I voted I enjoy both equally. I do know there are listeners who prefer one over the other. Either way it allows the composer to express his/her creativity in vastly different ways. It is not small feat to compose well in either. You can take a Haydn symphony and arrange it for a string quintet and notice this scaled down version is not quite as exuberant as the original orchestral version. This goes to show that a composer's original creativity speaks best. So it can depend on the music and I enjoy both.

 

Both can be wonderful and sublime in my opinion. I marked that I enjoy both equally.

 

This is actually weird for me, because I've always enjoyed large orchestral works, I didn't care at all about chamber music, but lately something changed after I heard Mozart's quartets for Haydn (which I had never heard). I am actually finding chamber music more interesting than symphonies. Symphonies are starting to ... bore me. Expecially romantic ones. I know, I know, I'm crazy, I am saying blasphemies, but lately that's what I've been experiencing.

 

With chamber music, the insightful composer must know how to write carefully for each instrument and let each instrument "sing" as if communicating with one another in conversation or song. With large scale orchestral works especially the Romantic symphonies, it offers the composers the ability to sound very loud and very forceful at times to impress in this way. I can see why the Romantic symphonies might bore you. In either way, it is good to explore both and find one that especially pleases you. Quality music does wonders this way.

 

Only large orchestra (or solo piano) - chamber music tends to bore me to death.

 

Which works do you enjoy? Your post is exactly why I wanted to explore this. I know of people who only listen to large scale orchestral and find chamber music boring.

 

I also like both. I just put all of Mozart's instrumental music on shuffle, and listen that way. So, it all blends together nicely.

 

As once a classical music radio host , I preferred broadcasting chamber music recordings understanding the limitations of most audio equipment . Listening live in a concert hall is a different acoustic feeling - all can be fine . In a crazy space sometimes only a soloist can best make sense .

 

Good point. I find radio listening on large scale music very unpleasant for some reason because of the signal or maybe because of the speaker. But that's got nothing to do with the music, obviously.

 

I believe that the best chamber music is better than the best orchestral music. However, I know more orchestral works than chamber works, and I listen to orchestral music more often than chamber music.

So I chose "I enjoy both equally."

(BTW, I prefer the Brahms Horn Trio to Mahler's Eighth Symphony. However, DLVDE, the Ninth, and perhaps a couple other Mahler works rank higher on my scale than the Brahms Horn Trio [which in turn doesn't rank in my top five Brahms chamber works].)

 

Both equally. Sometimes I want bigger than life, sometimes intimate.

 

This is one of the greatest chamber works. It was perhaps the first example of pre-Romantic chamber music and it certainly set the standard for such ensembles for centuries to follow.

 

Do you have more of these? I'm in heaven.

 

Both have their advantages. I'm a fan of orchestral color, so symphonies are great. But chamber music has more opportunities for individual expression and for linear clarity, and it doesn't necessarily require someone with a stick and his back turned to the audience blocking the view.

 

I like both, but give slight edge to large orchestral works.

 

Chamber music and solo piano exclusively. I actually do not care for orchestral music, except for those composers who treat the orchestra as a group of chamber ensembles.

 

So you do not care for symphonies, concertos and the like?

 

I selected large orchestral works, but it is a pretty slim difference.

But I do tend to enjoy larger (10 or so players) more than string quartets and piano trios.

Kind of like, Stefan Wolpe, Chamber Piece No. 1, for flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, piano. That sort of size, and variety of instruments is much more interesting to me, that a string quartet.

 

I prefer orchestral music. Not much post-Baroque chamber music attracts me. Usually it don't attracts me.

I am not a big fan of the piano and solo strings doesn't sound clean like multiple strings. And fortissimo isn't really as possible as with an orchestra. So the spectrum of expression seems limited. I think changes in the dynamics are not as important for Baroque music and earlier music. And they used harpsichord back then which I like more than pianos.

Some works exists in chamber and orchestral forms. Seems like I always prefer the orchestral version.

Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht: Chamber version, Orchestral version
Barber: Adagio for strings: Chamber version, Orchestral version
Sviridov: Quinett/Music for Chamber orchestra (2nd movement): Chamber version, Orchestral version

What chamber works do I like? Some few works come to my mind:

Conrad Paumann: Mit Ganczem Willen
Johann Pachelbel: Canon in D
maybe some Beethoven sonatas (8, 14, 32 maybe for example, its good music, but I don't like the instrumentation)
Georgy Sviridov: Trio in a minor
Bernard Herrmann: Souvenir de Voyage

 

Although I have gotten more into chamber works lately (especially Schubert's quartets/quintets/sextets), I still prefer music written for a full orchestra. I don't think it's an accident that Schubert has been the chamber music that has broken in most for me, as much of it seems "symphonic" in ambition.

 

For the first few years of listening to classical music (late 1980s), I would have said orchestral. After that I started to explore chamber music more and it quickly became a co-favourite. Would not want to be without either.

 

... Would not want to be without either.

Yes. That sounds about right.

 

large orchestra works for me, the larger the better, say, Strauss 'Salome'.

 

I enjoy them both. If music is great, instrumentation comes second. I can also enjoy orchestral works transcribed for piano (or 2 pianos or piano 4 hands) or instrumental works arranged for orchestra.
Some examples.

 

I don't prefer chamber music per se but it turns out that many/most of my favorite composers wrote more of it than orchestral music, especially if one takes into account that a lot of baroque "orchestral" music is closer to chamber ensemble (~6-12 players) than modern orchestra.

 

Who are your favorite composers?

 

I'm pretty sure that deep in my heart I prefer one over the other, but I have no idea which one. I simply really doubt that I can like two genres truly equally. Therefore, I voted that it depends on the music, because it does. In the sense that if I had to choose between a great orchestral work and a mediocre chamber piece (or a great chamber piece and a mediocre orchestral work), I wouldn't prefer one over the other just because of the genre but because of the quality of the composition, no matter what genre.

However, chamber music took me significantly longer to get used to. I got into classical music mainly through Romantic orchestral works - big and exciting - and getting similar pleasure from chamber music took some time. But it eventually clicked with me and now I totally love good chamber music.

 

No preference. It depends on the music materials and the musical language of the composer.

 

Yes, both genres exhibit masterpieces by various composers. It's good fun listening to them.

 

It`s not very easy to deceive the listener in chamber, not easy to bombast your way through it. Music is all there, no need for a mediator. I probably listen orchestral music more in an average day but when I`m feeling down or in need, I seek solace in chamber music. I consider the best examples of the orchestral music such as Mahler Symphonies as Gods and I worship them in my own way whereas I regard the best specimens of chamber music such as those by Brahms as close friends, lovers or beloved family members to whom I feel a genuine affinity. In accordance with this analogy, I`d say I prefer chamber music by a significant margin...

 

Many approach Brahms that way, for he was better with his chamber music than with his large scale orchestral music.

 

I enjoy many large scale orchestral works, but in general 'I prefer Chamber Music'.

 

Used to like only orchestral. Chamber music often sounded too brash. Now it just depends on the music.

 

I really prefer large orchestral works, so I selected that, but I've come here to broaden my horizons, and I am really enjoying the "Weekly String Quartet" thread, so who knows - in time I might change to liking both equally. And for the large orchestral works, there still is a lot I haven't explored. I'm starting to take a look at Mahler right now.