Great Piano and Chamber Music

[TheSound]

Some excellent threads here relating to classical music, maybe in time we could bump a few of them up!

Nothing specifically though for chamber music and the piano repertoire, so how about we start a topic to listen to/enjoy/discuss this?

I love chamber music. I see parallels between chamber music and rock music, it's the interplay between individual musicians, complimenting each other, responding to each other, perfectly feeding off each other, which you can never get with a huge 90 piece orchestra, though orchestral music has it's own very different and equally rich rewards I think. There is obviously such an intimacy in chamber music, and the subtleties in the music are such that there is no room for error, a member of a string quartet is far more exposed to their audience than the guy sitting 4th row back in the second violins in a symphony orchestra. Also I think it is true to say that many composers revealed their truest selves and most personal thoughts through the music they wrote for smaller chamber-sized ensembles, or solo piano. I find it fascinating. So here's a few of my own favourites to kick off. The Schubert Quintet movement here is IMO one of the most miraculous pieces of music ever written, in any genre of music, but then that goes much of the music that genius wrote.

 

[LG]

Great OP my discerning knowledgeable friend...

I love sonatas, quartets, quintets, octects and anything else I might have missed.

Here's one of my favorite Haydn pieces, I have this one in library.

 

[TheSound]

Brilliant LG - I can see we're going to have a lot of fun with this thread! Haydn I think was just a true master of everything he ever touched, especially smaller forces/chamber music writing, possibly without equal in that area, though I'm sure you will agree that Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert aren't exactly to be sniffed at either where sublime 'chamber' music is concerned! Though it's probably unfair and pointless for me to compare these composers, better for us to just enjoy the countless miracles they produced without prejudice!

 

[LG]

Very true TS...and Haydn was a friend to Beethoven and urged him to continue writing the music he wanted to from his heart and to hell with anyone else. Ludwig always referred to Haydn as "The Master", with respect.

I have the other Naxos set of those quartets, I think the Kodaly quartet did a fantastic job on both CD's.

Here's the other one.

 

[TheSound]

All those great value Naxos CDs of the Haydn quartets and symphonies are excellent, well, those that I have at least, which is only a fraction of the total, as I think they recorded the whole series of all 100+ symphonies, and all the quartets. The complete quartets are now available in a box set which I should possibly consider buying, works out at less than $4 per disc (I still think in $$$ rather than £££, even though we have been in the UK now for a while!)

 

[Kuaizi]

I figured I would post some piano music in here, since it also says piano in the title of the thread?
Rachmaninoff wrote some glorious piano music

One of the Etudes, played by the wonderful Valentina Lisitsa!

Rachmaninoff Etude Op. 39 No. 6
"Little Red Riding Hood"


Prelude in g minor op. 23 #5


THIS is amazing... playing his own stuff (Concerto #2) with the Philadelphia Orchestra!


And the full second Concerto here, played by Van Cliburn:

 

[LG]

Good picks Kuaizi, but I'm not sure concertos are what TS wanted to talk about in this thread, sonatas, preludes, and all the small pieces for chamber music were on the agenda.

I do have that set of Rachy playing all of his concertos, nothing like the original article playing his own music.

 

[Kuaizi]

On that note LG, I'll post this creepy little tidbit from Shostakovich

 

[LG]

^^I have everything Dmitri ever wrote, that is a creepy one this early in the day for me...

 

[TheSound]

Already some phenomenal music in this thread, I especially love that Van Cliburn performance, it's obviously very dated and the sound isn't great, but what a performer he was.

Time for a break from all this heavy Russian romanticism!! Here's a movement from my favourite chamber work by Maurice Ravel