Chamber Music CDs

What time of day should I listen to chamber music? What time of day should I write chamber music? Are chamber works of great composers different stylistically from their works of other genres?

These are exceedingly burning questions… and here are the steaming hot answers:

• Listen to chamber music any time you want to. Chamber compositions often expose the resourcefulness of great masters of the past.

• Write chamber music at any time of the day. Next answer, please.

• Chamber music often sounds more intimate than a composer’s other compositions. This certainly was the case with Beethoven. His last few string quartets were way ahead of their time, in terms of their structure and harmonic language. This is fascinating, especially when you consider that he couldn’t hear. How did he do it? I wish we could ask him.

Chamber works were also written in a light-hearted way. For example, Mozart’s serenades were often written for happy, outdoor events.

Here are chamber works of varying moods and styles, played by great artists. Listen and learn.

Sonatas

Mozart: The Violin Sonatas

Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Piano & Cello

Trios

Haydn: Complete Piano Trios

Mozart: The Complete Piano Trios

Schumann: Complete Piano Trios

Antonín Dvorák: Complete Piano Trios

Quartets

Beethoven: The String Quartets