List of string quartets by Béla

Bartók
The Hungarian composer Béla Bartók wrote
six string quartets, each for the usual forces of
two violins, viola and cello. Notable composers
who have been influenced by them
include Benjamin Britten, particularly in the Sonata
in C for Cello and Piano (Rupprecht 1999,
250; Whittall 2013, 189), Elliott Carter, who refers
in the opening of his own First String Quartet to
Bartók’s Sixth Quartet (Schmidt 2012, 172), Chen
Yi (Wong 2007, 237), Edison Denisov, whose
Second Quartet is closely related to Bartók’s Fifth
Quartet (Čigareva 2007, 231), Franco Donatoni,
who was deeply impressed when he heard a
broadcast of Bartók's Fourth Quartet (Osmond-
Smith 2001), Robert Fripp, who mentions them as
an influence upon King Crimson (Tamm
n.d.), Miloslav Ištvan (Němcová 2001), György
Kurtág, whose Opp. 1 and 28 both owe a great
deal to Bartók's quartets (Sallis 2014,
passim; Sanderson & [2013]), György Ligeti,
whose two string quartets both owe a great deal to
Bartók’s quartets (Iddon 2014, passim; Satory
1990, 101–103), Bruno Maderna (Palazzetti 2015, passim), 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 (Lansky 2001), Walter Piston (Donahue 1964, passim; Manheim
n.d.), Kim Dzmitrïyevich Tsesakow (Shcherbakova 2001), Wilfried Westerlinck (Volborth-Danys
2001), Stefan Wolpe, who explained in a public lecture how he had derived ideas from Bartók’s
Fourth Quartet (Babbitt n.d.), and Xu Yongsan (Wong 2007, 238).
For information about each quartet, see the following links:

 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
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[full citation needed] (Anon. n.d.).
 Takács Quartet, Decca 289 455 297-2. Released 1998.[