thumb|upright=1.3|Béla Bartók in 1927

The Hungarian composer Béla Bartók wrote six string quartets, for two violins, viola and cello:

List

  • String Quartet No. 1 (1909), Op.7, Sz. 40, BB 52
  • String Quartet No. 2 (1917), Op.17, Sz. 67, BB 75
  • String Quartet No. 3 (1927), Sz. 85, BB 93
  • String Quartet No. 4 (1928), Sz. 91, BB 95
  • String Quartet No. 5 (1934), Sz. 102, BB 110
  • String Quartet No. 6 (1939), Sz. 114, BB 119

Posterity

Notable composers who have been influenced by them include:

  • Benjamin Britten, particularly in the Sonata in C for Cello and Piano
  • Elliott Carter, who refers in the opening of his own First String Quartet to Bartók's Sixth Quartet
  • Chen Yi
  • Edison Denisov, whose Second Quartet is closely related to Bartók's Fifth Quartet
  • Franco Donatoni, who was deeply impressed when he heard a broadcast of Bartók's Fourth Quartet
  • Robert Fripp, who mentions them as an influence on the band King Crimson
  • Miloslav Ištvan
  • György Kurtág, whose Opp. 1 and 28 both owe a great deal to Bartók's quartets
  • György Ligeti, whose two string quartets both owe a great deal to Bartók's quartets
  • Bruno Maderna
  • George Perle, who credits the Bartók Fourth and Fifth Quartets as precedents for his use of arrays of chords related to one another by different types of symmetry
  • Walter Piston
  • Steve Reich, who described them in an interview as "the greatest set of quartets since Beethoven"
  • Kim Dzmitrïyevich Tsesakow
  • Stefan Wolpe, who explained in a public lecture how he had derived ideas from Bartók's Fourth Quartet
  • Xu Yongsan
  • Jouni Kaipainen, credited openly Bartók's quartets as his model.

Recordings

Key recordings of the complete cycle include:

  • Emerson String Quartet, Deutsche Grammophon, released 1990.<!--Date of recording, catalog number, etc.-->
  • Hagen Quartet
  • Juilliard String Quartet:
  • Recorded 1949, New York. Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violins; Raphael Hillyer, viola; Arthur Winograd, cello. Three LPs, 12&nbsp;in., monaural. Columbia Masterworks ML 4278/4279/4280.
  • Recorded May and September, 1963, Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York. Robert Mann and Isidore Cohen, violins; Raphael Hillyer, viola; Claus Adam, cello. Three LPs, 12&nbsp;in., stereo. Columbia Masterworks D3L 317 (set): ML 6102, 6103, 6104. New York: Columbia Masterworks, 1965.
  • Recorded 13–23 May 1981, Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York. Robert Mann and Earl Carlyss, violins; Samuel Rhodes, viola; Claus Adam, cello.
  • Lindsay String Quartet
  • Takács Quartet, Decca 289 455 297-2. Released 1998.

See also

  • List of compositions by Béla Bartók

References

Sources

  • Performance guide, Bartók Quartet