As to Stenhammar (composer of my favorite piece, so I do want to weigh
in however belatedly...) his 6 string quartets (the 4th of which -is- that
favorite piece *g*) form a wonderful cycle covering his entire career, from
the somewhat derivative early two to the increasingly characteristic,
folksong-influenced (and, at least in the fourth quartet, quoting), though
certainly also influenced-by-Beethoven, second pair, through the fifth and
sixth (which I will have to admit I do not know so well, still, though the
sixth was the first of them I ever heard and the one that got me hooked...
when I heard it again, about a month ago, there was no question in my mind
why, either!) I regard Stenhammar as uneven (I still cannot get into his
2nd piano concerto, which is too bombastic for my personal tastes, for
example) (well, most composers I know, including Beethoven, my favorite,
are uneven...- so- more uneven!) but at his best, outstanding, and cannot
think of him as 2nd rank (unless the term loses its usual derogatory
meaning and 1st rank is reserved, as it sometimes is, for a -very- select
few); but this is a quite subjective thought and must be taken as such...
Still, when I heard the Yggdrasil Quartet play his 3rd quartet on Swedish
P2 (from a 1998 live concert) (www.sr.se/p2) (over Realaudio) a few months
ago, I was in 7th heaven.  They played it, I thought, even better than the
Gotland (now Zetterqvist) Quartet does on the Caprice CD I have of the work
(coupled with the aforesaid 4th, probably nla now, I hope some good group
records it again sometime because these pieces really deserve to be
available) and ...  it was wonderful.  Subjective again, but there you are.
Sorry.  I have to respect a composer who can hit emotional chords that
hard, that early in his life (op.  18, age 29 or so.) If Segerstam would
record more Pettersson...  but according to Cauthen's page, that seems
beyond unlikely.  What he does with the 3rd & 15th makes Francis and
Ruzicka's efforts in them sound underpowered.  A broadcast of his
conducting the 4th symphony - likewise.  (Unless BIS gets permission to
release that, Francis on cpo will, I guess, have to do, but it really
doesn't.) &c.

-Eric Schissel (opinionated but given to changing at less than a moment's
notice.)