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From: ellis@flairvax.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Classical Music for Newcomers
Message-ID: <470@flairvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-May-84 09:46:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: flairvax.470
Posted: Thu May  3 09:46:56 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 4-May-84 05:34:14 EDT
Organization: Fairchild AI Lab, Palo Alto, CA
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Re: Chamber Music for Newcomers 

Other recommendations (at least these are what grabbed me way back when..)

Brahms is a major bonanza for chamber music lovers, particularly if you like
heavy thick chords and rich romantic harmonies. He was a perfectionist who
destroyed much of his own work that he judged inferior, and it is hard to
find anything he wrote that is not perfect, unless you just don't like
Brahms.  Highly recomended are the clarinet quintet, the piano quintet, and
the piano quartets, besides the marvelous sextets mentioned in Yosi Hoshen's
article. If you like the gypsy sounds in the 1st piano quartet, perhaps
Cesare Franck's wild and sensuous piano quintet will appeal to you as well.

If any composer specialized in chamber music, it was Gabriel Faure (who has
no symphonies, and very few orchestral works).  Most of Faure's work is
ethereal, poignant, perhaps not aggressive enough for some tastes. The two
piano quintets are a good introduction to his style.

Schubert has several string quartets that are well worth getting acquainted
with. In addition to the `Quartettsatz' and `Death and the Maiden' (which
makes really swell funeral music), one should really check out the soaring
quartet number 15 -- his last, and one of my all time favorite chamber
compositions. 

It is hard to agree with the recent admonition to beginners concerning
Beethoven's late string quartets! These were among the first chamber
compositions that appealed to me -- his other chamber music seems to pale
in comparison to these ears. This music is so elevated and sublime
that composers have been intimidated by the task of writing string quartets
ever since. Admittedly, we are not talking about party music here...

Though his relatively violent Grosse Fuge is still capable of emptying
rooms, I'd most strongly recommend the C-sharp minor quartet. The inner 5(?)
movements of this most unconventional piece meander thru a marvelous
sequence of subtle, quiet states that can produce an almost zen-like trance.
Space cadets should find much appealing in the earlier Rasoumovsky quartets
as well.

Shostakovich's string quartets strike me as the finest music he wrote, even
if you think his (frequently political) symphonies suck.  Those who are
inclined to dismiss this composer ought to hear his string quartets 4, 5, 7,
8, and 9. These are full of beautiful melodies, meditative interludes, and
pure magic.

A punk I know ended up jumping around the room on his first acquaintance
with the Bartok Quartets -- the vicious rhythms are capable of producing an
incredible adrenalin rush -- particularly numbers 3, 4 and 5. The quiet
parts of these are also particularly fun, full of expectant anxiety and
occasionally acheiving a weird, dreamlike kind of serenity.  This music is a
nightmare if you are really stuck in conventional sounds, however.

-michael