Here are some rare, excellent, beautiful, intelligent and select chamber music pieces of famous and once-famous old composers, culled by listening carefully to the sound samples on Edition Silvertrust's website. They also publish The Chamber Music Journal. I audited their full catalog of sheet music in two categories: quite a number of pieces! (I developed the list for some of my acquaintances with whom I play music, and have clarified the titles, somewhat. Originally, it may have been a recommendation from Delicious.com which led me to Edition Silvertrust, but I am not sure.)
All the best, excellent pieces, and only the best ones, are on this list. This is only my educated opinion; and yet, I believe you should enjoy them if you heard them! But merely let me mention my extensive classical music background. I invite you to judge for yourself!
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String and clarinet quintets:
Joseph Eybler (1765-1846), String Quintet for Violin & 2 Violas (or 2 Violins & Viola), Cello & Bass in D Major, Op.6 No.1 (1801)
Friedrich Dotzauer (1783-1860), String Quintet for 2 Violins, Viola & 2 Cellos in d minor, Op.134 (1835)
This one is operatic:
Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842), String Quintet for 2 Violins, Viola & 2 Cellos in e minor (1837)
Johan Svendsen (1840-1911), String Quintet in C Major, Op.5 (1867)
Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), String Quintet No.1 in F Major, Op.85 (1903)
Alexander Krein (1883-1951), Three Sketches on Hebrew Themes for Clarinet Quintet Op.12 (1914)
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Piano quintets:
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), Piano Quintet in A Major, Op.14 (1853)
Elfrida Andrée (1841-1929), Piano Quintet in e minor (1865)
Giovanni Sgambati (1841-1914), Piano Quintet No.1 in f minor, Op.4 (1866)
Friedrich Kiel (1821-1885), Piano Quintet No.1 in A Major, Op.75 (1873-4)
Hermann Goetz (1840-1876), Quintet for Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass & Piano in c minor, Op.16 (1874)
Friedrich Gernsheim (1839-1916), Piano Quintet No.1 in d minor, Op.35 (1877)
Zdenek Fibich (1850-1950), Quintet for Violin, Clarinet & Horn (or 2 Violins & Viola), Cello & Piano in D Major, Op.42 (1893)
Carl Frühling (1868-1937), Piano Quintet in f sharp minor, Op.30 (1894)
Salomon Jadassohn (1831-1902), Piano Quintet No.3 in g minor, Op.126 (1895)
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948), Piano Quintet in D flat Major, Op.6 (1900)
Wilhelm Berger (1861-1911), Piano Quintet in f minor, Op.95 (1904)
Théodore Dubois (1837-1924), Quintet for Oboe (or Clarinet or Violin), Violin, Viola, Cello & Piano in F Major (1904-5)
Giuseppe Martucci (1856-1909), Piano Quintet in C Major, Op.45 (year not found)
Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915), Piano Quintet in g minor, Op.30 (1910-11)
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Piano sextets:
This one is not hard for piano (unlike the usual Glinka), because he intended his Italian doctor's daughter to play it:
Mikhail Glinka (1804-57), Grand Sextet for Piano, String Quartet & Bass in E flat Major (1832)
William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875), Sextet for Cello & Bass (or 2 Cellos), 2 Violins, Viola & Piano in f# minor, Op.8 (1838)
This one has fewer notes than usual for strings:
Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907), Sextet for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon & Piano in B flat Major, Op.6 (1888)
Paul Juon (1872-1940), Divertimento (Piano Sextet) for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon & Piano, Op.51 (1913)
Copyright (c) 2009 Mark D. Blackwell.