Great Chamber Music Recordings

[richardfinegold]

This thread is a spin off from Beethoven Quartets. What chamber music recordings would be on your ipod at the mythical Desert Isle?

A Brief list of Mine:

Mozart Clarinet Quintet--AAM
Mendelssohn Octet-- Music from Marlboro
Shostakovich Piano Trio #2--Ax/Stern/Ma
Rahms Clarinet Quintet--Martin Frost
Dvorak Piano Quintet--Peter Serkin, Piano
Brahms Piano Quintet--Leon Fleisher with the Emersons
Beethoven Archduke Trio--Suk Trio

So that would get me through the first morning while I searched for coconuts. Your choices?

[mikealdren]

Shostakovich Piano Trio #2--Oistrakh trio
Mozart Cma quintet Grumiaux trio
Schubert string quintet - Aeolian quartet
Dvorak String quartet Op 106 Prague quartet
Janacek quartets - Janacek quartet
Tchaikovsky - Piano trio Heifetz trio
Mozart divertimento for string trio Grumiaux trio (or some days I prefer the Heifetz trio)
Beethoven Op 59/1 Vlach quartet
Beethoven Archduke Trio--Stern/Rose/Istomin

[Madame Suggia]

Debussy & Ravel string quartets Quartetto Italiano
Bartok Violin Sonatas 1 & 2 Pauk, Jando, Berkes (Naxos)

[gurnemanz]

Beethoven Spring -Zino Francescatti, Robert Casadesus
Franck Violin Sonata - David Oistrakh & Svjatoslav Richter
Mozart Str Quintet K516 - Talich
Brahms String Sextet Op.18 - Rafael
Schubert String Quintet in C - Hollywood
Shostakovich 15th String Quartet - Shostakovich Quartet
Tchaikovsky Piano Trio - Oistrakh Trio
Ravel Piano Trio -Nash Ensemle

[salymap]

Some old favourites...

Schubert Trio no 1 in B flat - Schneider, Casals, Istomen.
Tchaikovsky piano Trio in Aminor, op 50 - Suk Trio
Schubert Octet, op 166 - members of the Berlin Philharmonic
Smetana String Quartet in E minor 'From my Life'
Janacek String Quartet no 2 'Intimate Letters' BOTH Janacek Quartet
Mozart Quintet for winds and keyboard K452. Murrey Perahia and members of the ECO.

lots more .....

One more for now. Poulenc Flute Sonata - Emily Beynon, Flute, Andrew West, Piano

[Keraulophone]

Beethoven Op 135 - Busch Qt
Borodin String Quartets - Borodin Qt (EMI)
Brahms Sextet Op18 No1 - Casals, Stern, et al
Elgar Piano Quintet - Ogdon, Allegri Qt
Franck Violin Sonata - Perlman, Ashkenazy
Poulenc/Saint-Saëns Clarinet Sonatas - Gervase de Peyer, Pryor
Schubert Piano Trio in B flat - Heifetz, Feuermann, Rubinstein
Schubert String Quartet in G - Quartetto Italiano
Schubert String Quintet - Aeolian Qt
Warlock The Curlew - Ian Partridge, MGL

[EdgeleyRob]

Shostakovich String Quartet no 7 - Borodin Quartet.
Britten String Quartet no 3 - Endellion Quartet.
Stanford String Quartet no 1 - RTE Vanbrugh Quartet.
Mendelssohn String Quartet Op 80 - Henschel Quartet.
Vaughan Williams String Quartet no 2 - Maginni Quartet.
Beethoven String Quartet Op 131 - Amadues Quartet.
Elgar Piano Quintet - Coull Quartet,Allan Schiller.
Bliss Clarinet Quintet - David Campbell,Maginni Quartet.
Brahms Clarinet Trio - George Pieterson,Beaux Arts Trio.
Ireland Piano Trio no 3 - Holywell Ensemble.


Ten off the top of my head,otherwise I'd be here all day,so so many others,Schubert,Bartok,Rubbra,Arnold,Howells,Mozar t,Schumann............

[verismissimo]

A handful from me:

Faure Piano Quartet 1 - Gilels, Kogan, Barshai, Rostropovich
Brahms Piano Quintet - Richter, Borodin Q
Ravel Piano Trio - Trio di Trieste
Mendelssohn SQ op80 - Lindsays (live at Blackheath)
Haydn Piano Trios (almost any) - Beaux Arts Trio

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

This thread is a spin off from Beethoven Quartets. What chamber music recordings would be on your ipod at the mythical Desert Isle?

An almost impossible choice, Richard, but I'll have a punt.

