Expert: David Froom - 10/15/2004

Question
Dear Sir/Mdm,

IF i were to design a 1.5 hr recital programme on Classical period chamber music, what are the pieces (maybe 3 quartets from either haydn, mozart or beethoven) that i should choose? they must be important works and could you please provide reasons for choosing these works?

hope to hear from you.


best regards

Answer
You could choose three quartets of Beethoven (any of them), or three quartets of Haydn (most of them are important, but in particular Op 33 or the late ones), or three quartets of Mozart (the most important ones are the ones in the K. numbers beyond the 370s -- beginning with the six dedicated to Haydn).

Or you could choose two of those from one composer and add one from another.  Or you could choose one from each.

Any way you do this, you could find a plausible reason for combining.  Three by one composer is always interesting, showing either three from one period or one each from early, middle, late periods.  One by each composer is also interesting, either trying to get the widest chronological spread, or the smallest (the latest quartets by Haydn and Mozart against the earliest quartets by Beethoven).  

Or you could do it by key -- three in one key or three related keys -- or even three wildly unrelated keys for maximum contrast.

There is no way to go wrong, only ways to go right.  And explaining why is always a possibility after you have made your choices.  My advice would be to program your three favorite, and come up with an explanation later.

David Froom