Recommendation required for a high quality chamber work.

[Stanfordian]

For use at a forthcoming presentation I will be very grateful if anyone can recommend a high quality chamber work that is lesser known or unjustly neglected. Ideally the music should be from Germany or maybe even central Europe. The period I am covering is predominately around 1890-1940.

I have already selected a number of orchestral, instrumental, songs and choral works and now I need another chamber work. For my chamber work for the first half I have extended my geographic reach from Germany into Czech Republic and have chosen Pavel Haas’s String Quartet No. 2 ‘From the Monkey Mountains’ (1925). I would like another chamber work for the second half. I will be playing a movement each from of these works not the whole work. All suggestions will be gratefully received.

[ardcarp]

Well, a pity you don't want an American work, 'cos Samuel Barber's Wind Quintet is definitely unjustly neglected! However, you've got Janacek's and Hindemith's WQs, though I can't say how 'neglected' they are.

Good luck in your search. It might be worth a trawl through Nielsen's oeuvers (does Denmark count?) because there are usually some surprises tucked away.

Edit: oops, I think Barber's WQ is post-War. Sorry.

[aeolium]

How about Dohnanyi's Sextet for Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, Clarinet and Horn op 37 (written in 1935)? Rarely played presumably because of the unusual combination of instruments, but lyrical with very interesting instrumental colours.

[clive heath]

Can I put in a plug for Bloch's Quintet for Piano and Strings (1923)? It is a quite modern sounding work with what some may consider excruciating clashes but I feel it holds together well and has a very individual sound.

http://www.cliveheathmusic.co.uk/transcriptions_07.php

has an archive version with Alfredo Casella and the Pro Arte Quartet

[richardfinegold]

It is a pity that you are confining yourself to Central Europe, as a lot of interesting British and Russian Chamber Music comes from that time. Vaughn Williams Phantasy Quintet, or Shostakovich Piano Quintet, of something by Frank Bridge. You also are denying yourself the chamber music of Debussy and Ravel.
How about a Bartok or Janacek Quartet?

[Stanfordian]

Well, a pity you don't want an American work, 'cos Samuel Barber's Wind Quintet is definitely unjustly neglected! However, you've got Janacek's and Hindemith's WQs, though I can't say how 'neglected' they are.

Good luck in your search. It might be worth a trawl through Nielsen's oeuvers (does Denmark count?) because there are usually some surprises tucked away.

Edit: oops, I think Barber's WQ is post-War. Sorry.

Hiya ardcarp,
Thanks very much for the tip. I dont know Samuel Barber's Wind Quintet at all. It must have passed me by but I'll check it out.

[ahinton]

It is a pity that you are confining yourself to Central Europe, as a lot of interesting British and Russian Chamber Music comes from that time. Vaughn Williams Phantasy Quintet, or Shostakovich Piano Quintet, of something by Frank Bridge. You also are denying yourself the chamber music of Debussy and Ravel.
How about a Bartok or Janacek Quartet?

He did say "lesser kinown or unjustly neglected" and I don't think that any of the above, fine as they are, could reasonably be described thus and the Shostakovich is slightly outside the prescribed 1890-1940 timeframe in any case..

The first off the cuff suggestions that occur to me would be Schmitt's Piano Quintet, Skalkottas's Fourth String Quartet, Bush (Alan)'s Dialectic for string quartet, Reger's Clarinet Quintet. Marx's Sonata for violin and piano and Medtner's three Sonatas for violin and piano, possibly along with his Piano Quintet which, although completed only in 1949, was begun in 1904! (I don't know how much of it was written when).

[Stanfordian]

How about Dohnanyi's Sextet for Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, Clarinet and Horn op 37 (written in 1935)? Rarely played presumably because of the unusual combination of instruments, but lyrical with very interesting instrumental colours.

Hiya aeolium,

Sounds interesting. I'll listen to Dohnanyi's Sextet as soon as I can.

[Stanfordian]

Can I put in a plug for Bloch's Quintet for Piano and Strings (1923)? It is a quite modern sounding work with what some may consider excruciating clashes but I feel it holds together well and has a very individual sound.

http://www.cliveheathmusic.co.uk/transcriptions_07.php

has an archive version with Alfredo Casella and the Pro Arte Quartet

Hiya Clive, Yes Bloch's Quintet sounds intrresting. I'll search it out.

[Stanfordian]

It is a pity that you are confining yourself to Central Europe, as a lot of interesting British and Russian Chamber Music comes from that time. Vaughn Williams Phantasy Quintet, or Shostakovich Piano Quintet, of something by Frank Bridge. You also are denying yourself the chamber music of Debussy and Ravel.
How about a Bartok or Janacek Quartet?

Hiya richardfinegold, Sadly Vaughan Williams, Shostakovich or Frank Bridge dont really fit into my parameters and neither do any French pieces. I'm not really a lover of the Bartok quartets but I do like the Janacek Quartets but I think they might me too well known for my neglected masterpiece programme.

[notnerb]

How about Bruno Walter's piano and violin sonata (1st performed 1909)?

[Stanfordian]

He did say "lesser kinown or unjustly neglected" and I don't think that any of the above, fine as they are, could reasonably be described thus and the Shostakovich is slightly outside the prescribed 1890-1940 timeframe in any case..

The first off the cuff suggestions that occur to me would be Schmitt's Piano Quintet, Skalkottas's Fourth String Quartet, Bush (Alan)'s Dialectic for string quartet, Reger's Clarinet Quintet. Marx's Sonata for violin and piano and Medtner's three Sonatas for violin and piano, possibly along with his Piano Quintet which, although completed only in 1949, was begun in 1904! (I don't know how much of it was written when).

Hiya ahinton,

I think I might be getting somewhere near the mark here. As I'm trying to keep as close to Germany and its borders fitting the bill are the Reger Clarinet Quintet and the Marx Sonata for violin and piano. The name Schmitt with his Piano Quintet might sound German but is French. With regard to Medtner's Piano Quintet, which is of interest, the compoer although Russian born did spent time in Germany but it might be stretching the geography a bit.

[Pulcinella]

Enescu: Dixtuor, opus 14 (1906)?

[Pianoman]

Beat me to Enescu - a good Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet within your period

[Don Petter]

The name Schmitt with his Piano Quintet might sound German but is French.

What you need is Schmidt, not Schmitt! Try any of the three:

Quintet for Clarinet, Piano and Strings in Bflat
Quintet for Piano, Clarinet and Strings in A
Quintet for Piano and Strings in G

Probably one of the first two would be best - try the slow movements. All three works were written for piano, left hand, but are often played (two of them, at least) in Wuhrer's arrangement for both hands.

Very tuneful, and far too little known.

Franz Schmidt (1874-1939) (Born in Pozsony (known in German as Pressburg), in the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (the city is now Bratislava, capital of Slovakia).