Favorite Classical String Quartets

I like Ruth Crawford Seeger's Quartet too, as well as the others you listed.  The John Zorn collection has some really interesting works and some I don't like quite as much.  Still, it is a very worthwhile set.  

Some other modern works worth mentioning:

Elizabeth Maconchy- 13 String Quartets (No.3 is short and worth sampling)

Katia Saariaho: 2 quartets by a living composer

Glass-String Quartet No. 3

Ligeti: String Quartets

Franghiz-Ali Zadah-Mugam Sayagi (a Kronos Quartet recording)

Luigi Nono: Fragmente-Stille

Reich: Different Trains (primarily a string quartet with looping, siren horn effects, recorded speech, etc.)

Maybe already mentioned, but I love Haydn Prussian Quartets

@billstevenson out of curiosity I’d like to hear what you make of John Coltrane’s “my favorite things“. It might help me understand the apparent contradiction of your enjoyment of early classical but non-enjoyment of folk. I enjoy a lot of jazz but I’ve never been able to see the greatness of that phase of Coltrane’s career. On the other hand folk and early music appeal to me quite a bit usually.

Sitkovitsky originally made a string trio arrangement and then expanded it to quartet.  Try the Emerson or Juilliard Quartet recordings 

@mahler123 i can’t find any via TIDAL, Qobuz or even Google and Gemini.

This is the only SQ Goldberg i can find: arranged and performed by the Catalyst Quartet.  

 "Bach / Gould Project" album by "Catalyst Quartet" on JPLAY app.

Open it on JPLAY: com.jplay.jplay://qobuz/album/yanmxuto8ybjb
or Qobuz: https://open.qobuz.com/album/yanmxuto8ybjb

if you have a moment and can post a discogs or streaming link, i would appreciate it. I’d love to hear it.

@mahler123 reading your post made me realize I have not listened to the Razumovsky quartets in about 20 years! These works were a favorite of my late wife but I think that after her death, perhaps I avoided things with great emotional attachment for her, to avoid a breakdown.

Also I have not listened to the Dvorak quartets in many years, I have the Prager DG set LPs.

I counted up, I have a dozen or so recordings of the Beethoven quartets between LP, CD and flac.  Not all are complete.  The Vegh LPs are played most often.

The Shostakovich quartets are an interesting case,  I have the Fitzwilliam, French, LP set, and listen to the Borodin's performances (streaming). I think back to a discussion with a coworker who was a Jazz fanatic who maintained that classical players were not really musicians because they "just played the notes" - the two interpretations of the Shostakovich could scarcely be more different.

I realize, I cannot expand your list, I get drawn back to the late quartets, and it seems that at least one a week I have to listen to the Heiliger Dankgesang - for me the most emotionally affecting piece in all of music.

Now, if someone could explain the Große Fuge - does anyone have a "must listen" recording of that?  My mind gets lost!