anyone got any favourites?

mine of the moment are:

Borodin string quartet No 2 in D 3rd movt Notturno
Dvorak "American" quartet Finale
Haydn "Lark Quartet" Finale Vivace
Shostakovich String Quartet No 1 - all of it
Frank Bridge 3 pieces for String Quartet (the seasidy movement) piece no 2 but published as piece no 3 by SJ Music.

Can't play any part of any of them, but one day.....

Pachabel's Canon and Bach's Air On A G String sound really fab. I'm trying to play Air in my string trio the counting is diabolical tho hee hee!
jess

good call Jess!

where do you get your sheet music?

From school at the moment! My teacher transposes all the 2nd violin parts into the alto clef (unless there is an actual viola part.) Other sheet music normally comes from the internet.
jess

I like Beethoven's particularly the fourth and eleventh: I have no idea how hard they are to play though; I just like listening to them!

QUOTE (zoda @ Sep 8 2004, 09:26 PM)

anyone got any favourites?

I like all the Shostakovich quartets that I know. The 8th gets lots of broadcasts on request programmes, so I prefer to listen to the others now.

Probably my favourite of all time is the one by Ravel. The Debussy is also very good, but Ravel has the most seductive tunes of anybody.

For very good music that is less technically difficult than many, try the six quartets (K. 387, 421/417b, 428/421b, 458, 464, 465) by Mozart that he dedicated to his friend Haydn.

You should also try listening to (and playing, when you're ready) the great string quintets. Mozart wrote for an extra viola, and the two quintets of his that are most admired are in C major (K.515) and G minor (K.516, that some people think is the greatest music ever written). The minuet is the easiest movement in the G minor. I would guess about Grade 5, or slightly earlier for someone with a strong rhythmic sense, except for the Violin 1 part, which gets a bit busier in the trio section.

Schubert added a 'cello for his quintet in C major. I helped c. Grade 7 and 8 players to prepare for a competitive public performance of the slow movement of this work. The stronger 'cellist should be on 'Cello 2 in this movement.

thanks for all your answers, I can see there's a lot of fun still to be had!

by the way, Kenm, your comment about the Schubert quintet must explain why Rostropovich is 2nd Cello when he plays it with the Emerson Quartet - I had thought maybe it was a question of protocol!

QUOTE (zoda @ Sep 17 2004, 10:52 PM)

by the way, Kenm,  your comment about the Schubert quintet must explain why Rostropovich is 2nd Cello when he plays it with the Emerson Quartet - I had thought maybe it was a question of protocol!

I heard a brief discussion about that point once when that recording was broadcast. The parts are roughly equal in movements 1*, 3 and 4, but in the second movement, cello 1 is part of the three-part chorale to which violin 1 and cello 2 add florid decoration. The radio discussion described cello 2 as being more soloistic.

* e.g. in the duet second subject, although cello 1 has the higher part most of the time, they cross near the end of the phrase.

very interesting kenm.

I have bought the Ravel and the Debussy, which along with some of my favourites flagged up in the first post were highly recommended in the website of an American Quartet called "the longbeards" (with such comments as "sizzling melodies, brings tears to the eyes of the ladies, great pulling power") . I must confess for my pedestrian ears they were a little harder work, and I have saved them until I've exhausted the easier pieces and am ready to listen to something fresh.