Best string quartets

Nice to know Wigmaker has 600 quartets. I hope his collection includes Birtwistle's "The Tree of Strings" - though it may not have been recorded commercially yet.   I hope the originator of this thread doesn't mind having Mozart suggested, though perhaps he knows them already.   But my post followed two suggestions featuring Haydn, the vast majority of whose quartets predate Beethoven's.  And Mozart's few (fewer than Beethoven's) mature quartets begin with a set dedicated to Haydn, which is one of the peaks of his work.  I was - and am- surprised by a thread of this nature that doesn't at least mention them, though I think K 499 is his best.

No problem, Symphonica. Also be worth your while checking out Gloria Coates' string quartets on Naxos. 

A link to her website here: http://home.wanadoo.nl/eli.ichie/coates.html

Thanks for the Foulds recommendation.

How about the Webern pieces for string quartet - you've got the Five Pieces op.5, the Bagatelles op.9 and the later op.28 quartet. The first two in particular emerge as discretely tuneful, once you've given them a couple of spins.

I agree with many of the string quartets mentioned above. I would stress that Szymanowski's two quartets are very good indeed. There is a wonderful, quite old recording by the Magginis playing them wonderfully (on the now defunct ASV label). The disc also contains Grazyna Bacewicz's string quartet No. 4. This is a masterpiece. I am also thinking of Einojuhani Rautavaara's string quartet No. 1. A short, muscular, young work that deserves to be heard more often. There is a very good recording on Ondine, coupled with a wonderful String Quintet. I also like Samuel Barber's only attempt on the medium. The slow middle movement was orchestrated later and became the now omni-famous Adagio for orchestra. It is accompanied by two fierce, hectic movements. Quite an achievement. Finally, I cannot leave two french masterpieces out of the list. Though an obvious recommendation, I could not live without Ravel's and Debussy's string quartets.

Maybe you should try R.Murray Schafer, Canadian iconoclast composer. Pretty interesting stuff:

http://www.cduniverse.com/images.asp?pid=6586698&style=classical&image=f...

Some of the most convincing chamber music for strings are in the form of string quintets, notably those of Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and Dvorak (though I'm sure there are others). It seems like these great composers truly excel in the Quartet+ medium. Strangely, Beethoven made a single quintet which is in no way comparable to his finest quartets.

Some quintets are scored with two violas, others with a double bass as the extra instrument - either way, the thicker texture of the quintet makes for a quite unique chamber music experience.