# Favorite Chamber Composers



## Enformedepoire

Seems like this would have already existed by now - maybe my searching skills need improvement...

So, what are your ten favorite composers of chamber music? Ranked 1 through 10, with some favorite pieces:

1. Beethoven (late quartets, Septet in Eb)
2. Schumann (quartets, Piano Quartet in Eb)
3. Xenakis (quartets, Eonta)
4. Schubert (Quintet in C, Octet in F)
5. Mendelssohn (Cello Sonatas, Quintet in Bb)
6. Webern (5 Pieces Op.5, 3 Little Pieces Op.11)
7. Schoenberg (Wind Quintet, Serenade)
8. Crumb (Black Angels)
9. Reger (Quartet N.3 in d, N.4 in Eb)
10. Brahms (Sextet in Bb, Clarinet Sonatas)

Honorable mention: Bach, Telemann, Dvorak, Feldman.

Feel free to skip all my blah-de-blah below and just post your own list, but if anyone wants to discuss:

A few observations: Yes, I like Schumann, Mendelssohn and Reger more than Brahms. Yes, I like Xenakis, Schoenberg and Crumb at all. And Mozart and Haydn aren't even on the list - not even honorable mentions!! 

Ok, so I won't defend the Brahms thing, I'll just explain it. I've always admired his chamber music, but for some reason, apart from the symphonies and some of the concerti he's never really done much for me - I almost feel that any of the things Brahms offers can be gotten elsewhere: I feel like Dvorak took Brahms' influence and made more expansive and powerful symphonies, and Reger took his influence and made more expansive and rigorous chamber music. I also enjoy the more lyrical chamber works of Schumann and Mendelssohn more than Brahms - and yet, if I'm looking for greater density and complexity I turn to Reger and Schoenberg. Brahms just gets left in the middle every time. The one thing that keeps Brahms on my list is that one of the special things he does is compact his music to the point where the symphonies are almost orchestrated chamber works, with their great intricacy - I guess I just like the way Webern does compacting better, plus his music is more coloristic. At the end of the day this is all personal preference, but I admit that with Brahms the subjective personal preference here overweighs any semblance of an objective logical defense I could give. In fact, I will just come out and say that Reger is not a greater composer than Brahms, I just personally like his chamber music better. 

As for Xenakis, Crumb, Schoenberg and Webern, this is more a matter of whether you like post-19th century music at all, though I believe even Xenakis' wife said she loved his orchestral works but couldn't stand the chamber works. To me though, Xenakis' string quartets really bring out the brilliance of his formal procedures, his textural variety, and some just really striking sounds, whereas in the orchestral works (though I love them as well) sometimes these get buried under a kind of mass hammering like in Ata or the beginning of Kreqrops, which are otherwise great pieces. 

And how about that Schoenberg guy, right? Everyone's favorite least-favorite composer, and his most detested piece, the Wind Quintet. Honestly though, if you can get past the dissonance (which I have no trouble doing, since I genuinely enjoy it) the Quintet is really one of Schoenberg's easiest pieces to follow - the whole thing is practically one imitative contrapuntal phrase after another, very clearly set out. Schoenberg often uses this approach: if he does something extreme in one area, like using 12-tone serialism in the pitch department and some irregularity in the rhythm, he will make the other parameters very clear and simple, like the texture, phrasing and form. You can even hear full sectional repeats in this piece! I personally love chamber music for winds, and this is one of my favorites. 

