Chamber Music - your best pick.

Audphile1:

Don't know what you have, but f.w.i.w., here are my favorites:

Tchaikovsky and Borodin: 2nd string quartets.

Faure: Piano quartets.

Bach: Well-tempered Clavier, Goldberg Variations, Partita no. 2 for Violin (the Chaccone movement is the most amazing thing i've heard for solo violin), Cello Suites.

Beethoven: Middle- and Late-period sring quartets. Piano sonatas.

Haydn: String Quartets, opus 33, 50, 64, 76.

And last, but not least, my favorite composer of chamber music,

Brahms: Violin sonatas (3), Piano trios (3), Piano quartets (3), Piano quintet, Sring quintets (2), String sextets (2), Clarinet quintet, trio, sonatas (2).

Won't list my favorite recordings of these, as that sort of thing is so personal (e.g.: I don't like period instruments, but you may).

Hope this helps,

Steve O.

Also Rachel Podger and Trevor Pinnock do a very nice job with Bach recordings on the channel classics label.

Chuck

Steve, Brahms is one of my favorite. I have the Clarinet pieces you mentioned. I have Piano Quintet on order.

Thanks all....keep the suggestions coming.

Just picked up 2 CDs:
1) George Enescu - Octet, Op.7; Quintet Op.29 with Gidon Kremer/Kremerata Baltica. Very good disc.

2)Astor Piazzolla "Tango Ballet" with Gidon Kremer, Astor Quartet and Kremerata Baltica.
I have to say I am really impressed with this cd. Very interesting blend of 20th century classical and tango. Really surprised me how good the music on this disc is.
I would like to recommend it but suspect this kind of music isn't for everyone though, so listen if you can before you buy it.

The late Beethoven String Quartets, in my opinion, are at the absolute pinnacle of musical creation in any genre in any period. (Not everyone will agree of course.) If you can find the old Hollywood String Quartet performances of these works, not easily done, you might find that these performances are in a class by themselves.