Greatest/Favorite Brahms chamber work

Started by Jaakko Keskinen, January 31, 2011, 04:17:41 AM

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Which chamber work by Brahms is his greatest or your favorite

Piano trio no.1 op.8 (specify in your post if you mean 1854 or 1889 version)
3 (4.3%)
String sextet no.1 op.18 (if Vulcans cry, you must cry too)
1 (1.4%)
Piano quartet no.1 op.25
1 (1.4%)
Piano quartet no.2 op.26
0 (0%)
Piano quintet op.34, duh.
8 (11.6%)
String sextet no.2 op.36
1 (1.4%)
Cello sonata no.1 op.38
4 (5.8%)
Trio for horn, violin and piano aka horn trio op.40
1 (1.4%)
String quartet no.1 op.51/1
1 (1.4%)
String quartet no.2 op.51/2
0 (0%)
Piano quartet no.3 op.60
0 (0%)
String quartet no.3 op.67
1 (1.4%)
Violin sonata no.1 op.78
0 (0%)
Piano trio no.2 op.87
2 (2.9%)
String quintet no.1 op.88
1 (1.4%)
Cello sonata no.2 op.99
0 (0%)
Violin sonata no.2 op.100
4 (5.8%)
Piano trio no.3 op.101
1 (1.4%)
Violin sonata no.3 op.108
1 (1.4%)
String quintet no.2 op.111
2 (2.9%)
Clarinet trio op.114
2 (2.9%)
Clarinet quintet op.115
12 (17.4%)
Clarinet sonata no.1 op.120/1
0 (0%)
Clarinet sonata no.2 op.120/2
0 (0%)
Several of those, but not all (please specify in your post)
6 (8.7%)
All!
15 (21.7%)
Who the heck likes chamber music?
0 (0%)
Bacon.
1 (1.4%)
Chamber music is cool, but Brahms's chamber music sucks!
1 (1.4%)

Total Members Voted: 58

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Jaakko Keskinen

January 31, 2011, 04:17:41 AM
I just had to do another favorite poll, I couldn't resist  ;D. The question is very simple: which one of Brahms's chamber compositions is/are your personal favorite/favorites or might not be your favorite, but still consider it his superior work. Note: although 1889 version of Brahms's first piano trio is more widely played, I have still met many people who place 1854 version higher.

Brahms, one of my favorite chamber music (and orchestral music and piano music) composers. His chamber works are like orchestral works for chamber ensemble (common sense, this sentence makes none) and every one of them kicks ass. However, there are couple of works that I like to put on the pedestal.

String Sextet no.2, G major, op.36. Even if the first one made Vulcan cry...

String quartet no.3, B flat major, op.67. Not only it is one of Brahms's first mature cyclic works but that 2nd movement is one of the greatest movements Brahms ever composed.

String quintet no.1, F major, op.88. "Brahms's string quintets are his weakest chamber works" MY ASS!

Violin sonata no.3, D minor, op.108, the one sonata to rule them all.

So I am gonna pick option: several.
"Javert, though frightful, had nothing ignoble about him. Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand."

- Victor Hugo

Archaic Torso of Apollo

#1
January 31, 2011, 04:29:49 AM
Piano Quintet for me. Chamber music just doesn't get better than this, by anyone.

I was tempted however to vote for the 3rd Piano Trio (Op. 101). Why? Because it doesn't seem to get much attention, yet I think it's one of Brahms' most amazingly tight, focused, concentrated scores.

But if we're putting Brahms scores "on a pedestal," then I'm gonna need an awful lot of pedestals to put them on.  :)
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach

mc ukrneal

#2
January 31, 2011, 05:01:14 AM
Trio #1 is a current favorite (no idea which version). But I wouldn't even know what to choose as the greatest (that is, I could not choose), so I ignored that part!  :)
Be kind to your fellow posters!!

