Nov 21 2005, 3:27 PM
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Seasoned Composer
Group: Members
Joined: 3-October 05
Posts: 483
Member Number: 227
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Quote:
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No, I'm not joking.* Almost every single chamber work that Brahms completed is at least the equal of the best that Beethoven, Schubert, and Mendelssohn ever produced.* If I were to list what I consider to be great chamber masterpieces, I would include two to four pieces each by the latter three composers... and all but two to four pieces from Brahms's entire chamber music output.* Listen to his piano quintet, any of his three piano quartets, his horn trio, his clarinet quintet, his first string sextet, either of his first two string quartets... that's just off the top of my head.* Not a dull moment in any of them... and each piece is epic in scale, which is incredibly hard to do with a small ensemble.* Brahms had a gift for compressing incredible amounts of musical material into compact, coherent forms.* Most of Brahms's chamber works can hold my attention for their entire length, 40 minutes to over an hour.* I can only say the same for a few chamber works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Mendelssohn.
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Brahms Sonata for Clarinet was pretty bad(made in his later part of life). I disliked it quite a bit. Though his trios are quite amazing. SO chamber music is quite the diverse little bunch  |
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