Satoshi Akima wrote concerning Brahms:

>I think once again that this composer's large scale works tend to get
>grossly excessive exposure compared to his chamber works.  I know this
>flies in the face of convention, but in fact I would gladly NEVER hear
>another symphony again from his as long as I could continue to listen
>to his chamber music.

I generally agree with Satoshi.  I much prefer the Brahms chamber works to
his symphonies and concertos.  But "never" is a long time, and I'm still
open to a greater appreciation of the Brahms large-scale works.

The Brahms violin sonatas and cello sonatas do get a great deal of
exposure.  But, as Satoshi indicated, many of the chamber pieces are not
well known.  Nobody wrote better chamber works with clarinet than Brahms.
His clarinet quintet and the clarinet sonatas are as good as Mozart's
clarinet quintet.

Don Satz
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