Great suggestions frogman, the Four Last Song by Schwarzkopf and Szell would be one of my desert island picks. Solti’s Elektra too (yup, I’d need a pretty big island...). But the original ED2 label Decca pressing is actually cheaper than the Speakers Corner reissue and probably sounds much better.
Halcro, if you ARE a Decca fan (and which classic music fan isn’t?) you should really hear ’An Alpine Symphony’ by Mehta. A sonic spectacular in the best sense of the word. This guy had a great tenure with the LAPO, yielding many excellent recordings. Most of these are from the later ’narrow band’ label era that ’pressing snobs’ usually sneeze at, so they’re available at very modest prices. His ’Ein Heldenleben and ’Don Quichote’ are also very good.
While we’re at it, I’ll even go on record saying that his Mahler 3 is THE best sounding orchestral recording in my entire collection. You won’t believe what you’ll hear.
Halcro, if you ARE a Decca fan (and which classic music fan isn’t?) you should really hear ’An Alpine Symphony’ by Mehta. A sonic spectacular in the best sense of the word. This guy had a great tenure with the LAPO, yielding many excellent recordings. Most of these are from the later ’narrow band’ label era that ’pressing snobs’ usually sneeze at, so they’re available at very modest prices. His ’Ein Heldenleben and ’Don Quichote’ are also very good.
While we’re at it, I’ll even go on record saying that his Mahler 3 is THE best sounding orchestral recording in my entire collection. You won’t believe what you’ll hear.