Best chamber music?

For chamber choir, try the madigrals and ayres of Dowland, Willbye, or the other Elizabethans. Earlier, try Tallis; later, try Purcell. As for any kind of chamber intimacy, anything from Brahms piano trios to Mozart string quartets; more modern, try Bartok.

I like my chamber r music Switched-on, so I'd say Wendy Carlos' Switched -On Brandenburgs Volume II. Oh, and Vivaldi's stuff is pretty rockin .

Oh, yes, Mike, you have only to peek at a couple of my postings elsewhere to tell how much I revere Ms. Carlos. But I got the feeling the interrogator was searching for the "switched off" variety.

Oh, wow, where do I start?? There's "Frauenliebe Und Leben", which a TOTALLY great Schumann song cycle; Oh! and Copland's "12 Poems of Emily Dickenson" is completely awesome... Brahms' Trio for Piano, Violin and Horn... any recording you can find with Italian or English Madrigals (especially Christmas music!)... I'll stop myself there, or I'll be at it all day, and I don't think my boss would like that. Feel free to ask if you want more suggestions, though! :)

Some favorites: Bach's "Musical Offering" from the 2-disc (w/ Art of Fugue) set on Phillips, I think with Neville Mariner and a group from the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The music doesn't specify part assignments so individual performances have some discretion in the arrangements - thus there's a nice variation here in sounds, different instruments and numbers of instruments playing for different sections. I think that's helpful for getting into the music before you know what's going on.

Two nice (and affordable) boxes, on London, of Mozart's piano sonatas and wind ensemble music. Light and airy, and not Mozart's big important work or anything (he was really young when he composed lots of the wind music), but pretty. You've probably heard the "Alla Turca" section from one of his piano sonatas before, as it's the music that plays when Truman is on his way to work in The Truman Show.

Mozart's "Dissonant" string quartet used to be my favorite piece of classical music, until I lost the CD and stopped listening to it. (I replaced it but the other performance wasn't as nice. I did get the CD back eventually, though.)

Beethoven's late string quartets (uh, op. 129 - 132 or so) are supposedly the pinnacle of the genre - I like 'em. My recording is an old mono of the Budapest String Quartet on Columbia, though, and I recommend that you seek out one of the other recordings, as the sound quality is kind of disappointing for those used to modern production.

Shostakovich's string quartets are also well-regarded. No. 15 is my favorite, and it's unlike lots of the string quartets you've probably heard - five movements, all slow, with long modal passages and not so much of the motion typical of the genre. The complete set on Melodia with the Borodin Quartet is a nice deal, and there's a lot of range in the quartets - some atonal music, more traditional stuff, some very rambunctious playing.

There's a great 3-disc set of all of Debussy's chamber music which would be well worth your money. Debussy had an especially modern way with harmony, which may make his music sound less remote now. The string quartet is excellent (op. 10 I think), but there are all kinds of other treats here. Maybe even a singin' thing.

Um. Then there's some other stuff. Tired now.

Not strictly 'chamber', but Baroque stuff uses a much smaller (mostly strings) orchestra than later classical work. Corelli 8 ('The Christmas Concerto', so wrong time of year!) is nice, as as things like the Bach Double Concertos (2 violins, Violin and Oboe), the Brandenburg concertos etc...

Oh, and the Dvorak 'American' String quartets, Borodin String Quartet No 2, Arvo Part, Gorecki...

A lot more recently, Rachel's and A Silver Mount Zion (GYBE spin-off) have a nice, modern chamber music sound.

You people amaze me with your knowledge. Glancing at the other topics here, I must note Simon Jeffes's Penguin Cafe Orchestra, who really are or were the chamber music of the recent past. I love all their work, much of which is ideal for chambers, boudoirs, and dressing rooms. This is what the Kronos Quartet should be playing.

You all rock. Please keep the suggestions coming!

well, everyone obviously needs pierre boulez's le marteau sans maitre, a masterful moment of absolute serialism. it's dark, it's intense, it's spooky, it's got a koto.

as string quartets go, penderecki's first two are fantastic, especially the second. they've got all kinds of crazy string scrapes and screeches and lots of violent dynamics. i'm also fond of r. murray schaffer's second string quartet, "waves," which is mellower.

ooh, check out george crumb's makrokosmos too, which uses prepared piano, electric flute, and voice. these should be a good start.

Don't know if this is what you are looking for, but have you tried Art Zoyd's stuff? They were a French band from the 70s, led by Gerard Hourbette and Thierry Zaboitzeffe. Suggested albums: Symphonie pour la Jour, Generation sans Futur, Musique pour l'Odyssey, Phase IV (though finding these on CD is getting increasingly difficult). Very dark, macabre, sparse sound; not quite 'classical music', not quite 'rock music'. Try Univers Zero if you want a more 'rock'-oriented version of Art Zoyd.

i don't remember what i was smoking when i posted that. there is no flute on makrokosmos. and the vocal stuff is usually done by the pianist so you could consider it a solo piece. erf.

i was listening to elliot carter's third string quartet and really getting into it. so i recommend that. oh, and i'm surprised i didn't mention schoenberg's first.

Add:

Webern string quartet/trio music, as played by the Emerson Quartet on Deutsche Grammophon.

Morton Feldman, Piano and String Quartet, Kronos Quartet with Aki Takahashi on Nonesuch.

Toru Takemitsu, Folios for flute and guitar and Toward the Sea for guitar. (Both are on the excellent To the Edge of Dream album on Sony Classical.)

George Crumb, Ancient Voices of Children.

Fred Lerdahl, Waltzes and Eros, both of which are on an excellent disc on CRI.

The Stravinsky two-piano music is very pleasing (there's a great disc on Naxos).

Hindemith's Four Temperaments for piano and string orchestra is great. I've only heard a Melodiya LP that's probably out of print; I'm sure there are other good performances.

Sorry, that's backwards -- Folios is for guitar, Toward the Sea is for (alto) flute and guitar.