I’ve never been a fan of chamber music until recently. I ended up with a couple of cds of Beethoven’s Piano Trios and String Quartets at a music show I went to. I was amazed I liked them as much as I do. So, what should be my next purchase? A friend of mine (ex-music major) suggested Beethoven’s Piamo Sonatas as well as Mozart’s String Quintets.
Piano Sonatas of course are not “chamber music” per se; they are solo piano pieces (wonderful they are, however).
Certainly Beethoven’s Piano Trios and String Quartets are magnificent. Also check out his String Trios and his Quintet for Piano and Winds (Mozart has a spectacular piece for the same instrumentation.)
Other highly recommended chamber music:
Mozart: String Quartets (in particular the set dedicated to Haydn) String Quintets, Piano Quartets, Oboe Quartet, Clarinet Quintet, Piano and Wind Quintet
Schubert: Piano Trios, String Quartets (especially the late ones), Octet
Schumann: Piano Quintet, Piano Quintet, String Quartets
Brahms: Piano Trios, Piano Quartets, Piano Quintet, String Quintets, String Sextets, Clarinet Quintet, Clarinet Trio, Horn Trio
That’ll keep you busy for a little while, methinks.
By the way, I’m a classical musician myself (I’m actually a professor of music, even) and I play bassoon. Among the joys of my job is performing in the faculty Wind Quintet.
Simply put, chamber music is some of the most glorious music making there is.
Here’s a few of my favorite wind quintets (a wind quintet consists of flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon):
Samuel Barber: Summer Music
Carl Nielsen: Quintet, op. 43
Gyorgy Ligeti: Six Bagatelles
Francis Poulenc: Sextet (Wind Quintet + Piano)
Heitor Villa-Lobos: Quintet in the form of a Choros
Danzi and Reicha have a load of classical/early Romantic era Wind Quintet. They’re attractive pieces.
All of the suggestions in Knorf’s first post are great (although I’m sure he meant to include Schumann’s Piano Quartet rather than listing the Quintet twice).
Dvorak also wrote a ton of great chamber music; his “American” string quartet is a good place to start.
I never met a Haydn string quartet I didn’t like; my favorite is “The Lark” (Opus 66, number 5), but in general, Haydn got better as he got older, so look for the higher opus numbers.
That’ll get you started…
Jean Francaix: L’ heure du berger for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, & piano (known in English as The Flower Clock)
Francis Poulenc: Sonata for clarinet & piano
Anything by Brahms. Especially the clarinet trio, the cello sonatas, and the amazing piano quintet in F minor.
Ravel’s String Quartet will knock your socks off.