Your top 8 (or any number of) chamber works (or any other kind)

[yekov]

1. Beethoven - String Quartet No. 14
2. Beethoven - Grosse Fugue
3. Brahms - Piano Quintet
4. Franck - Piano Quintet
5. Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 8
6. Brahms - Cello Sonata No. 1
7. Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht
8. Ravel - String Quartet

[kyjo]

1. Beethoven - String Quartet No. 14
2. Beethoven - Grosse Fugue
3. Brahms - Piano Quintet
4. Franck - Piano Quintet
5. Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 8
6. Brahms - Cello Sonata No. 1
7. Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht
8. Ravel - String Quartet

No arguments with this list whatsoever

[SymphonicAddict]

I tried to create a very conscious list (in alphabetical order):

Bartók - String quartet No. 4, Sz 91
Beethoven - Grosse Fuge in B flat major, op. 133
Brahms - Clarinet quintet in B minor, op. 115
Dvorák - Piano quintet in A major, op. 81
Ravel - Piano trio in A minor
Schnittke - Piano quintet
Schubert - String quintet in C major, D. 956
Tchaikovsky - Piano trio in A minor, op. 50

[André]

That'll be 10 for me:

Beethoven: quartet op 132
Mozart: trio K 563
Mozart: quartet K 387
Mozart: violin sonata K 379
Haydn: quartet op 76 no 2
Dvorak: "American" quartet, op 96
Shostakovich: piano quintet
Shostakovich: quartet no 15
Vierne: piano quintet
Schubert: quartet no 14, "Death and the Maiden"

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I don't know if I have posted in this thread before but there are way too many to list. Most music I listen to is chamber music and I tend to listen to several works I have never heard before each week, or even each day if I have the time. I guess the best I can do is list a few composers whose chamber works I have found particularly enjoyable lately.

Turgut Eçertin, for his String Quartet no. 1 'December' and Resonances as well as other fantastic works. The string quartet is filled with gorgeous electronically manipulated string harmonics and very breathy sounds interleaving one another and really bringing out a sense of three dimensions in the foreground an background layers of the texture. Resonances is very cool, he takes smaller combinations of instruments from the ensemble and focusses on their rhythmic interplay and juxtaposition of timbres and registers throughout. It is fun to listen to.

Another great string quartet is Chaya Czernowin's String Quartet where I think she really effectively manages to bring the ensemble together as if it were one instrument.

Simon Steen-Andersen for many ensemble pieces but lately I have come to really enjoy the quirkiness of his Difficulties Putting It Into Practice for........two.........vocalists? The original version was for two amplified sopranos but really they are required to do much more than sing.

Mark Andre, who also has written many chamber works I particularly adore, but the sparse, resonant sound of durch for saxophone, piano and percussion has been been something I really like recently.

Lachenmann wrote a fantastic piece for guitar duo called Salut für Caudwell that explores the instrument in ways I haven't heard in any other piece for guitar/s. It certainly is fun!

I can't be posting chamber music without mentioning anything by Brian Ferneyhough, so here is a quartet of his, but not one of his numbered ones! Dum Transisset is probably not as good as anything like his sixth string quartet, but he covers a lot of cool sounds in a very natural kind of way in each of the short movements.

After Serra by Jason Eckardt is a work composed for pierrot ensemble, probably my favourite for this combination of instruments at the moment (aside from, of course, Dérive I by Boulez).

[Mr Bloom]

Jessop, your list is a pretty good list of the chamber works I hate .

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Jessop, your list is a pretty good list of the chamber works I hate .

Don't worry, I love Brett Dean's string quartets and string quintet too (you're a fan of his music if I recall correctly?)

[vandermolen]

Bloch SQ 1
Bloch Piano Quintet 1
Vaughan Williams Violin Sonata
Vaughan Williams SQ 2
Miaskovsky SQ 13
Shostakovich Piano Quintet
Weinberg Piano Quintet
Sviridov Piano Trio