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Who is the greatest Chamber Music composer?

21K views 80 replies 50 participants last post by  Wigmar 
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#1 ·
From the majority of what i heard,seen and read, Brahms seems to be on the top of the list. His vast catalogue of chamber music is also one of the reasons why he is considered THE master.

What about you?
 
#3 · (Edited)
Gotta love Haydn's string quartets... So many masterpieces from op. 9 onwards.

Again, Mozart has a good list from the 'Haydn' quartets to the quintets and the string trio etc.

Beethoven has his late quartets and all. Never a bad choice.

Schubert has a few masterpieces in the chamber music genres from late in his short life when he seems able to do no wrong - quartets 13,14,15, the quintet...

Brahms is no pushover but he's up against tough opposition. I'd probably go for Haydn in the end myself. So much good stuff. I could practically live off the op. 20.
 
#5 ·
For me, Schubert's chamber output from the 'Trout' Quintet onwards is unsurpassed but looking at it from a complete chamber output perspective I'd find it difficult to argue against Beethoven or Brahms. To follow Art Rock's lead my 'honourables' would include Shostakovich, Faure, Dvorak, Saint-Saens and Mendelssohn - treasures aplenty from all of them.
 
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#7 · (Edited)
Am torn between LvB, Brahms and Schubert. Schubert has maybe 10 really great works (2 quintets, 3 late string quartets, quartetsatz, 2 trios, trio notturno, duo for violin & piano); Beethoven and Brahms have more, but the question is whether the content is actually more varied than Schubert`s. I guess I currently lean towards Schubert.

Shostakovich comes close too, but he chose relatively few instrumentations ...

Janacek unfortunately wrote too little, but of very high quality. The same applies to Debussy.

The Mozart and Haydn idiom is a bit too "outdated" for me personally, by comparison.

Reger, Faure and maybe Juon are among the best chamber composers too ...
 
G
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
From the majority of what i heard,seen and read, Brahms seems to be on the top of the list. His vast catalogue of chamber music is also one of the reasons why he is considered THE master.

What about you?

Modertaor NOTE: I have merged these two threads since they have the exact title and OP. Some responses below are to this later posted thread.
 
#11 ·
Oh Brahms. This post made me do a quick survey of my collection of music by number of albums, which is organized by composer. My Brahms selection comes in third; Beethoven ranks second and Schubert first. Being a lover of chamber music I would estimate a minimum of half of these albums are solo or chamber pieces.

This was the long way to say I have listened to and appreciated Brahms chamber music a lot. I think everything he wrote was of high quality and worthy of our attention. Having said that, I cannot think of anything he wrote that I couldn't live without. The one exception may be his Deutsches Requiem, which is, of course, not chamber music.

Then again there is that piano quintet. Oh, and the first piano trio. Oooo and the clarinet quintet.

Screw it, why try to be original?

Best chamber composer?

Schubert, Beethoven, then Brahms.

Fauré and Debussy.
Janáček and Martinů.
Schönberg.
Ives.
Hindemith.
Enescu.
Ligeti.
 
#13 ·
Oh Brahms. This post made me do a quick survey of my collection of music by number of albums, which is organized by composer. My Brahms selection comes in third; Beethoven ranks second and Schubert first. Being a lover of chamber music I would estimate a minimum of half of these albums are solo or chamber pieces.

This was the long way to say I have listened to and appreciated Brahms chamber music a lot. I think everything he wrote was of high quality and worthy of our attention. Having said that, I cannot think of anything he wrote that I couldn't live without. The one exception may be his Deutsches Requiem, which is, of course, not chamber music.

Then again there is that piano quintet. Oh, and the first piano trio. Oooo and the clarinet quintet.

Screw it, why try to be original?

Best chamber composer?

Schubert, Beethoven, then Brahms.

Fauré and Debussy.
Janáček and Martinů.
Schönberg.
Ives.
Hindemith.
Enescu.
Ligeti.
Nice selection of names & Enescu is one of my favourites among the lesser known too. It´s interesting that you mention Hindemith; the only chamber work I´ve really noticed as attractive is the Cello Sonata op.11,3 (local performance here: ), but I haven´t given the others much listening, though I own a good deal. Are there any Hindemith pieces you like in particular?
 
