# Your Favorite Piano Quartets?



## Manok

My two most favorite, are the first Brahms, and the E flat by Schumann, what about yourself?


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## Weston

The Brahms piano quartets - hands down.

I also enjoy: 

Dvorak No. 2
Martinu No. 1

I have a few others that did not leave much impression on me. Two in particular by Gabriel Faure do nothing for me at all, and the Beethoven Piano Quartets WoO 36 set is not up to his usual standards. Most disappointing. Maybe I need to listen to these some more.


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## Klavierspieler

Weston said:


> The Brahms piano quartets - hands down.
> 
> I also enjoy:
> 
> Dvorak No. 2
> Martinu No. 1
> 
> I have a few others that did not leave much impression on me. Two in particular by Gabriel Faure do nothing for me at all, and the Beethoven Piano Quartets WoO 36 set is not up to his usual standards. Most disappointing. Maybe I need to listen to these some more.


The Beethoven quartets are very early works (written when he was 15, I believe).


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## Klavierspieler

Schumann, hands down.


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## tdc

Faure - Piano Quartet No. 1
Brahms - Piano Quartet No. 1 and No. 3
Schumann - Piano Quartet


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## Art Rock

Brahms by far. Then Dvorak and Faure.


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## Air

Klavierspieler said:


> Schumann, hands down.


Hands down. Nowhere in music do elegance and power fuse together so perfectly to reflect the depths of human passion as in the gorgeous third movement of Schumann's Piano Quartet. Cello and piano are intertwined, inseparable, yet still unique in the way that they express themselves, and it is this complementing of individual beauty that gives the music its ultimate unity.

For some reason, far fewer piano quartets come to my mind than piano quintets. I guess one part of it is that balance is really important for me when it comes to chamber music. With a work so well-wrought as Schumann or Brahms' Piano Quartets this is not an issue, but there is just something full and wonderful about a string quartet and a piano in communion that makes it far more irresistible to me than a string trio and a piano in communion.

Another piano quartet that cannot be overlooked is Messiaen's _Quatuor pour la fin du temps_, which features a clarinet as its fourth instrument and only requires a full ensemble in four of its eight movements. The melody is usually carried by one instrument, though, or in tutti, so it is a very different sort of work than the Schumann. Messiaen focuses a lot on atmosphere as provided by the accompanying instruments and of course, works a lot with bird-song experimentation. My favorite part is definitely the last movement, which I find a subtle but profound religious experience, if played adequately slowly. It seems to convey the feeling that time has shrunk into a sort of vacuum, and that one is being carried through this vacuum slowly, and by some sort of unspoken power, gradually lifted into the eternal spheres. The one-line melody becomes a sort of "lifeline" if you will, that one must mentally cling on to and eventually become dependent upon, as the simple structure of the base allows very little intellectual traction for the listener.


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## Sid James

I've just listened to *Mozart'*s G minor one, K. 478. He basically started the ball rolling with this genre, treating the piano-strings combination as real chamber music, not as a defacto concerto. A great work that my parents listened to and loved, now I'm returning to it after all these years, I've just gotten a disc with pianist Ingrid Haebler performing both of Mozart's piano quartets...


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## jurianbai

yeah, I can't really sure about piano quartet in lieau to piano quintet. I know Dvorak's is one I familiar and enjoy to a degree.

and I should meantioned Saint Saen's Piano quartet in Bb and E.


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## elgar's ghost

Probably Brahms' no. 3 op. 60 bearing in mind the alleged emotional baggage that went into writing it - and a rather tortuous gestation from what I gather (it seems almost like an elegy to R. Schumann even though it was apparently written with Clara in mind?). Then I would go for the two by Faure. I've noticed that the piano quartet is the type of work that seems to feature comparatively early in a composer's life (Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Walton, Bridge, Mahler's fragment etc). In addition to the Messiaen I'm also fond of those 20th century offerings by Copland and Webern (his was for violin, clarinet, tenor saxophone and piano). As an afterthought I'm a little surprised Hummel never got around to writing one bearing in mind how many piano trios he wrote - perhaps he considered the piano quartet format surplus to requirements.


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## Weston

So many are applauding the Faure piano quartets. I wonder what exactly I'm supposed to be getting out of them.


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## tdc

Weston said:


> So many are applauding the Faure piano quartets. I wonder what exactly I'm supposed to be getting out of them.


