Last May we asked readers of BBC Music Magazine to vote for their favourite pieces of chamber music. Now the result, revealed below, will form the centre-piece of a year-long festival at London’s Kings Place.
The top five chamber works, as voted for by you, were Schubert’s String Quintet, Mendelssohn’s String Octet, Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet K581 and Beethoven String Quartet Op. 130.
These works, plus the next 45 which received the most votes from our readers, will form the central strand of Top 50 Chamber Classics Unwrapped and will be performed by the likes of the Brodsky Quartet (pictured above), the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Dante Quartet and soloists including violinist James Ehnes, pianist Imogen Cooper and flautist James Galway.
But that’s not all. The festival will also include study days covering French chamber music, Beethoven’s String Quartets and Schubert’s late masterpieces.
The festival kicks off on 15 January 2014 and tickets are available to buy now from the Kings Place website.
BBC Music Magazine readers’ top 50 chamber works
1. Schubert
String Quintet
2. Mendelssohn
String Octet
3. Schubert
Piano Quintet in A major ('Trout Quintet')
4. Mozart
Clarinet Quintet K581
5. Beethoven
String Quartet op. 130 (including the Grosse Fugue)
6. Schubert
String Quartet No. 13 ('Death and the Maiden')
7. Brahms
Clarinet Quintet in B minor
8. Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 8
9. Dvořák
String Quartet No. 12 ('American')
10. Beethoven
String Quartet Op. 131
11. Messiaen
Quartet for the End of Time
12. Beethoven
String Quartet Op. 132
13. Schumann
Piano Quintet in E flat, Op. 44
14.Beethoven
Violin Sonata No. 9 ('Kreutzer')
15. Beethoven
Piano Trio, Op. 97 ('Archduke')
16. Bach, JS
The Art of Fugue (for string quartet)
17. Brahms
Piano Quintet in F minor
18. Schoenberg
Verklarte Nacht (for string sextet)
19. Ravel
String Quartet
20. Bach, JS
Violin Sonata No. 2
21. Borodin
String Quartet No. 2
22. Bach, JS
A Musical Offering
23. Mozart
Serenade No. 10 ('Gran Partita')
24. Janáček
String Quartet No. 2 ('Intimate Letters')
25. Franck
Violin Sonatas
26. Beethoven
String Quartet Op. 135
27. Bartók
String Quartet No 4
28. Dvořák
Piano Quintet No. 2
29. Ravel
Introduction and Allegro
30. Debussy
String Quartet No. 1
31. Shostakovich
Piano Quintet
32. Rachmaninov
Cello Sonata
33. Ravel
Piano Trio
34. Schubert
Octet
35. Bartók
String Quartet No. 5
36. Tchaikovsky
String Sextet, Op. 70 ('Souvenir de Florence')
37. Beethoven
Violin Sonata No. 5 ('Spring')
38. Elgar
Piano Quintet
39. Janáček
String Quartet No. 1 ('Kreutzer Sonata')
40. Bartók
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
41. Schubert
Piano Trio No. 2
42. Bach, JS
Flute Sonata BWV1030
43. Brahms
Horn Trio
44. Debussy
Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp
45. Mozart
Divertimento in E flat K563
46. Shostakovich
Piano Trio No. 2
47. Sibelius
String Quartet, Op. 56 ('Voces Intimae')
48. Beethoven
Piano Trio Op. 70, No. 1 ('Ghost')
49. Brahms
String Sextet No. 1
50. Nielsen
Wind Quintet Op. 43
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