Notable String Quartets
Some of the most popular or widely acclaimed works for string quartet include:
- Joseph Haydn's 68 string quartets, in particular Op. 64, No. 5 ("The Lark").
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 23 string quartets, in particular K. 465 ("Dissonance")
- Ludwig van Beethoven's sixteen quartets are some of the most highly acclaimed. His String Quartets Nos. 1-6, Op. 18, are thought to demonstrate a certain mastery of the classical string quartet form as developed by Haydn and Mozart. The next few, the "Rasumovsky" Quartets as well as the Op. 74, "Harp" and Op. 95, "Serioso" quartets, expanded upon the form and incorporated what can be characterized as intensely emotional content. Finally, the late quartets include his last five quartets and the Große Fuge, which stand as some of the composer's last completed works.
- Franz Schubert's string quartets No. 12 in C minor, "Quartettsatz", No. 13 in A minor "Rosamunde", No. 14 in D minor, "Death and the Maiden" and his final No. 15 in G major
- Felix Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 2 (early example of cyclic form)
- Robert Schumann's three string quartets
- Johannes Brahms's three string quartets
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11, known for its second movement "Andante cantabile"
- Bedřich Smetana's String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, "From my Life". Widely considered the first piece of chamber programme music.
- Antonín Dvořák's String Quartets No. 9-14, particularly String Quartet No. 12 in F major, "American" also No. 3 is an exceptionally long quartet (lasting 56 minutes).
- Alexander Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D major, known for its third movement "Notturno"
- Edvard Grieg's String Quartet in G minor
- Giuseppe Verdi's only String Quartet in E minor
- Jean Sibelius's String Quartet in D minor, Op. 56, "Voces intimae"
- Leoš Janáček's String Quartet No. 1, "Kreutzer Sonata", inspired by Leo Tolstoy's novel The Kreutzer Sonata
- Edward Elgar's String Quartet Op. 83 (1918)
- Béla Bartók's six string quartets
- Alban Berg's String Quartet, Op. 3 and Lyric Suite, later adapted for string orchestra
- Dmitri Shostakovich's 15 string quartets, in particular the String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110
- Karlheinz Stockhausen's Helikopter-Streichquartett (1992–93), to be played by the four musicians in four helicopters
- Morton Feldman's String Quartet No. 2 (1983), exceptionally long quartet (6 hours, although in some performances the audience is not expected to stay for its entirety)
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