Ok, so why no Haydn or Mozart? First off, Mozart is one of my top favorite composers. If I had to pick just two composers for any and all genres, they would be Mozart and Wagner, and my favorite genre is opera. Now I've played Haydn and Mozart's string quartets and quintets as a violist and enjoyed the experience immensely, but I feel that the pieces (with a few exceptions) bely the origins of the genre as a vehicle for friends to get together and make music as opposed to audiences going to the concert hall to hear them as we do now with Brahms and Webern. I personally don't enjoy just sitting and listening to them much, even live: their forms, techniques and musical material just aren't interesting enough for me. It's only with Beethoven that I feel chamber music began to be written with more of the same thought that went into symphonies and concerti. So why are Bach and Telemann given honorable mention? Because Bach, like Beethoven, brought something more rigorous to every genre he tackled (and wasn't really influential in his own time) and many of Telemann's chamber works fit into the engenious device of the Tafelmusik. I'm fairy sure he didn't intend all of the pieces in a single Tafelmusik "Production" to be performed together, back to back, but I really enjoy listening to them that way, as they provide a wonderful combination of unity and variety. It's technically not all chamber music either. Of course, he may have intended them to be played together, but I'm not as familiar with the story behind the piece as I am with some other pieces. If he did, all the more ingenious.


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## Alypius

This gets unusually difficult if one classifies solo piano as "chamber":

1. Beethoven (mid & late quartets; almost all the piano sonatas; sonatas for violin and piano; cello sonatas)
2. Debussy (solo piano works; Sonata for flute, viola & harp; string quartet; sonata for violin and piano)
3. Bartok (the string quartets; violin sonatas, rhapsodies; sonata for 2 pianos ...)
4. Schubert (late string quartets; Piano sonatas #14-21; 
5. Brahms (Piano Quintet, Piano trios, Piano quartets, String sextets, String quintets, Clarinet quintet, etc.)
6. Ravel (String quartet; Piano trio; entire solo piano works; sonata for violin and piano; sonata for cello and piano)
7. Faure (piano trio; piano quartets; piano quintets; Nocturnes, Barcarolles; cello sonatas)
8. Haydn (String Quartets, op. 20, 33, 76)
9. Martinu (cello sonatas, piano quintets, string quartets)
10. Shostakovich (string quartets; Preludes and Fugues; piano trio)

No room for Mozart whose string quartets are favorites; no room for Scriabin and Medtner and Schumann for all their solo piano works; no room for Janacek who has a great pair of string quartets and a small but excellent body of solo piano works; no room for Szymanowski, whose two string quartets are dazzling. And how the heck do you classify a lot of Steve Reich's works (is _Six Marimbas_ really "chamber"?)? And then there are all sorts of gems by Roussel, Koechlin, Ropartz. And I completely ignored the baroque composers and contemporary composers. So this is too brief to be helpful or even a reflection of what I enjoy and listen to.


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## PetrB

Alypius said:


> This gets unusually difficult if one classifies solo piano as "chamber."


Well, then, because it is not, _just don't._


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## Enformedepoire

Okay now, play nice...

Although I wasn't personally thinking of including solo piano music, it was more because of the difficulty of dealing with such a mass of works. Since this is the "Solo & Chamber Music" section, I think anyone is within their rights to include solo piano works... of they want to make it more difficult for themselves to choose!

PetrB, I would be interested to know who your favorite chamber composers are.


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## Novelette

PetrB said:


> Well, then, because it is not, _just don't._


Many thanks, PetrB! It needed to be said.

[Not in response to this thread, but generally.]


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## mtmailey

I can only think of Beethoven,Schubert,Dvorak,Grieg,Mozart,Felix,Brahms,Chopin,Liszt & Elgar.


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## TurnaboutVox

Here's my current 'favourite chamber composer' list which is valid today anyway:


1. Beethoven (string quartets; sonatas for violin and piano and for cello and piano, piano trios, string trios and quintets)
2. Bartok (string quartets; violin sonatas)
3. Schubert (last four string quartets; piano trios, string quintet, piano quintet, octet, violin duos)
4. Webern (works for string quartet; string trio, piano quintet; works for violin and piano and 'cello and piano)
5. Poulenc (works for many combinations of instruments)
6. Hindemith (especially the string quartets and viola sonatas)
7. Bridge (string quartets, piano trios, piano quartet and quintet, sonata for violin and piano, and for cello and piano)
8. Schumann (string quartets, piano trios, quartets, quintet, violin sonatas, Marchenbilder, Märchenerzählungen; works for piano & clarinet, 'cello etc.)
9. Faure (piano trio; piano quartets, string quartet; piano quintets; violin sonatas, cello sonatas)
10. Shostakovich (string quartets; piano trios, piano quintet; sonatas for violin, viola, 'cello and piano)


