussy's as well but it just barely missed the cut-off date for the 20th century. ;)

All of Bartok's are amazing. XD

Gardener - Thanks for the explanation of Lachenmann's work. Very hard to find in the stores in the US. Online a little better. Your description of his aesthetic is very attractive to me as I have gone to enough new music concerts where the composer use of extended techniques seems somewhat forced or not that greatly explored in itself. As an aside, I am writing some variations on a Bach theme and wrote a variation that transforms it into a ghostly hymn/chorale using solely multiphonics as way of looking forward and backward. The challenge I am having is ensuring it is integrated with the other variations.

You would probably like the Coates though the aesthetic differs --- she uses glissandos as tones and very traditional techniques - canon, mirror cannons, etc - it will sound in a way more conservative than the Lachenmann but still very unique and also you will kick yourself saying -- why didn't I think of glissandi in this way, it is so obvious!

Corbin -

Thanks for the recommendation. I suspected it could be the performance --- very monochromatic and a little muddy at times. They have good (granted not the best)performances of some of the Beethoven String Quartets though the echo from the recording venue (a large church judging from the recording) is a little distracting.

Ravel's String Quartet in F is fantastically written and absolutely sublime.

Dutilleux's "Ainsi la nuit..." is more modern, and very nice.