String Quartets

Four voices. Soprano, alto, tenor, bass. Two females (give or take a bit) and two males (give or take a bit). The principal ingredients of quartets through the ages, going back to consorts of viols, and the like. The string quartet emerged powerfully under Haydn, then Mozart, then was propelled to the fore by Beethoven and Schubert, then taken up by pretty well everyone (including, latterly, the fifteen string quartets of Shostakovich). The string quartet – particularly from Beethoven onwards – became a powerful medium for personal thought and expression, away from the sponsored and public glamour of major orchestral works, symphonies and operas. This personal nature is particularly marked in the later string quartets of Beethoven, and in the fifteen string quartets of Shostakovich. For me, one of the most sublime movements in all music is the opening fugue (adagio) of Beethoven's C sharp minor string quartet opus 131; here four voices conduct a civilised discussion amongst themselves, drawing us into their world.

The music of Felix Mendelssohn is normally expertly crafted and takes place in a cloudless sky. But when mourning the death of his sister Fanny, he turned to the string quartet and wrote the impassioned Op 80 string quartet in F minor. For too long I have passed over the string quartets of Mozart; a recent acquisition has been a four-CD set of the eleven last quartets of Mozart played by the Alban Berg Quartett in the 1970s. The recording puts one at the back of the concert hall, unfortunately, and I miss the aural participation one gets with recordings such as those of the St. Petersburg String Quartet playing the eternally fascinating string quartets of Shostakovich.

I never got on with the string quartets of Béla Bartok, but then Bartok and I rarely see eye to eye. And I have made valiant efforts with the string quartets of Benjamin Britten but, like so much of Britten's music, I find them works of great craftsmanship rather than great art. So my quartet listening is based on Beethoven, Schubert and Shostakovich, with Mozart now getting a look in, and Haydn still hiding somewhere in the undergrowth. Whatever: the string quartet is still one of the very greatest forms of music, and provides listening that is endlessly fascinating and enjoyable.