Though I am currently preoccupied with the transcendental piano and violin sonatas of Delius. And in a list of 10 there are inevitably many others I had to miss out. Like the OP I like other people's Brahmsian chamber music more than Brahms' own.


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## HaydnBearstheClock

So far, Haydn, Telemann and Schubert.


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## science

1. Brahms - everything except the string quartets and the clarinet sonatas 
2. Mozart - everything I've heard 
3. Shostakovich - string quartet #8, piano quintet, piano trio #2, cello sonata 
4. Schubert - the famous string quartets, string quintet, piano trios
5. Fauré - piano quartets and quintets, violin sonatas, piano trio, cello sonatas, string quartet 
6. Haydn - string quartets, particularly op. 76 which I love very much 

7. Janáček - string quartets, Mládi

8. Beethoven - I eagerly admit I need to appreciate his chamber works better than I do; for now his piano trios and violin sonatas are my favorite chamber works by him

9. Franck - seriously underrated chamber composer - not only the violin sonata, the piano quintet 

10. Boccherini - all kinds of quintets; his guitar quintets are my favorite 

11. Chausson - I am unwilling to do this exercise without mentioning Chausson!


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## Bruce

As for me, I'd have to put Beethoven at the top of my list. Following would be:

2. Franck - especially his Piano Quintet
3. Fauré - just about any of his chamber works
4. Schubert - String Quartets and Piano Trios
5. Dvorak - String Quartets, Piano Trios
6. Rochberg - The String Quartets 3-6 and Piano Quintet

These last composers I'm a little hesitant to list as favorites, since I'm just now becoming acquainted with their works. But what I've heard makes me want to hear what else they have written:

7. Villa-Lobos - the String Quartets
8. Camillo Schumann - Cello Sonatas 1 and 2 (unfortunately, the only chamber works I've heard of his. Little else seems available).
9. Robert Simpson - String Quartets (especially 7 and 8)
10. Arthur Foote - Just about any of his chamber works.

I can never limit my top ten lists to ten items, and would like to at least give an honorable mention to Peter Mennin (for his Second String Quartet), Peter Sculthorpe (a composer whose chamber works I am just now discovering), Charles Wuorinen (on the strength of his Dante Trilogy which baffles me, but I find immensely attractive), Howard Blake (based on his Piano Quartet, Op. 179), Niels Gade (late romantic in style), and Alexandre Tansman (whose string quartets I'm currently exploring).


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## jimsumner

Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn.

Schubert, Dvorak, Brahms, Mendelssohn

Shostakovich, Ravel, Bartok

That's ten.


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## Peter Gibaloff

today, we can and now how to transcribe beautiful music. 
So, why not, Dvorak - Slovenian dances


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## PeterF

Haydn - his string quartets are marvelous
Brahms - he covers duos, trios, quartets, quintets and sextets wonderfully
Mozart - especially the duos, quartets, and quintets
Beethoven - the duos, trios, and quartets are masterful
Schubert - two great trios, the late quartets and the quintets
Mendelssohn - fine trios, quartets and quintets
Schumann - especially the quintet and quartets
Dvorak - trios and quartets and quintets


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## Mandryka

Noone like J S Bach's chamber music? viol sonatas, musical offering, trios, violin sonatas. In my opinion noone has written better cello sonatas than JSB's viol sonatas.


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## OlivierM

In random order (it's hard enough already to make a list of only 10).

