List of string quartets by Béla Bartók
The Hungarian composer Béla Bartók wrote six string quartets, for two violins, viola and cello:
List
- String Quartet No. 1, Op.7, Sz. 40, BB 52
- String Quartet No. 2, Op.17, Sz. 67, BB 75
- String Quartet No. 3, Sz. 85, BB 93
- String Quartet No. 4, Sz. 91, BB 95
- String Quartet No. 5, Sz. 102, BB 110
- String Quartet No. 6, 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.
- Hagen Quartet
- Juilliard String Quartet:
- * Recorded 1949, New York. Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violins; Raphael Hillyer, viola; Arthur Winograd, cello. Three LPs, 12 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 in., stereo. Columbia Masterworks D3L 317 : 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.