Lethevich

#3
January 31, 2011, 05:01:29 AM
As much as I love them, I can't pick just one. When I try to pick a group of them, I then think "well if you think the piano quartets are masterpieces, why do you neglect the cello sonatas, or the piano trios" and then my brain shuts down :(
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

Florestan

#4
January 31, 2011, 05:15:23 AM
Piece of cake: all!  8)
"Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part." - Claude Debussy

Octo_Russ

#5
January 31, 2011, 05:25:23 AM
As far as i'm concerned his Violin Sonatas reign supreme, i have about ten different discs of these three Violin Sonatas, my favourite is the Perlman / Ashkenazy disc,



And the best Violin Sonata is No2, also i'm rather partial to his String Quartet No1.
I'm a Musical Octopus, I Love to get a Tentacle in every Genre of Music. http://octoruss.blogspot.com/

Conor71

#6
January 31, 2011, 05:28:45 AM
String Sextet No. 1! :'(.

DavidRoss

#7
January 31, 2011, 05:35:03 AM
duh!
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Brahmsian

#8
January 31, 2011, 05:45:44 AM
This was very easy to chose.  ALL!!  Impossible to chose just one favorite piece, and there aren't any pieces that I dislike.

His chamber output is his crowning achievement, in my opinion.

Brahmsian

#9
January 31, 2011, 05:48:59 AM
Just want to give a special mention to the Opus 120 Clarinet Sonatas.  They are also performed on the viola and are equally as delicious!

Wanderer

#10
January 31, 2011, 08:00:13 AM
Almost all of them are favourites: especially the (going in poll/opus number order) op.8 piano trio, the op.25 piano quartet, the piano quintet, the cello sonatas and the opp.78 ("Regenlied") & 108 violin sonatas.

PaulSC

#11
January 31, 2011, 09:49:33 AM
Trio Op. 8, 1889 revision

An easy choice for me, it has been a favorite piece ("my favorite tonal piece," I'd sometimes say) for a good 30 years.

Chaszz

#12
January 31, 2011, 04:33:47 PM
The Piano Quintet has enough powerful material in it to make a symphony. The Piano Trio No. 1 is gorgeous. The String Sextets are both extraordinary. What a composer.... 

Dancing Divertimentian

#13
January 31, 2011, 06:47:14 PM
Definitely all!

Veit Bach-a baker who found his greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill and played while the grinding was going on. In this way he had a chance to have the rhythm drilled into him. And this was the beginning of a musical inclination in his descendants. JS Bach

Luke

#14
February 01, 2011, 05:18:25 AM
Quote from: Lethe on January 31, 2011, 05:01:29 AM
As much as I love them, I can't pick just one. When I try to pick a group of them, I then think "well if you think the piano quartets are masterpieces, why do you neglect the cello sonatas, or the piano trios" and then my brain shuts down :(

Ditto, hence a vote for all. However, if pushed I'd choose....no, it's all of them. By genre, my most listened to are the string quartets, the trios (of all varieties, slight preference for later version of the B major piano trio FWIW), the violin sonatas and the clarinet quintet. But I'm not going to relegate any of these masterpieces to a 'second place'

abidoful

#15
February 01, 2011, 10:51:45 AM
I voted for the Third Violin sonata. I fell for it when I heard it long  time ago from the radio played by Milstein with Vladimir Horowitz himself. Still love it, wonderful slow movement. And one of the most beatiful main themes in the first movement :-*

starrynight

#16
February 01, 2011, 02:34:12 PM
The intimate clarinet quintet or the the warm and loving 2nd violin sonata.

Cato

#17
February 01, 2011, 03:07:21 PM
Schoenberg's orchestration of the Piano Quartet #1 in G minor is my favorite chamber work by Brahms!  0:)

Chaszz mentioned the Piano Quintet could become a symphony: Schoenberg once said that he orchestrated the G minor  Piano Quartet because he felt it did not work as a chamber piece!   :o
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

laredo

#18
February 02, 2011, 01:21:28 AM
Op. 115 excell.

Herman

#19
July 23, 2011, 07:16:57 AM
I'd say the 2nd Violin Sonata op 100; the 2nd Piano Trio, op 87 and the 3d Piano Quartet, op 60
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