I think its important to approach these works from an expectation of music closer to 'Impressionism' than 'Romanticism'. I say that mainly because I seem to enjoy them the most when I have been listening to music in an 'impressionistic' vein a lot, (ie - Debussy and Ravel) more so than when I have just been listening to say Brahms and Schumann. Aside from that I seem to find a certain lively vivaciousness and spontaneity in certain Faure chamber works (particularly in the Piano Quartet no. 1 and the Piano Quintet no. 2 - interestingly both works in the key of C minor). These works just have certain refreshing and unique qualities, that I haven't really come across yet in the chamber music of any other composer.

edit - The last mvt. of the Piano Quartet and the second mvt of the Piano Quintet would be good examples of this Faure 'Lively vivaciousness'.


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## Vaneyes

Sid James said:


> I've just listened to *Mozart'*s G minor one, K. 478. He basically started the ball rolling with this genre, treating the piano-strings combination as real chamber music, not as a defacto concerto. A great work that my parents listened to and loved, now I'm returning to it after all these years, I've just gotten a disc with pianist Ingrid Haebler performing both of Mozart's piano quartets...


It's Mozart for me, and this recording...


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## DavidMahler

Faure's Piano Quartet No. 1


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## Taneyev

Brahms, Taneyev and Dvorak.


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## DavidMahler

The Werther Quartet by Brahms is a great one.


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## Quartetfore

*piano quartets*

i assume that work called Werther is the 3rd by Brahms, I have never heard it called that. In any case , if I am not mistaken there has no mention of the 2nd Quartet of Brahms. Perhaps it is the length of the work, it is longer than any of his other Chamber Works or the fact that it is not recorded very often and never played. Its worth the time to get to know the work since it has all the qualities that we think of when we think of the composer, and the slow movement I think is very beautiful/


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## Taneyev

Agree. Have it by Serkin and the Busch S.Q. Big work, very nourishing. After it, you loose interest on listen something else for several hours.


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## Delicious Manager

No-one has mentioned the two great piano quartets by Enescu - but then he is such an outrageously overlooked composer, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

Try them in numerical order and tell me they're not fantastic pieces of music.


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## LordBlackudder

Some of my favourites are these


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## jurianbai

*sigh*... why always posting videogame music on classical forum?

Here one of piano quartet worth listening:


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## ScipioAfricanus

Herzogenberg 1 and 2, Gernsheims no 1, Faures 1 and 2, Mozarts 1 and 2, and Brahms 3


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## Quartetfore

*piano quartet*

Nice to see Gernsheim come up on this forum. He composed some very some nice Piano Trios. It would be interesing to some one submit a question concerning forgotten 19 century composers, favorites and the like. I would do it, but some serious family health problems prevents me form spending a gerat deal of time on the forum.


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## Oskaar

I have a short musical memory, but I make a listenig diary. I looked up what I have given 6 out of 6, and came up with this so far.

Dvorák: B.53 op23 Piano Quartet


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## Taneyev

Just copied from YouTube a lovely piano quartet by Carlos Surinach. Try it.


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## jfmurray

1) Mozart g minor
2) Schuman Eb major
3) Brahms A major
4) Faure c minor
5) Mozart Eb major
6) Brahms g minor


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## ProudSquire

I'm currently enjoying Brahms' piano quartet in C minor op 60 and Mozart's piano quartet in Eb. I also find F.X Mozart's piano quartet in G minor very enjoyable as well. :]


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## DABTSAR

just listened to dvorak's 2nd, really liked it on first listen


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## DABTSAR

oopps quintet


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## opus55

Brahms, of course. I also enjoy Faure and Mendelssohn.


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## kv466

I'm with the Van!


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## PeterF

The Mozart Piano Quartets are my favorite, followed by Schumann, Brahms, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Saint-Saens.


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## elgar's ghost

I have come to like the two by Max Reger quite a lot over the last 12 months or so. And to think at one time I could hardly listen to anything by the man.


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## SeptimalTritone

Unquestionably the best:






Like a requiem, but intensely claustrophobic and sizzling with tension.


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## SeptimalTritone

Webern's op 22 for clarinet, saxophone, piano & violin is excellent as well.


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## Cosmos

My favorites have already been mentioned:

Brahms 3rd - All three quartets are great, but this one reigns king. Each movement is spectacular.
Mozart in Eb - Perfection
Schumann Eb - Awesome. Haven't heard the c minor yet, I need to get on it!


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