Chopin (Piano Concerto No 1)
Chausson (Concert En Ré Mineur, Op 21)
Boccherini (any of the cello quintets really)
de Bréville (violin sonatas)
d'Indy (string quartets)
Boëllmann (piano quartet)
Onslow (most of his chamber works)
Spohr (most of his string quartets)
Farrenc (double bass & piano quintets)
Kodaly (solo cello sonata)

and of course, many others. But that's my regular playlist. Haydn's Quartets by Mosaïque quartet are missing, Beethoven's piano trios, Bach's cello suites, Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet, and I'm forgetting some.


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## Gaspard de la Nuit

Ravel, his are perfect gems. String Quartet and Piano Trio are the highest beauty in the genre IMO.....does the introduction and allegro count as a chamber piece? Cuz it's also up there.


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## BaronAlstromer

Luigi Boccherini.


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## wolfango

Of course, Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert. But I love Cesar Frank late romanticism.


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## Vaneyes

Haydn, Mozart, LvB, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Franck, Arnold, Bartok, Elgar, Enescu, Faure, Janacek, Myaskovsky, Penderecki, Poulenc, Ravel, Rawsthorne, Roussel, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Sibelius, RVW, Walton, Wuorinen, Xenakis, Zimmermann.


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## GKC

The best piano quintet, the best piano trios, best string sextets, best clarinet quintet, trio, sonatas; best violin/piano sonatas. Has to be Brahms. Well, if we omit string quartets and piano sonatas.


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## Avey

I hate rattling off names, because it does not spur discussion. Yes, mild shot at the previous posters.

So, to get specific, an underrated choice?: *Erich Korngold*. The _Symphonic Serenade _does come in sextet form, so that should count. Absolute masterpiece. Every single moment.

His piano trio and sextet (Op. 10) are similarly extraordinary. Of course, knowing that he studied under Mahler informs my opinion here, but nonetheless: Truly, it sounds as if Mahler set to chamber music. I always wish he (Mahler) did, and this is the best we can get. And even Gustav appreciated it, according to some historians.

Sorry if that offends others. But the sound is of a similar latitude and sentiment, in my estimation.


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## Avey

GKC said:


> Well, if we omit string quartets and piano sonatas.


His string quartet repertoire gets a bad rep. It may not sound as great as his other works -- especially all the CLARINET GOLD -- but they are nonetheless fantastic works.

Like, overall, let us be real, we would still pick Brahms over others who had _one_ good SQ, simply because (almost) everything Johnny Brooms wrote was absolutely sensuous.


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## AClockworkOrange

At present, I would say the following rank as my present favourite 10 Chamber Composers. The list is no particular order.

Beethoven
Saint-Saens
Bax
Brahms
Mozart
Schumann
Mendelssohn
Schubert
Haydn
Dvorak

Some Composers who may change my list once I have listened to more of their Chamber Works are:

Shostakovich
Britten
Korngold
Vaughan Williams
Faure
Hindemith (Viola Sonatas)
Boccherini
Bantock
Moeran
CPE Bach


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## Art Rock

1. Brahms
2. JS Bach
3. Schubert
4. Shostakovich
5. J Haydn


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## Bayreuth

Seems like not including Mozart in the top-10 is becoming a thing or something


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## elgar's ghost

A list such as mine can easily be subject to change, but as of now I'd say (chronologically):

Mozart
Beethoven
Schubert
Mendelssohn
Brahms
Dvorak
Janacek
Bartok
Shostakovich
Simpson

I love chamber music so I had to omit other favourites such as Faure, Reger, Saint-Saens and Prokofiev.


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## Cosmos

I refuse to rank/number!

