Favorite String Quartet by Beethoven

[djealnla]

Discuss.

[brogers70]

#13 in Bb, original version with the Grosse Fugue, because the Cavatina is wonderful and the Fugue completely bizarre.

[djealnla]

#13 in Bb, original version with the Grosse Fugue, because the Cavatina is wonderful and the Fugue completely bizarre.

Ahaha, seems like great minds think alike.

After this, I'm not sure what my 2nd favorite quartet would be... perhaps the 16th. Then again, the third movement of No. 15 is better than any other Beethoven piece (except perhaps the last two movements of the original Op. 130), so it's hard to pick.

[gep]

No. 13 in B-flat op. 130, including the Grosse Fuge. Hard to say why, but I'd say that the 13th has the most wide-ranging set of movements, from the great 1st movement via the tiny second through the fragile inner world of the Andante, Alla danza Tedesca and Cavatine to the Grosse Fuge. Not that the secondary Finale is bad, but in my view it really is secondary to the Fugue. The late quartets by Beethoven are an amazing world still today (what shall they have been at the time they were written??), but the Fugue is something out of the extra-ordinary..

That said, the others have their great parts too, like the "Heilige Dankgesang" from no. 15, or the slow movement of No. 12.

A few years ago I had the privilege of being present at a complete performance of the late quartets (including the Op. 95) by the Quatuor Danel. Three concerts in two days, consisting of one of the very pinacles of quartet literature by one of the very best string quartets, an experience that is hard to surpass...

all best,
gep

[cheesypencil]

Im in love with the 9th ones fugue 

[pianoplayjl]

The archduke trio s my favourite. It was said Liszt had performed it occasionally.