Unsung chamber music with piano

[Steven Eldredge]

I would love to hear about member's favorite obscure(more or less) 19th century chamber music including piano. I am very fond of the piano quartets of Franz Berwald, the Hummel Septet, and the Smetana Piano Trio, which is a glorious piece. Any ideas for some more CD shopping on my part?

Steven in NYC

[JimL]

Snap up the Piano Trio of Henselt, if you can.  It's a favorite of mine.  The Trio of Alkan isn't too bad either.  The former is on MDG, the latter on Naxos.  If you can find the old Mirecourt Trio release of the two (coupled with the Litolff Trio #1 and the Thalberg) on Genesis, so much the better.  Actually, I don't know if the CD release includes the Litolff - they may have paired it with the Gerald Robbins rendition of the Concerto Symphonique 4.  I'm quite fond of the Thalberg Trio, too.  I don't know if it quite qualifies as unsung, but the Quintet for Piano and Winds by Rimsky-Korsakov is an absolute delight.  A lot of us plump for Rubinstein's Piano and Wind Quintet, as well.  Unfortunately there was a wealth of chamber music on one of the recent threads of our defunct Raff Forum.  Speaking of Raff, just about anything of his in the chamber realm is recommended, but the Piano Quintet, Op. 107, is considered by many here to be his masterpiece.

P.S. I wonder if the budding young pop star Juliette Commagere is the daughter of the founder of Genesis, Robert Commagere?

[orff]

Phew - where to start?

Félicien David - Piano Trios 2&3 on Marco Polo - gorgeous melodies
Waldemar Bargiel - Piano Trios 2&3 on MD&G - stunning
Wilhelm Berger - Piano Quintet Op.95 on MD&R - a huge, grand chamber work
Adolphe Biarent - Piano Quintet on Cyprés - Franckian and lovely
Tomás Bretón - Piano Trio in E on Marco Polo - A Spanish delight
Alexis de Castillon - Piano Quartet - advanced for its time
George Whitefield Chadwick - Piano Quintet - Americana from an all-American composer
Théodore Dubois - any of the Atma releases - obscure masterpieces of chamber music
Arthur Foote - lots of it on Naxos - lovely, singing ensembles

And that's just a few...

[Steven Eldredge]

I have never heard the Henselt. I know the Concerto and the Etudes pretty well, so I can imagine. I have the Alkan on Naxos. A wild piece. Thanks for the lists!

Steven

[TerraEpon]

I can never pass up an opportunity to mention Cecile Chaminade's Piano Trio #1.

(*mentioned*)

[JimL]

I have never heard the Henselt. I know the Concerto and the Etudes pretty well, so I can imagine. I have the Alkan on Naxos. A wild piece. Thanks for the lists!

Steven

You know the odds of hearing the Henselt on the radio as much as I do.  Best you pick it up, on CD or download.  The piano part, of course is full of the same insane stretches and resulting full sonorities as the Concerto and Etudes, yet there is truly a sense of balance between the instruments.  There is a melancholy, yet dramatic first movement (in 6/8 time), a wonderful chorale-like slow movement and a rollicking scherzo, followed up with a frantic, yet eminently satisfying finale.  It probably doesn't get performed very often for the same reason as the concerto, IMHO - the difficulty of the piano part.

[Mark Thomas]

You'd expect me to beat the drum for Raff and so I shall.

The Piano Quintet is one of his masterpieces and I recommend that you buy the new Divox recording with Il Trittico. You get the added bonus of the substantial Fantasie for Piano Quintet (itself a delight) and Goetz' Piano Quintet. Avoid the MDG disk which couples it with the String Sextet. That's a fine interpretation, but the Piano Quintet is dire.

Then there are the four Piano Trios, any and all of which are superb. There are two cycles: Il Trittico once again on Arte Nova (discontinued but easy to find) is a fine budet option and there are also two separate disks from Trio Opus 8 on cpo. All these recordings are reviewed at Raff.org.

