# Chamber Music Black Hole - c.1800s - 1830/40s



## elgar's ghost

Beethoven and Schubert aside, I have virtually no chamber works from c. 1800 up until Mendelssohn/Schumann. I have three piano trios by Hummel but nothing by Spohr, Glinka etc. Is there anything by these and other composers anyone would recommend? 

Thanks in advance. :tiphat:


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## GioCar

Carl Maria von Weber - Quintet for clarinet and string quartet op.34 (1811-1815)

Actually Weber was a keen composer of music for clarinet, some other good examples are his clarinet concertos op. 26, 73, 74.


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## Aramis

Chopin: Piano Trio 
Gaetano Donizetti: String Quartets
Cherubini: String Quartets
Paganini: Guitar & Violin duo works
von Weber: Trio for cello, flute and piano
Glinka: Trio Pathetique, Grand Sextet
Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński: String Quintets 
George Onslow: Cello Sonatas
Kuhlau: Chamber works with flute


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## pjang23

Can't go wrong with Hummel: Piano Quintet No.1, Piano Septet No.1, Piano Trio No.6, and Cello Sonata. Do get the rest of the piano trios if you can.


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## hpowders

GioCar said:


> Carl Maria von Weber - Quintet for clarinet and string quartet op.34 (1811-1815)
> 
> Actually Weber was a keen composer of music for clarinet, some other good examples are his clarinet concertos op. 26, 73, 74.


Yes! Weber was excellent at clarinet writing, the 2 concertos and concertino are written for top notch virtuosos.


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## bejart

I would 2nd the Donizetti String Quartets, as well as recommend Onslow's String Quintets. 

Besides Weber, other late Classical/early Romantic composers who showed a affinity for winds include Franz Danzi and Anton Reicha.

Other composers of chamber works for strings include the Vranicky brothers, Adalbert Gyrowetz, Franz Krommer and 2 of Beethoven's close friends, Ferdinand Ries and Nicolaus Zmeskall. Some of the other forgotten Italians would be worth investigating, Alessandro Rolla and Giovanni Viotti among them.


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## Aramis

bejart said:


> Besides Weber, other late Classical/early Romantic composers who showed a affinity for winds include Franz Danzi and Anton Reicha.


As well as Francois Devienne, who is most famous (uhm...) for the concertos, but also wrote lots of chamber works with wind instruments and some of them are avaiable on recordings. He died in 1803, so it's a bit of a stretch to mention him in this thread, but many of his works bear romantic traits.


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## kangxi

Louise Farrenc wrote a couple of piano quintets in 1840 - a much neglected composer who's getting a bit more attention these days.
You mentioned Mendelssohn in the 1840s, but he was writing earlier than that. His piano sextet dates from 1824 (marvellous piece btw), and other works before 1840 include a couple of violin sonatas, his first quartets (opp 1 & 2, 1822 & 3), and the great d min pf trio op49 (1839).
Bennet wrote a pf sextet (op8) in 1835. The 1830s & early 1840s saw works by Alkan & Henselt, although these 2 are better known as pianists.
You could try Franz Xaver Gebel (d1843): I have a couple of fine string quintets by him (listening to them as I write this).
Berwald would have been flourishing then: I have some pf trios & quintets, & there's a grand septet for wind & str, but I didn't note the dates (I'm away from my CDs & can't check).
De Beriot (1802 - 1870) - who wrote some terrific violin concertos (Naxos are issuing the full set) - wrote a lot of stuff for solo vn & vn duos which are worth checking out.
Norbert Burgmueller (1810 - 1836) meets your requirements: I have a couple of str quartets by him but I can't bring them to mind right now.
Clara Schumann & Fanny Mendelssohn might fit in here too.
Arriaga! Music's lost hope! His 3 string quartets are brilliant, & he lived from 1806 to 1826. If you go for anything from this thread I would urge you to try Arriaga.


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## Vaneyes

elgars ghost said:


> Beethoven and Schubert aside, I have virtually no chamber works from c. 1800 up until Mendelssohn/Schumann. I have three piano trios by Hummel but nothing by Spohr, Glinka etc. Is there anything by these and other composers anyone would recommend?
> 
> Thanks in advance. :tiphat:


eg, it's a black hole for a very good reason. Anyway, I can't leave this thread without contributing something. Some of the Berwald reaches a little beyond your 1840's boundary. Cheers. :tiphat:

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## KenOC

kangxi said:


> Arriaga! Music's lost hope! His 3 string quartets are brilliant, & he lived from 1806 to 1826. If you go for anything from this thread I would urge you to try Arriaga.


Second, third, and fourth the tragic young Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga y Balzola! The quartets!

I believe all are on YouTube.


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## elgar's ghost

Thanks again for the suggestions so far - I've been intermittently youtubing for the past few days and now I have some recordings in mind by Glinka, Hummel, Cherubini and Spohr so I hope to acquire some of them before too long.

More suggestions are of course most welcome.


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## bejart

Egad !!!
How could I overlook Arriaga! As a teenager, he wrote 3 of the best string quartets in that time frame, perhaps better than either Cherubini's or Spohr's.

And I would 2nd Devienne, who wrote some wonderful wind chamber music. Another forgotten Italian I've recently been exploring -- 

Alessandro Besozzi, who also composed chamber music for winds.


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## Vaneyes

bejart said:


> Egad !!!
> How could I overlook Arriaga! As a teenager, he wrote 3 of the best string quartets in that time frame, perhaps better than either Cherubini's or Spohr's.
> 
> And I would 2nd Devienne, who wrote some wonderful wind chamber music. Another forgotten Italian I've recently been exploring --
> 
> Alessandro Besozzi, also also composed chamber music for winds.


bejart, you are with no doubt, the *Master of Unknown Composers* at TC. In particlar, Viva Italia!


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## Weston

Ill second Aramis' Kuhlau suggestion. I'm finding his piano quartets to be quite moving.


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