10 String Quartets - a list of favourites (à la Salymap)

[Guest]

Rules:

The first rule of String Quartet club is you don't talk about String...woops, sorry. I'll start again.

1. Ideally, each quartet number will match a number in the list: e.g. Beethoven String Quartet No. 1 for 1, etc.

2. For double-figured numbered quartets higher than 10, add the numbers together e.g. Shostakovich's 15th would be 6 in your list.

3. No more than two quartets per composer. Quelle générosité, M. Thropplenoggin!

4. Members might like to include a pithy description of no more than 5 words of chosen quartets and/or a favourite recording.

EDIT: 5. Unnumbered quartets (Ravel, Fauré, Debussy) can be used as a "wild card" in your list.

I will add my list later.



p.s. Administrators, any chance of adding "strikethrough" code tags [s][/s] to the board please?
p.p.s. relative classical music novitiate that I am, this list of quartet composers came as a shock to me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rtet_composers

[cloughie]

Rules:

The first rule about String Quartet club is you don't talk about String...woops, sorry. I'll start again.

1. For double-figured numbered quartets higher than 10, add the numbers together e.g. Shostakovich's 15th would be 6 in your list.

2. No more than two quartets per composer. Quelle générosité, M. Thropplenoggin!

3. Members might like to include a pithy description of no more than 5 words of chosen quartets

I will add my list later.



p.s. Administrators, any chance of adding "strikethrough" code tags [s][/s] to the board please?

Problem is there are a number of composers who only wrote 1 and I want more than one of them on my list - this list is much more difficult than Symphonies - a straight favourite 10 would be easier!

[Thropplenoggin]

Problem is there are a number of composers who only wrote 1 and I want more than one of them on my list - this list is much more difficult than Symphonies - a straight favourite 10 would be easier!

Yes, it does require more thought than a straight 'favourites' list. That's what I believe appealed to people about saly's thread. It forces one to think further afield (see link newly added to the OP).

In any case, your problem also applied to those composers of symphonies who only wrote a few e.g. Elgar and Rachmaninov.

[Pabmusic]

Problem is there are a number of composers who only wrote 1 and I want more than one of them on my list - this list is much more difficult than Symphonies - a straight favourite 10 would be easier!

Quite agree. The 9 symphonies - although fun, of course - was spoilt by being restricted to artificial criteria (what does it matter what number it is? Some composers didn't number them anyway). The final statistical list was severely skewed in favour of composers who wrote nine symphonies. This will be the same. My four favourite quartets are by composers who only wrote one, or (in one case) two.

[Thropplenoggin]

Quite agree. The 9 symphonies - although fun, of course - was spoilt by being restricted to artificial criteria (what does it matter what number it is? Some composers didn't number them anyway). The final statistical list was severely skewed in favour of composers who wrote nine symphonies. This will be the same. My four favourite quartets are by composers who only wrote one, or (in one case) two.

Hark, the sound of statisticians weeping!

You'll find this hard to believe, I know, but I didn't start this thread with rigorous quantitative analysis in mind.

(Come on, cavalry...where the bejesus are you?!)

[salymap]

Ah Thropple, a list compiler's life is not easy as you will find out, my friend

[Thropplenoggin]

Ah Thropple, a list compiler's life is not easy as you will find out, my friend

O tempora! O mores!

[Pabmusic]

Hark, the sound of statisticians weeping!

You'll find this hard to believe, I know, but I didn't start this thread with rigorous quantitative analysis in mind.

(Come on, cavalry...where the bejesus are you?!)

Pity. It's just a bit of fun, I know.

[Flay]

(Come on, cavalry...where the bejesus are you?!)

Steady on Throppers old chap, you have not long posted this thread and you are already hot around the collar. It would take me an age to think up such a list.

And where, may I ask, is yours?

[Thropplenoggin]

Steady on Throppers old chap, you have not long posted this thread and you are already hot around the collar. It would take me an age to think up such a list.

It would seem you have misinterpreted my comment, Flay. I was merely seeking a voice that approved of the idea rather than picking fault with its premiss. It was meant in a jovial light. I wasn't intending to hurry people along with their lists. I'm well aware that it's a time-consuming process.

And where, may I ask, is yours?

You catch me in media res of composing it. I did acknowledge in the OP that mine would be forthcoming.

[aeolium]

I agree with Pabmusic that a straight list of favourites would be better, forgetting about numbering. What am I going to do, for instance, with one of Haydn's op 76 quartets (I'm not even sure which number they are) as well as the fierce competition among the low numbers for composers who only wrote one or two?

[Thropplenoggin]

At which point, Dr. Y. U. Thropplenoggin was seen to wearily remove his pith helmet and mop his brow with a white, pressed and starch-tautened handkerchief. Thence, he retired to the chaise longue, whither the punkawallah awaited to fan his troubles away. Mayhap the butler, Spodewick, will provide him with bibulous revivification - a cup of Darjeeling First Flush plucked from the foothills of the Himalayas by pygmies at dawn...

[Thropplenoggin]

I agree with Pabmusic that a straight list of favourites would be better, forgetting about numbering. What am I going to do, for instance, with one of Haydn's op 76 quartets (I'm not even sure which number they are) as well as the fierce competition among the low numbers for composers who only wrote one or two?

Choose?

[Flay]

Poor Throppers

[Thropplenoggin]

1. Janacek: String Quartet No. 1 Kreutzer Sonata - Martinu Quartet
2. Arensky: String Quartet No. 2 - Ying Quartet
3. Glass: String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima" - Carducci String Quartet (Naxos)
4. Myaskovsky: String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor - Pacifica Quartet
5. Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 'Death and the Maiden' - Hagen Quartett
6. Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 6 - Edér Quartet
7. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 - Budapest Quartet (their first recording)
8. Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 - Borodin Quartet (Virgin Classics)
9. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 9 Rasumovsky - Busch Quartet
10. Mozart: String Quartet No. 19 'Dissonance' - Quatuor Mosaïques

Q.E.D.

Hard to believe I didn't pick either Beethoven's No. 15 - the one I first fell in love with - and Shostakovich's 15... But then, rules is rules.