Recommended Classical Recordings

Entirely subjective -- No arguments, pls. Just tell me your favorites and my answer shall always be: "its all good."

I'll start with my new haul of CDs I just got and with which I am justly delighted:

1. Leon Fleisher & George Szell both Brahms concertos and other pieces on 2 CDs - Sony Classical MH2K 63225

2. Fleisher & Ozawa, concertos for the left hand, Ravel, Prokofiev, and a piece by Britten, Sony SK 47188

3.Schumann, Brahms Piano Quintets Koday Quartet with Jeno Jando, Naxos, 8.550406

4. Dvorak Piano Quintet, String Quartet, Takacs Quartet with Andreas Haefliger, Decca, 289 466 197-2

5. Brahms Piano Quartet in G m op. 25 orch. Schoenberg, LSO, Neeme Jarvi, Chandos 8825

I love the Time-Life recordings of Mozart's 39, 40, 41 symphonies (from the 80's); especially the 40th. Modern recordings, in my opinion, tend to play Mozart a bit too fast and rob his pieces of their elegance. The 40th is a glorious piece when it's paced properly.

Originally posted by Scriabin
Entirely subjective -- No arguments, pls. Just tell me your favorites and my answer shall always be: "its all good."

I'll start with my new haul of CDs I just got and with which I am justly delighted:

1. Leon Fleisher & George Szell both Brahms concertos and other pieces on 2 CDs - Sony Classical MH2K 63225

2. Fleisher & Ozawa, concertos for th ...[text shortened]... 7-2

5. Brahms Piano Quartet in G m op. 25 orch. Schoenberg, LSO, Neeme Jarvi, Chandos 8825

Bach, Weihnachtsoratorium, Collegium Vocale/Herreweghe, Virgin 0777 7 59530 2 2.
A box, of which I cannot here and now find the details, with all nine Beethoven symphonies, played by the Concertgebouworkest, IIRC directed by Haitink.

Richard

I've been enjoying 'Dracula' by Philip Glass, performed by the Kronos Quartet. One of the few full scores by Glass that I do.

dvorak cello concerto with tchaikovsky variations berlin philharmonic. rostropovich on the cello. Dvorak was awesome.

Originally posted by dryhump
dvorak cello concerto with tchaikovsky variations berlin philharmonic. rostropovich on the cello. Dvorak was awesome.

Agreed, and that's my fav recording - best oboe, too.

Try Dvorak's 7th Symphony with Istvan Kertesz

I like the entire 9 symphony set with Kertesz, but others are great and the sound can be better as the Kertesz recordings are a bit old.

Also look for Dvorak's tone poems on 2 CDs with Kubelik as conductor.
Golden Spinning Wheel, Othello, The Wood Duck, The Noonday Witch, etc.

Originally posted by Scriabin
Entirely subjective -- No arguments, pls. Just tell me your favorites and my answer shall always be: "its all good."

I'll start with my new haul of CDs I just got and with which I am justly delighted:

1. Leon Fleisher & George Szell both Brahms concertos and other pieces on 2 CDs - Sony Classical MH2K 63225

2. Fleisher & Ozawa, concertos for th ...[text shortened]... 7-2

5. Brahms Piano Quartet in G m op. 25 orch. Schoenberg, LSO, Neeme Jarvi, Chandos 8825

Would #2 be "Ozawa" as in "Seiji"? Awesome conductor! 😀

Ever heard Brahms' 1st?

Originally posted by dryhump
dvorak cello concerto with tchaikovsky variations berlin philharmonic. rostropovich on the cello. Dvorak was awesome.

..as was Rostropovich, I'm sure.

np

I love my old record of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra conducted by Pierre Monteaux.

I also enjoy a disc of Wagner overtures conducted by Mariss Jansons withe the Oslo Philharmonic.

Others I like:

Dennis Brain playing the two Strauss and one Hindemith concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Sawallisch and Hindemith conducting.

Holst's "The Planets" conducted by Lorin Maazel with the Orchestra National de France.

A two-disc set of Richard Strauss with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Karajan and Bohm.

A box-set of all the Mahler symphonies conducted by Bernstein.

Respighi's Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome conducted by Fritz Reiner.

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.

For something completely different try listening to Bela Fleck's "Perpetual Motion" album. He takes a lot of classical pieces like Bach inventions and cello suites and plays them on the banjo.

np

Originally posted by neonpeon41
I love my old record of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra conducted by Pierre Monteaux.

I also enjoy a disc of Wagner overtures conducted by Mariss Jansons withe the Oslo Philharmonic.

Others I like:

Dennis Brain playing the two Strauss and one Hindemith concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Sawallisch an ...[text shortened]... sical pieces like Bach inventions and cello suites and plays them on the banjo.

np

Those all sound great to me -- I have a few recordings of Mahler with Bruno Walter. Also a box set of the Vaughn Williams symphonies and other works on EMI by Adrian Boult as well as a box set of Ravel's orchestral music with Jean Martinon.

I have a vinyl recording of Tchaikovsky's 5th with Bernstein that I prefer over the later performance that was reissued on CD.

One day I tell myself I'll buy a preamplifier with a USB connection and digitize my favorite vinyl. Add that one to the myriad other leisure activities I somehow never get around to ...

Originally posted by Scriabin
Those all sound great to me -- I have a few recordings of Mahler with Bruno Walter. Also a box set of the Vaughn Williams symphonies and other works on EMI by Adrian Boult as well as a box set of Ravel's orchestral music with Jean Martinon.

I have a vinyl recording of Tchaikovsky's 5th with Bernstein that I prefer over the later performance that was rei ...[text shortened]... vinyl. Add that one to the myriad other leisure activities I somehow never get around to ...

You can just plug it into your soundcard 1/8 inch input jack, assuming you have a preamp to get from millivolts to a volt or so. You can then use Audacity to get it into some Mp3 or Wav file. I use Cakewalk Sonar and M-Audio Pro tools LE into a firewire 410 I/O which has built in preamps, I used that for my first CD, I guess I already told you about my myspace site, 4 acoustic compositions from that CD. Not classical but folk inspired melodies. That setup I use is ported to a laptop so I can record in a hotel room or wherever with just a couple of mikes, mike cables, mike stand, 410, laptop and earphones, Thats all I need.

I bought a great book "The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection" by Ted Libbey. He includes information about the recordings, the composers and the artists. So far I have been very pleased with all the recommendations.

My two favorite string quartets:

Dmitri Shostakovich - Fitzwilliam String Quartet
Fifteen string quartets composed between 1938 and 1974.

Morton Feldman - Ives Ensemble (Haar, Prooijen, Sanderse, Haar)
Srting Quartet (II) (1983). A single composition with no divisions in the work lasting approximately four hours and forty-five minutes in this performance. Reportedly other performances have lasted between four and six hours. It's a marvel to listen to.