The Major Chamber Scores since World-War II

[North Star]

To accompany James's orchestral thread. Go ahead, make your lists.

[Brian]

Penderecki - Sextet
Penderecki - String Quartet No. 3 (and revision by the composer as String Quintet)
Shostakovich - most string quartets
Aaron Jay Kernis, Philip Glass - string quartets
Riley - Music for 18 Musicians
Golijov - The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind
Martinu - Nonet

EDIT: Edited to add the Martinu

[kishnevi]

DSCH...any of his that qualifies under the dating limit
Carter...String Quartets
Ligeti...pretty much anything he wrote
Penderecki...Sextet
Boulez Sur Incises

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Sticking to traditional forms (i.e. no weird non-standard combos):

Penderecki: Sextet (hm, I see a trend)
Shostakovich: String Quartets 3-15 (another trend)
Lutoslawski: String Quartet (his one and only)
Rochberg: String Quartet #3
Schnittke: Piano Quintet
Martinu: Nonet
Carter: String Quartet #1 (probably the other quartets too)
Simpson: String Quartet #9 (the massive palindromic Haydn one)

[North Star]

Some not mentioned before:

Dutilleux: String Quartet Ainsi la nuit
Feldman: Crippled Symmetry, for flute, percussion and piano
Lutoslawski: Partita for violin & piano
Poulenc: Sonatas for cello & pf, flute & pf, clarinet & pf, and oboe & pf
Pärt: Fratres for violin & piano
Xenakis: Dikhthas for violin & piano, Tetras for string quartet

[vandermolen]

Schnittke: Piano Quintet
Bloch: string quartets 3,4,5
Vaughan Williams: String Quartet No. 2 'For Jean on her Birthday'
Vaughan Williams: Violin Sonata

er....that's it.

These are more 'favourites' perhaps although I think that the Schnittke would count as 'major'.

[ritter]

My contibutions will be piecemeal on this one. For starters:

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Kontra-Punkte
George Enescu: Symphonie de chambre, op. 33

More to come 

[EigenUser]

Riley Reich - Music for 18 Musicians

Fixed

Unless you meant Riley's In C.

[ritter]

Perhaps the most important one?

Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau sans maître

[chadfeldheimer]

Would like to add some string quartets:
Ferneyhough - 3rd SQ
Nono - Fragmente – Stille, An Diotima
Lachenmann - Gran Torso
Schnittke - 3rd SQ

[amw]

'Objective' again

Shostakovich - most string quartets
Riley Reich - Music for 18 Musicians

Carter...String Quartets
Boulez Sur Incises

Lutoslawski: String Quartet (his one and only)
Rochberg: String Quartet #3

Dutilleux: String Quartet Ainsi la nuit
Poulenc: Sonatas for cello & pf, flute & pf, clarinet & pf, and oboe & pf
Pärt: Fratres for violin & piano
Xenakis: Tetras for string quartet

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Kontra-Punkte
George Enescu: Symphonie de chambre, op. 33

Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau sans maître

Nono - Fragmente – Stille, An Diotima
Lachenmann - Gran Torso

Schoenberg - String Trio
Cage - 4'33" [if that counts], String Quartet in Four Parts
Kagel - Acustica
Stockhausen - Mikrophonie I, Kontakte
Cardew - Treatise (I suppose this could also be an 'orchestral' score or any other kind of score...)
Ligeti - String Quartet No. 2, Horn Trio
Abrahamsen - Schnee
Nono - La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura
Grisey - Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil
Lang - Cheating, Lying, Stealing
Reich - New York Counterpoint, Four Organs
Glass - Music in 12 Parts
Lachenmann - Allegro sostenuto
Holliger - String Quartet No. 1
Andriessen - Hoketus
Feldman - String Quartet No. 2
Kurtág - Messages of the late Miss R.S. Troussova
Haas - in vain

more to come!

[North Star]

Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau sans maître

I can't believe I forgot to name that one.


Some not too (enough) avant-garde ones. . .
Shostakovich: Sonata for va & pf, op. 147, Sonata for vn & pf, op. 134
Prokofiev's Sonata for vn & pf no. 1, Op. 80 (1938-46) Sonata for vc & pf, Op. 119 (1949)
Britten: SQ No. 2 (1945), SQ No. 3 (1975), Lachrymae for va & pf (1950)
Schnittke: Sonata for vc & pf no. 2

Cage - 4'33" [if that counts]
more to come!

Why not, and splendid.

[Brian]

Fixed

Unless you meant Riley's In C.

Wow, and I even debated it in my head and settled on the correct name, but then just...typed the other one.