# Chamber Music Forum



## James

Talk about chamber music of all combinations and instruments!

Happy discussion!


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## Ray

*Brahms chamber music is dull*

I think Brahms chamber music is a lot of notes and does not seem to get anywhere. Shostakovitch quartets, especially those from number 1 to 8 are great compositions.


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## majlis

I have complete Brahm's chamber on historical versions. IMO it's the most important corpus of chamber of the 19th.century and in all western classical music.


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## val

majlis

I am glad to see someone recognize the extreme importance of Brahms chamber music. I wouldn't say it is the greatest of all western music - Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert are superior - and, in the XX century Webern, Bartok and Schönberg are very important, but Brahms is the greatest chamber music composer between Schubert and Schönberg.
I prefer the 3 violin sonatas, the first sonata for clarinet, the third trio with piano, the first piano quartet, the piano and the clarinet quintets and the first sextet. But all the works - with the exception of the Quartet with piano opus 26 and the clarinet Trio opus 114 - are extraordinary beautiful.


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## Daniel

Brahms' Piano quintet (also known in a version for two pianos) belongs to my most beloved chamberworks. It has such a great, fresh breath, genious development and wonderful melody lines.

Daniel.


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## val

Daniel


Yes, Brahms opus 34 is perhaps even more perfect that Schumann's Piano Quintet (were the piano dominates the other instruments, sometimes almost in a concertant way). The development of the first movement is one the most perfect and natural structures in Brahms work (at the same level of the first movements of the 4th Symphony or the 1rst clarinet sonata).


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## Daniel

Actually I like Schumann's piano quartet more than his quintet...maybe because it is sometimes more suprising for me.


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## val

Yes, Schumann's piano quartet seems more spontaneous.


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Wow this one is ooooooooold


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## Beet131

I agree with Majlis wholeheartedly! Brahms is my favorite composer of chamber music. His piano quintet and clarinet quintet are unmatched, although Mozart's clarinet quintet is quite extraordinary. His first piano trio is just behind Beethoven's Archduke, and his string sextets are some of the warmest and most lyrical chamber works. He falls well short of Beethoven's magnificent string quartets, and Schubert's incomparable string quintet, but there is a special place in my heart for Brahms' chamber compositions as a whole.


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## Beet131

I agree with Majlis wholeheartedly! Brahms is my favorite composer of chamber music. His piano quintet and clarinet quintet are unmatched, although Mozart's clarinet quintet is quite extraordinary. His first piano trio is just behind Beethoven's Archduke, and his string sextets are some of the warmest and most lyrical chamber works. He falls well short of Beethoven's magnificent string quartets, and Schubert's incomparable string quintet, but there is a special place in my heart for Brahms' chamber compositions as a whole.


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## Beet131

I have always thought of the Andante from Brahms' piano quintet as the quintessential lullaby, so lovingly gentle, warm and tender. Amazingly, it is followed by the Scherzo/Allegro which is one of the most powerful and intense movements in all of chamber music literature. The combination of these two movements brings tears of joy to my eyes.


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## Brahmsian Colors

No greatest or most perfect, only those whose chamber music I enjoy most---Brahms, Haydn, Mozart.


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## Pugg

I wonder what OP is doing on the moment.


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## fluteman

val said:


> majlis
> 
> I am glad to see someone recognize the extreme importance of Brahms chamber music. I wouldn't say it is the greatest of all western music - Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert are superior - and, in the XX century Webern, Bartok and Schönberg are very important, but Brahms is the greatest chamber music composer between Schubert and Schönberg.
> I prefer the 3 violin sonatas, the first sonata for clarinet, the third trio with piano, the first piano quartet, the piano and the clarinet quintets and the first sextet. But all the works - with the exception of the Quartet with piano opus 26 and the clarinet Trio opus 114 - are extraordinary beautiful.


Aha, someone who knows his chamber music. However, you give short shrift to Debussy, especially the string quartet, Sonata for cello and piano, Trio for flute, viola and harp, and Sonata for violin and piano no. 3, and Ravel, especially the string quartet, Introduction and Allegro for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet, Sonata for violin and piano, Sonata for violin and cello, Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure, Tzigane and Sonata for violin and piano, and Chansons Madecasses for voice, flute, cello and piano.
While I love all the Brahms chamber music, the string sextets are considered more important than the quintets and quartets by many, including me, especially the first sextet, so your comment there is well taken.


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