Favorite Classical String Quartets

Well thanks for posting Bill but you actually haven’t discussed String Quartets.  I suspect that you haven’t had much exposure to them.  Let me recommend a few:

Beethoven Middle Quartets, particularly Op.59/1 and 3 mentioned in my OP.

Dvorak”American Quartet”

Borodin String Quartet #2

Samuel Barber String Quartet-most of this has the music “Adagio For Strings” that Oliver Stone used so effectively in the movie Platoon

The quartets (1 each) of Debussy and Ravel.  These will expand your harmonic palette.  If you like Bill Evan’s you will love these

Shostakovich- Quartets #8 and 11.

The Quartet Medium was developed during the classical period, so there isn’t any Baroque Music actually composed for it, but there are arrangements of earlier music.

  These violinist Dimitri Sitkovitsky arranged JS Bach Goldberg Variations for SQ, and also Bach’s Art of Fugue and Musical Offerings have been arranged for SQ

Probably better to start with Haydn String Quartets for @billstevenson 

this album is excellent in my opinion 

https://youtu.be/akMIGQrhzU8?is=wiQl3HQTrKnx_Sjp

@mahler123 I feel the same way you do, the small group format really seems to let the work of the musicians and the composer shine. I also like it because I realized one day that it represents music I could actually have in my living room as opposed to a symphony and because of that it just seems all the more convincing to me as an audiophile. But surely you must also enjoy trios, duets, and quintets? I do. Haydn is my go to comfort music, the world he creates with his music is full of reason, peace, and order. A pretty good antidote for what we face day-to-day.

@mahler123 thanks for your suggestions.  I most likely have all or most of these and will give them a listen.  I have the complete works of pretty much all of the composers you mention, often more than one set of performers.  So for example I have the complete Beethoven on DGG, but also the complete Bernstein, the complete Ormandy, the complete...well you get the idea.   I have thousands of records and cds. I listen to all of it, comprehension...like I said pre-classical yes.  So I am doing ok with Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Handel.  But Beethoven...early ok, middle I struggle, late I am lost.  By the time we get to the Romantic period, Shubert, Shuman and Brahms and beyond, I am out of my depth. You mention Dvorak, I have his complete works.  Same with Ravel.  They are completely beyond me.  Hopeless.  Like I am from Mars.  I can understand Stravinsky, particularly the percussiveness of it.  It is almost primitive.  

I particularly like the Panocha Quartet. They're Czech and do a lot of Dvorak and Janacek. But they also cover Haydn, Schubert, Mozart and others. Czech it out!