me and some friends are starting up a string quartet this year and we're all grade 8, however we're at a bit of a loss as to what to play!

there is no much gorgeous stuff, i don't really know where to start!

any suggestions would be welcome )

we need some predictable stuff that audiences will know ('ohh! that's off that car advert!' type thing) and then anything else we like!

I'd advise you start with some of the easier Haydn quartets. The reason I say this is because, Mozart and later Beethoven, modelled their rather more complicated quartets on Haydn's work.

Keep things simple until your quartet know each others playing nuances.

Quartets are lot harder to play (as in getting the four parts synchronised) than people think. The music might not be difficult to play in the Haydn quartets for example, but getting the parts to gel together and sound as one, is the toughest part of the learning curve.

Do play things that you can genuinely cope with - rather than difficult music that ends up sounding shabby because you're struggling to hold it together as an ensemble, not to mention the possibility of wavering intonation. I believe it was Schubert who once quoted: "Better to play something easy and play it well, than to play something difficult in a mediocre fashion".

So true!!

The Haydn quartets that I have played have actually been a lot of fun so it's not such a hardship. In my (admittedly limited compared with Amanda!) experience the Mozart inner parts are quite manageable, but I think sometimes the first violins have it more difficult. Mozart is lovely to play though even if you have to take it a bit slower or don't quite get it to professional speed!

I'll vote for Haydn as the place to start - hear them all on Naxos. Personally I find Haydn quartets give more interest across all the parts than some Mozart (massive generalisation and personal opinion only of course)

Haydn Op3 No5 (often attributed to Hofstetter rather than Haydn) is good for learning quartet togetherness and has a very well known and lovely 2nd movement that most people have heard before. As for other "tunes off the telly" Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is playable as a quartet or you may have to go for arrangements rather than original string quartets. Have fun

Entrance of the Queen of Sheba

Theres a not too difficult Haydn one in F Major, which my duaghter did at about the same stage as you. I think its Op 74 No 2. Available on a Naxos CD if you want to listen to it first.
Also they did the famous Borodin movement (Is it his SQ no 2?). They also tackled the Dvorak Quintet including a piano part.