Probably better to start with Haydn String Quartets for @billstevenson
this album is excellent in my opinion
https://youtu.be/akMIGQrhzU8?is=wiQl3HQTrKnx_Sjp
Favorite Classical String Quartets
When I started listening to Classical Music as a teenager over 50 years ago I quickly became seduced by the sounds of a string quartet. My school library had a Seraphim 3LP set of Beethoven Middle Period Quartets with the Hungarian SQ (this was in stereo; they had recorded them in mono as well). Op. 59/1, the first of the Razumovsky Quartets, was my seductress: those long soulful cello lines, with the viola weaving in and out, the violins then sweetly taking over the main themes, and then all the instruments trading places-I was hooked.
59/3 has a second movement dominated by the cellist who sounds like a jazz walking bass, and that furious fugal finale. The Harp Quartet in that with its flying pizzicatos was another revelation.
Beethoven’s late quartets are another thing entirely, and took a few generations for nineteenth century listeners to absorb. Mozart and Haydn invented the genre and a lot of their best music is in their quartets.
The aforementioned Classical Period composers are generally thought to have represented the apex of the genre, but I have always been fascinated by Dvorak, Borodin, and Shostakovich, all of whom seemed to luxuriate in the special sonic world of the string quartet.
Other favorites?
T
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@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. |
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