Various works by Beethoven, Bartok, Brahms, Schoenberg, Dvorak, Franck, Medtner, Janacek, Reich, Poulenc, Ravel

Notable works:
- Beethoven's "Archduke" Trio, and his later String Quartets [14 and 15 are great], also the Grosse Fuge
- Brahms: The third Piano Quartet is the best of all his chamber works, imo
- Bartok: String Quartet 3
- Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Transfigured Night
- Dvorak: Piano Trios, 3 and 4 especially
- Franck: Piano Quintet in f minor
- Medtner: The Piano Quintet, and the first and third Violin Sonatas
- Janacek: Concertino, Capriccio, and Pohadka
- Reich: Different Trains, New York Counterpoint, Six Marimbas
- Poulenc: Sextet, Flute Sonata
- Ravel: String Quartet, Piano Trio, Violin & Cello Sonata


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## DiesIraeCX

Favorite Chamber Composers
1. *Beethoven* - My favorite chamber composer because of the string quartets, most notably #12, #13, #14, #15, and #16. Other notable favorite pieces are Cello Sonatas #4 and #5. Violin Sonatas #5, #7, #9, and #10. Piano Trios "Archduke" and "Ghost"

2A. *Johannes Brahms* - Pretty much everything except the string quartets. The String Quintets, Piano Quintet, Clarinet Quintet, String Sextets, 3 Violin Sonatas, and the 2 Cello Sonatas. 
2B. *Franz Schubert* - For String Quartets 12 - 15, the String Quintet, the Piano Trios, String Trio, and the Piano Quintet "Trout"

3A. *Debussy* - Everything. My favorite is the Violin Sonata, Cello Sonata, and the String Quartet.
3B. *Schoenberg* - Everything. Particularly String Quartet #2, String Quartet #0 in D Major, Verklarte Nacht, and the String Trio


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## csacks

This is very hard, but my list includes

Schubert (Both Trios, Last Quartets, The Trout)
Beethoven (Some trios, Middle quartets, Spring and Kreutzer sonatas)
Brahms (Sextet Nº1, The quartets)
Mendelssohn (Trio Nº 1, Octet)
Dvorak (The quartets, any of them)
Rachmaninov (Trio elegiaque Nº2)
Schumann (The quintet with piano)
Arriaga (The string quartets)
Debussy (The String Quartet)

I do love Janacek, but I only know 2 of their quartets, and I am not quite sure if do they deserve to be included. The same with Smetana.
I am Just listening Schubert´s Trout at the moment. Nobody will ever convince me that there is something better in this world. (lets we exclude sex and chocolate from the list:lol


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## Vaneyes

csacks said:


> This is very hard, but my list includes
> 
> Schubert (Both Trios, Last Quartets, The Trout)
> Beethoven (Some trios, Middle quartets, Spring and Kreutzer sonatas)
> Brahms (Sextet Nº1, The quartets)
> Mendelssohn (Trio Nº 1, Octet)
> Dvorak (The quartets, any of them)
> Rachmaninov (Trio elegiaque Nº2)
> Schumann (The quintet with piano)
> Arriaga (The string quartets)
> Debussy (The String Quartet)
> 
> *I do love Janacek, but I only know 2 of their quartets, and I am not quite sure if do they deserve to be included. *The same with Smetana.
> I am Just listening Schubert´s Trout at the moment. Nobody will ever convince me that there is something better in this world. (lets we exclude sex and chocolate from the list:lol


Most certainly. :tiphat:


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## OlivierM

Avey said:


> I hate rattling off names, because it does not spur discussion. Yes, mild shot at the previous posters.
> 
> So, to get specific, an underrated choice?: *Erich Korngold*. The _Symphonic Serenade _does come in sextet form, so that should count. Absolute masterpiece. Every single moment.
> 
> His piano trio and sextet (Op. 10) are similarly extraordinary. Of course, knowing that he studied under Mahler informs my opinion here, but nonetheless: Truly, it sounds as if Mahler set to chamber music. I always wish he (Mahler) did, and this is the best we can get. And even Gustav appreciated it, according to some historians.
> 
> Sorry if that offends others. But the sound is of a similar latitude and sentiment, in my estimation.


Actually Mahler did at least a Piano Quartet, in 1876. There's a recording of it, with Schönberg stuff, by the Prazak Quartet.


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