William Jenks wrote:

>I close with a request for Dave or others so inclined.  Please recommend a
>few "essential" 20th century chamber works and a recording or two of each.
>I'd be interested in sampling what he and others think of as truly
>excellent modern stuff.

IMO the most important string quartet composers of the 20th century
are Bartok and Shostakovich.  I leave the latter to others but believe I
can recommend the following available versions of Bartok: If price is a
consideration go for the 1981 Juilliard Quartet recording--all 6 for about
$14 on 2 CDs.  I don't know if the old 50s recordings with Claus Adam on
cello are available in any format, but they were very tight, although the
sound quality is limited, I'm sure.  Other good choices would be Vegh,
Takacs, and Emerson.  I am not a big fan of the Emerson quartet, frankly.
They do play very well but for me they are a little too into perfection
and velocity.  You can rush past the joy of phrasing that way.  But if that
is your thing, by all means go for it.  Another Bartok chamber work of
importance is the Contrasts, for violin, clarinet and piano. The quartets
of Elliott Carter are important.  Juilliard and Arditti are the ones to
consider.  They are also recommended for recordings of the 4 quartets of
Schoenberg.  Other Schoenberg chamber works I would recommend are of course
Verklaerte Nacht (sextet), the String Trio (pretty austere), and the Violin
Fantasy.  Not to be missed is Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat.  Also,
Berg's Lyric Suite for Quartet is important, as are several works of
Webern.  Other composers I can think of off top of head are Babbitt,
Sessions, Powell, Lutoslawski, Ives (Emerson SQ), Messiaen (Quartet for the
End of Time, perf.  Ik-Hwan Bae, Wm.  Doppman, David Shifrin(?) c/w Bartok
Contrasts).  If you get through all the quartets by these masters you will
have a pretty good idea of what happened to chamber music in the 20th
century and you can then follow it up with other Arditti quartet
recordings.  These guys aren't fooling around.  There is other stuff
besides what Kronos likes to do.  (BTW my favorite Kronos recording is
Sallinen's "Some aspects of Peltoneimi Hintrik's Funeral March" (sorry if
I misspelled any of that!).  It's a good piece.  (By my criteria!!!!)

Chris Bonds