Chamber music: if I tell you what my favourite piece is, could you recommend me some other things I might like?

[Molesworth]

I'm looking to discover some new pieces of music for my collection - any suggestions based on the things I already like?

All time favourite is Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2. I've got a few other Shostakovich chamber works but none of them light my fire like that one does.

Also like all of Schubert's chamber works. String quintet and Death and the Maiden quartet are my favourites.

Have an itchy itunes trigger finger - any recommendations gratefully received.

My FIL was once asked to play a Prokofiev piece at a party at the British Embassy in Moscow, fully aware that Prokofiev was standing behind his right shoulder.

Shostakovich String Quartet No 8 - it quotes from the Piano Trio No 2. Do you know his Cello Concerto No 1, or the Violin Concertos?

I somehow think of the Kodaly Solo Cello Sonata as being in a similar vein, but I can't really say how.

There's some klezmer-type music in early Mahler - 1st and 2nd symphonies but most of all in Das Klagende Lied.

Following on from Schubert's Death and the Maiden, try Mendelssohn's F minor string quartet, Op. 80, written after his sister's death. Also Op. 44 No 2. Beethoven's Opp. 59, 74, 95 quartets are a better place to start than Op. 18 or the late quartets, I think.

For more of the roller-coaster side of Shostakovich, try Vagn Holmboe's Symphony No 8 (then 5, 3, 1, 10-13). Perhaps Gavriil Popov's first two symphonies, also.

Malcolm Arnold, Symphonies Nos 5, 6, 9. Robert Simpson, Symphony No 9 - like no other symphony I've ever heard.

If Shostakovich and Bartok quartets appeal, do try Elizabeth (Betty) Maconchy's 13 quartets, now cheaply available in a box set on Regis. I don't know them as well as I should.

And for something completely different: any music, but particularly motets, by Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377).

You're all brilliant.

Have the Schubert Impromptus and love them. Agree about Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis - stately and gorgeous.

Looking forward to listening to the other suggestions.

Regarding the Shosty, if anyone has the Ax/Stern/Ma recording: Yo Yo Ma makes a noise with his cello that's like nothing I've ever heard in the final movement. A sort of whine crossed with whinny. Unforgettable.

Thanks for all those ideas Trouvere. I have Shosty Piano Concertos 1 and 2 and Violin Concertos 1 and 2. No idea why I haven't got to know them. I tend to listen to chamber music and overlook the orchestral stuff on my shelf