Coming up, possibly as early as the end of the year, is a second Divox CD which features the premiere recordings of the two Piano Quartets. The players are Il Trittico once again and these are stunning performances of two more glorious works.

Raff really is at his consistent best in these eight works. If you like his orchestral music you'll be bowled over by his works for piano and strings.

[Peter1953]

My favourite is Rubinstein's Octet op. 9, without hesitation (by the Consortium Classicum on Orfeo).
The Henselt Piano Trio is gorgeous, but so are Raff's Quintet and 4 Piano Trios, like Mark says. I cannot make up my mind which of these Raff masterpieces I like the most. They are superb.
Since a week I have Rufinatscha's Piano Quartets. Very pleasant to listen to. According to Manfred Schneider in his booklet notes the 2nd in A flat major is more mature, but up to now I prefer #1 in C minor which sounds more sparkling. 
But I have another suggestion and that is a CD with the Piano Trios of Thalberg (op. 69) and Moscheles (op. 84) by the Göbel Trio Berlin on the Signum label. Both very sparkling masterpieces, with my slight preference for Thalberg. Steven, I am absolutely confident that you won't be disappointed!

[John H White]

I reckon my favourite set of 2 CDs is of the 6 trios for violin, viola and piano by Ignaz Lachner on the Swiss Claves label: full of lovely melodies!
   A much cheaper alternative choice would be Spohr's 3rd and 5th piano trios on a Naxos disk. Two other CDs of music for piano and wind or mixed ensemble I can recommend are The Nash Ensemble's performances of Spohr's Quintet Op. 52 together with his Septet Op 147  on CRD and Ignaz Moscheles's Sextet Op 35 with his Septet Op 88 on MDG.

[Syrelius]

If you like Scandinavian music in the late romantic/national romantic mould, I would recommend Sigurd von Koch's piano quintet.

Since you like the Berwald quartets, you should also try his quintets.

[Hofrat]

Joachim Eggert's piano quartet.

[Amphissa]

 
There are not enough Russians in this thread!

My first recommendation goes to Taneyev's Piano Quartet in E major Op. 20, his Piano Trio in D major Op. 22, and his Piano Quintet in G minor Op. 30. These are substantial works of great depth and structure. (Taneyev premiered Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto and completed his 2nd and 3rd concertos, and the major Russian chamber music competition is named for him, so he was well recognized in his own country, even if we've forgotten him now.)

Borodin's Piano Quintet is a fully engaging and enjoyable work. The Marco Polo CD that presents it with other Borodin chamber music is excellent!

I must mention cello sonatas, which are among my favorite chamber form. The two cello sonatas of Myaskovsky are very good indeed - beautifully melodic, melancholy, rhapsodic. One or more of them is often paired with his exquisite cello concerto or with Rachmaninoff's beautiful cello sonata.

Finally, my non-Russian choices. There are several CDs that couple the chamber music of Respighi with that of his teacher, Martucci -- piano quintets, cello sonatas, violin sonatas, etc. When I first heard these, I was surprised and delighted at just how good they are.

[izdawiz]

I'd have to say:
-Czerny's Nonet
-Eduard Franck's Sextets
-Richard Franck's Piano Trios
-Hans Gal's Violin and Piano Sonata
-Thuille's Cello Sonata
-Bortkiewicz's Violin and Piano Sonata
-Franz Mittler's Piano Trio
too bad this thread is only for Chamber with Piano there should be a thread for Strings only.

[Alan Howe]

I'd add:
Raff Piano Quintet (Divox)
Raff Piano Quartets
Gernsheim Piano Trios (Antes)
Gernsheim Piano Quintets (recording forthcoming)
Draeseke Piano and Horn Quintet (MDG)
Fuchs Piano Quartets (Thorofon)
Taneyev Piano Quintet (DG)
Wilhelm Berger Piano Quintet (MDG)
Bargiel Piano Trios (MDG)
Noskowski Piano Quartet (Olympia)

[Gareth Vaughan]

I'm particularly fond of Ries' piano chamber music.