Best string quartets

It´s a massive field and a lot depends on your taste. Most of the best have already been mentioned but personally I wouldn´t want to be without Schulhoff´s, Kurtag´s or Ligeti´s. Malipiero´s first, Ginastera´s third, all of Carter´s. Faure´s, Berg´s and Lutoslawski´s unique contributions to this field. Stravinsky´s brief but always haunting Concertino. Dutilleux´s Ainsi la Nuit, Hindemith´s 4th (released on a wonderful disc with Bartok´s 5th by the Zehetmair quartet on ECM, last year I think), and of course Xenakis´. My records and I are in different countries at the moment, so there the ones that come to mind first, but exploring string quartets is an endless adventure. Have fun 

I heard Schnittke´s 4th quartet on the radio yesterday, a man whose quartet cycle is certainly worth a listen.

In my first post on this topic I mentioned Stravinsky´s Concertino, it´a great piece, but what I actually had in mind was his 3 Pieces for String Quartet from 1914, especially the last, one of the most wonderfully mysterious things I´ve ever heard. 

You absolutey must hear the Haydn quartets - after all he invented the form! And whilst the late Beethoven quartets are great (particularly Op 131 in C# minor), you shouldn't overlook his middle period quartets either, particularly the Razumovsky quartets.

If you're lookig for something more contemporary, you might want to try Steve Reich's Different Trains which is probably his masterpiece.

Since no-one seems willing to suggest Mozart (why?) I will.   Try K 499 in D, which, in a good performance, rivals a Jane Austen novel for wit and depth.  There is also Dvorak's Opus 51 in Eb, an underrated, fascinating piece.    Michael Tippett seems to have fallen out of fashion these days, but his second quartet ought not to have done, and the third has a quite miraculous slow movement which, once heard, is never forgotten, though the rest of the piece doesn't quite balance its conflicting impulses.  And there is Wolf's Italian Serenade.   

I didn't dismiss them and I'm quite prepared to believe I'm missing something, which is why I keep giving them a try. I know everything of his that's been put on disc, back to vinyl days. Out of that lot, about two thirds of the quartets, the Requiem for Nietzsche and the second symphony don't do for me what the rest of his music does. He's overdue a champion, somebody to publish a book analysing his music, and I'm hoping if or when that happens it'll help me understand what it is I'm missing about those quartets.

Layton was a big fan of Holmboe and Paul Rapoport has translated some of his writings, but a book about his music has materialized from neither. Robert Simpson, were he still alive, would be a natural candidate. Perhaps the challenge is finding a publisher. Holmboe fans aren't exactly thick on the ground.