List of string quartets by Béla Bartók

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

Béla Bartók in 1927

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^[1][2]
• Elliott Carter, who refers in the opening of his own First String Quartet to Bartók's Sixth Quartet^[3]
• Chen Yi^[4]
• Edison Denisov, whose Second Quartet is closely related to Bartók's Fifth Quartet^[5]
• Franco Donatoni, who was deeply impressed when he heard a broadcast of Bartók's Fourth Quartet^[6]
• Robert Fripp, who mentions them as an influence on the band King Crimson^[7]
• Miloslav Ištvan^[8]
• György Kurtág, whose Opp. 1 and 28 both owe a great deal to Bartók's quartets^[9][10]
• György Ligeti, whose two string quartets both owe a great deal to Bartók's quartets^[11][12]
• Bruno Maderna^[13]
• 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^[14]
• Walter Piston^[15][16]
• Steve Reich, who described them in an interview as "the greatest set of quartets since Beethoven"^{[citation needed]}
• Kim Dzmitrïyevich Tsesakow^[17]
• Wilfried Westerlinck [nl]^[18]
• Stefan Wolpe, who explained in a public lecture how he had derived ideas from Bartók's Fourth Quartet^[19]
• Xu Yongsan^[20]
• Jouni Kaipainen, credited openly Bartók's quartets as his model.^[21]

Recordings

Key recordings of the complete cycle include:

• Emerson String Quartet, Deutsche Grammophon, released 1990.^{[full citation needed]}
• Hagen Quartet^{[full citation needed]}
• 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.^{[full citation needed]} Three LPs, 12 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.^{[full citation needed]}
• Lindsay String Quartet^[22]
• Takács Quartet, Decca 289 455 297-2. Released 1998.^{[full citation needed]}

See also

• List of compositions by Béla Bartók