Presents

The Guides to Chamber Music

By Raymond Silvertrust, Editor of The Chamber Music Journal

In authoring guides such as these, the reader has the right to inquire as to the qualifications that the writer brings to his or her task. Many of the chamber music guides which have been written discuss only the most famous works and are by people who have never actually played the music and in some cases even heard it. I have played several times a week and have regularly performed chamber music for more than 40 years, mostly in amateur groups, but occasionally in professional ensembles. Along the way, I developed a love of the broader chamber music literature to which I was first exposed through the medium of phonograph records. To my chagrin, years of concert-going made clear that I was unlikely to ever hear such music performed live, either because the professionals did not know of the music or because the music was unavailable. When I realized this state of affairs, I undertook to obtain some of the music I had heard on disk so that at least I could play it. To this end, I began to search music stores, antiquarian dealers and libraries both in America and Europe. Later, I used my briefly held position as chamber music critic for a classical music radio station to further the cause of lesser known but fine chamber music by encouraging broadcasts of these works. Additionally, I served as the editor of and was a frequent contributor to The Chamber Music Journal for more than 30 years and headed up The International Cobbett Association for Chamber Music Research for a similar period or time. My guides are, as far as I know, the only ones which are available for free. This is because it is my goal to revive and cultivate interest in the music I discuss and not to make a profit.

-

Click on the pictures below to view or download the guides

Also Available: The String Quartets of George Onslow---A Monograph--Click Here