Bartók's Second String Quartet was composed – with several long interruptions – between 1915 and 1918, after he had spent several years almost solely devoted to collecting folk music. The

Béla Bartók's six string quartets, composed between 1908 and 1940, are 20th-century milestones of the genre. His First String Quartet is closely linked to his unhappy love for the violinist

Debussy wrote these two short dances to a commission from the instrument-making firm of Pleyel, which was keen to use famous names in the marketing of its newly-developed chromatic harp. The dances are also

It is almost impossible to tell from listening to them that Bach's extremely popular concerti for harpsichord were probably his own transcriptions of solo concerti which had originally been composed for

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier was highly successful in his lifetime, but many of his more than 100 works are forgotten today. His duo sonatas for string or wind instruments, however, continue to enjoy great

Completed in 1888, this sonata was the culmination of several years of work and Brahms' final contribution to the genre. It is his only one in a minor key and stands in stark contrast to its two

Brahms early on engaged with the violin sonata form. As early as 1853 he wrote a sonata in A minor, which - like so many other youthful works of this self-critical composer - no longer survives. Thus the

Violinist Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, a friend of Mendelssohn, was one of the great virtuosi of his age, standing alongside Paganini, Vieuxtemps, and Wieniawski. Like them, he left behind a series of

Debussy wrote these two short dances on a commission from the instrument-making firm Pleyel, which was keen to use famous names in the marketing of its newly developed chromatic harp. The dances are also

Brahms composed a whole series of chamber music works, including his Second Violin Sonata in A Major, during a summer visit to Thun in Switzerland in 1886. This wonderfully lyrical work is one of his most

It is almost impossible to tell from listening to them that Bach's extremely popular concerti for harpsichord were probably his own transcriptions of solo concerti which had originally been composed for

Only a few of Haydn's piano sonatas are in the minor mode, and they are all somber and defiant in tone. This famous sonata in E minor opens with an impatient, throbbing motif in what is surely one of the

Among the many works that Richard Strauss wrote for his wife Pauline de Ahna, these four songs occupy a special position, for the composer gave these "to my beloved Pauline" as a wedding present on