#12 ·
Beethoven, and Schubert and Dvorak tied for second place. I don`t know about Brahms, his String Quartets have always had mixed opinions about their rank among the genre. I for one think that Brahms composed some of the great works of the 19th century, but composers of Chamber Music seem always to be judged by their String Quartets.
 
#21 ·
Schubert. For the mastery of forms and depth of emotional expression, Schubert's output stands supreme in the genre. He is the chamber's music musician.. His works are bold, mixing joy with pain and honest to the core. His "late" (considering he died at 31) works shows his maturity on the genre and the String Quintet is arguably the greatest composition in chamber music..

Piano Quintet in A major "Trout" (one of the best loved chamber works and the most popular)

String Quartet no. 12 in C sharp minor
"Quarttesatz" (bold harmonies and the start of his new style)
String Quartet no. 13 in A minor "Rosamunde" ( Schubert at his melodic best)
String Quartet no. 14 in D minor "Death and the Maiden" (one of the greatest written)
String Quartet no. 15 in G major (arguably his greatest accomplishment on the genre)

Arpeggione Sonata ( a work brimming with melodic beauty and heartfelt melodies)

Piano Trio no. 1 in B flat (joyous and carefree, Schumann loved it)
Piano Trio no. 2 in E flat (the rival of Archduke trio for the greatest written, the 2nd movement is to die for)
Notturno for piano trio

Octet for Strings ( lovely work)

String Quintet in C major ( his crowning achievement, a work that is so transcendent that it is the very definition of "sublime")

:)

Schubert. I also echo the sentiments of Topaz, a fellow Schubert devotee.

In my view, without any doubt, the best composer to start with for chamber music is Schubert. Utterly delectable stuff.

Forget Haydn and Mozart. Even Beethoven can be a bit heavy for starters. Schubert's the man. I don't know how far you are acquainted with Schubert but the most gorgeous chamber pieces are his Piano Trios and the C major String Quintet, D 956. Of these my favorite is Adagio in E Flat Major, "Notturno" D 897. It's very short but fantastic. I'm 99% sure you will love it. It's usually found with Piano Trio No 2, D 929, which is also fantastic.
 
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#23 ·
...Ugh, sometimes I can't help but reply to these "greatest" threads with "favourites".
I don't even try to distringuish between the two. I'll leave objectivity to the scholars.
 
#27 ·
We seem to be dismissing the baroque as being mostly chamber anyway and I tend to agree with that. Chamber music as we know it didn't come about until the classic period I guess. Otherwise I'd be screaming Bach and Handel in all caps.

With chamber works more so than with any other genre I tend to be all over the map, though I like the romantics with a bit less enthusiasm. So, Brahms would not top my list.

Certainly Beethoven ranks high, but I also enjoy the more modern sounds of Janacek and Kodaly's string quartets, Martinu's cello sonatas, variuous chamber works by lesser known composer Franz Reizenstein (probably because of repeated listens) and a few pieces by Turina.
 
#28 ·
We seem to be dismissing the baroque as being mostly chamber anyway and I tend to agree with that. Chamber music as we know it didn't come about until the classic period I guess. Otherwise I'd be screaming Bach and Handel in all caps.
Jan Dismas Zelenka's trio sonatas rank high for me if we are talking about Baroque chamber music.
 
#30 ·
Mozart:

Haydn quartets
Quintet for piano and winds
Piano Quartet G minor
Piano Quartet E-flat major
Viola Quintets(especially K.515 and 516)
String Trio/Divertimento K.563
Clarinet Quintet
Horn quintet
Piano trios(especially the E major trio)
Kegelstatt trio
oboe and flute quartets

Brahms:

Piano quartets and F minor quintet
Violin sonatas
Cello sonatas
Piano trio in b major
horn trio
Clarinet sonatas
string sextets

and Schubert:

String Quintet
Trout quintet
Quartets 12-15
Piano trios in B flat and E flat major
String trio in b flat
Notturno
Arpeggione

I don't know how Schubert can be the greatest objectively, though...his output in this genre is comparatively small.
 
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