Borodin - String Quartet No.2 - Borodin Qt
Tchaikovsky - Souvenir de Florence - Borodin Qt & pals
Poulenc - Flute Sonata - Emmanuel Pahud, Eric le Sage
Ravel - String Quartet - Belcea Qt
Debussy - Trio for flute, viola & harp - Philippe Bernold, Gérard Caussé, Isabelle Moretti
Brahms - Clarinet Sonata No.2 - Martin Fröst & Roland Pöntinen
Mendelssohn - Clarinet Sonata - Charles Neidich & Robert Levin
Schubert - 'Trout' Quintet - Immerseel, Beths, Kussmaul, Bylsma, Danilow

Not the greatest chamber music ever, but repertoire - and performances - which mean much to me, with a Russian/ French bias. The Brahms and Mendelssohn are works I studied, whilst I've always loved French chamber music and could have filled my entire list with it - no room for Ravel's Violin Sonata, Debussy's Quartet... if I'm allowed a luxury item, could I have a flute, then I could learn Syrinx?!

Brahms Clarinet Quintet--Martin Frost

Has Fröst recorded the Quintet?

[BBMmk2]

I do love the chamber music that Martha Argerich has produced fromn Lugano. Every album that has come from these festivals is quite breathtaking, imo. Also the brahms Piano Quartets etc, played by Jaime Laredo Isaac Stern Yo Yo Ma, Emmanuel Ax. Bax's chamber music, Bliss and Elgar's. The list goes on

[EdgeleyRob]

I do love the chamber music that Martha Argerich has produced fromn Lugano. Every album that has come from these festivals is quite breathtaking, imo. Also the brahms Piano Quartets etc, played by Jaime Laredo Isaac Stern Yo Yo Ma, Emmanuel Ax. Bax's chamber music, Bliss and Elgar's. The list goes on

It's impossible BBM.

[Tony Halstead]

I can't quite believe that so far nobody has mentioned the sublime Brahms Trio for horn, violin & piano.

There are three 'must have' recordings IMHO, and I am listing the credits with the pianist FIRST as he/ she has the lion's share of the work!
1) Serkin; Busch; Brain ( Aubrey not Dennis) recorded in the 1930s.
2) Serkin; Michael Tree; Myron Bloom ( recorded at Marlboro' in the late 1950s / early 1960s)
3) Ashkenazy; Perlman; Tuckwell - maybe the finest-ever recording of this work.

For natural-horn enthusiasts there are two excellent recordings: Andrew Clark ( horn) and colleagues on EMI, and Lowell Greer ( horn) and colleagues on HM.

[vinteuil]

I can't quite believe that so far nobody has mentioned the sublime Brahms Trio for horn, violin & piano.

....

For natural-horn enthusiasts there are two excellent recordings: Andrew Clark ( horn) and colleagues on EMI, and Lowell Greer ( horn) and colleagues on HM.

This is indeed a sublime work.

There is another HIPP performance - Alexander Melnikov on an 1875 Bösendorfer; Teunis van der Zwart on an 1845 Lorenz natural horn; Isabelle Faust with the 'Sleeping Beauty' 1704 Stradivarius. On harmonia mundi.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Somebody was talking about the Brahms Trio very recently - they'd played it. I've been meaning to ask for some time, but now Waldhorn has answered it - Brahms actually wrote the work for an unvalved, natural Horn, then? How on earth do you get all the chromatics? The third note required is a C#, then there's a B and an A the bar later, lots of Eb s in the Transition - and so on and so on; many more pitches than the G CDE usually required from the unvalved horns of the late 18th, early 19th Centuries. Is there an "intermediate" instrument between non-valved and valved, or are these other notes meant to sound "fragile" (for want of a better word)?

Sorry to go OT, but I'll only forget again. It is a glorious work.

[Tony Halstead]

The 'fragility' of those chromatic pitches is part of the charm and indeed the 'instress' ( to borrow a G.M. Hopkins word) of the piece!
Re. your queries:
An expert 'hand horn' player can cope very well with your cited pitches.
The 3rd note ( 'written C#' - sounding E in concert pitch) is simply 'bent' or 'pulled down' by the right hand and the lip, from the written 'D' - an 'open' natural 9th harmonic.
The written B is similarly derived ( by hand and lip) from the C ( 8th harmonic); the written A is derived from the rather flat Bb ( 7th harmonic).
All three pitches that you mention will sound rather 'veiled' or muffled but,. if properly / expertly played, will not have a nasty, strident, 'buzzing' tone quality that is sometimes associated with the natural / hand-horn when it is inexpertly played.