2. music
  3. 979656828

Buidling a Classical Library - MUST HAVES!

I started a r2d4 thread last week and am so impressed with the depth of music knowledge on this site that I'm going to start this one too. My knowledge of great classical recordings is so limited it's embarrassing to call myself a music lover. I've tried following some of the reviews in Stereophile, TAS and Golden Ear, but they all seam to have some agenda other than great sound, great performance and great material in mind. The fact that my system can resolve the subsonic activity of an earthquake during the highschool bands performance of Nutcracker or what ever Stereophile is about does nothing to help me find great music. My request, if you choose to accept it, is to identify the must have recordings to build library from scratch. PLEASE CONSIDER SONIC QUALITY, PERFORMANCE AND MATERIAL EQUALLY. As a lover of music I believe all three should be superior. Also, in the spirit of my last post, PLEASE REFRAIN FROM CRITICIZING OTHERS SELECTIONS. IF YOU WANT TO ARGUE A SELECTION START A THREAD, LEAVE THIS ONE FOR KNOWLEDGE FOR THOSE OF US WHO NEED IT. THANK-YOU. Finally, please list a maximum top ten and even if your favorites already appear, list them anyway. This will help me figure out the first ones to buy. Vinyl and/or digital are acceptable as long as the material is still avalible.
128x128jadem6
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Buy "NPR guide to building a classical music library" by Ted Libby on Amazon.
Nothing ever written is as informative or reliable as this small tome.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Jburidan, HVK was not really a Nazi, he was a careerist who went along with the program as 90% of the people in Germany did and as 90% of the people in any country , to include this one, will- if push comes to shove.
You want to dislike someone start with Waagner who was as vile an anti-Semite as ever lived and made anti-Semitism
acceptable in German circles where it never was before.
jdaniel13
129 posts
 
Oh man, great performances plus audiophile sound? You know the old, cynical saying, right? Here's a vinyl list, countless glaring omissions, (none are my personal "must haves" anymore, and some are not my current favorite performances), but I've tried to imagine myself just starting out and you want at least "good" sound:

Bach: Brandenberg's/Overtures Collegium Aureum German DHM
Barber: Adagio for Strings ASMF Marriner Argo
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra Boulez/NYP Columbia*
Beethoven: Symphony 5 Kleiber
Chopin: Nocturnes Moravec Connoisseur Society
Copland: Rodeo/Billy the Kid Bernstein Columbia
Dvorak: Symphony 9 Walter Columbia
Grofe Grand Canyon Suite Ormandy/Columbia
Holst: Planets Solti/London/MFSL
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition Ansermet/Suisse Romande London
Orff: Carmina Burana MTT/Columbia
Prokofiev Symphony 5 Maazel Cleveland London
Rachmaninoff Rhapsody/PC #2 Rubenstein/Reiner
Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works: Scrowakzewski/Minnesota Vox
Rossini: Overtures Gamba/LSO London
Respighi: Pines/Festivals Maazel Cleveland London
Stravinsky Firebird Suite Muti Philadelphia EMI
Suppe Overtures Solti/VPO London
Tchaikovsky 1812/Romeo Previn LSO EMI
Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia Barbirolli/LSO EMI
Wagner Overtures/Scenes Szell Cleveland Columbia

*Columbia's house sound can often be dismal, but the few listed above--while not audiophile quality--aren't bad at all.

tostadosunidos's avatar
tostadosunidos
1,197 posts
 
Where's the solo and chamber stuff?
david12
1,454 posts
 
May I suggest a different approach, or approaches. I have been collecting classical vinyl and CDs, since the 70's and really, it comes down so much to personal taste.I am more interested in Chamber music and late 20th century Avantgard music now, Berg Webern, Glass and Schoenberg, what my wife calls" A cacophony". So here are some suggestions

CD boxed sets: There are some marvellous box sets reissued at very low prices, by a number of Top labels, Decca, Archiv. Mercury and many others. They are very cheap and cover a wide range of music, selling for some $2 each, a steal. You can find out yourself, where your tastes lie. A good place to look is Amazon, helped by quite well informed customer review. I have a Decca and Mercury box, both are very good.

Labels to seek out: there are many which are excellent, I would put HMV and Decca at the top, but I am British. Others are Deutsch Gramaphon, Phillips, Argo, Archiv Mercury Living Presence, Reference Recordings, ECM. The latter are very good for some very obscure modern music
More to discover