Looking for a guide to best classical recordings

"Best" will vary from one person to another. Is a scratchy old recording of a violin concerto played by Fritz Kreisler better than a state of the art SACD by Hilary Hahn? Opinions differ. You should buy a few recommended recordings, and keep track of how you feel about (1) The performers, particularly soloists and (2) the audio quality of the recording. Don't think that there is only one way to perform a particular piece. There is huge lattitude for interpretration, and you should learn your own tastes and follow that when you buy more recordings.

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I have three books recommending classical recordings. They almost never agree. There is no such thing as a definitive recording, and there's no one right way to play Beethoven.

So don't get hung up on looking for the "best." Instead, buy cheap and in quantity. (The Naxos label was made for people like you!) This will give you a chance to decide what you like and don't like, which is far more important than the (nonexistent) consensus of the critics. When you find composers or styles or periods or genres that you like, buy more of it.

The one thing a guide might be helpful for at your stage of the game is in choosing the pieces, rather than the recordings. For that, I'd recommend buying the guide with the *fewest* entries!

Classic Digest. NPR also publishes a pretty good book if you are starting a collection, but as Bomarc says there is rarely agreement on these things from one book to another.

I'm a bit confused - are you referring to "definitive recordings" to mean the quality of the recorded sound, or did you mean the performance with out regard to the sound, or did you mean a combo of both? If you are concerned with audio quality, as opposed to performance, some of the best recommendations will come from members of audio forums who are focused on that issue (and who might also have some expertise, or good taste (:-)). Its good to know where your advise is coming from - some books and critics basically ignore audio quality.

If you are looking for the "defining" performance I agree with others - it doesn't exist. However, I believe that your first selection is very important and should be made carefully, with the knowledge that there are other excellent, but different, performances available What occurs for many folks is that 1st recording, good, bad or indifferent, will become a benchmark for judging other performances later on. I would acquire several of the guides mentioned above and operate off the consensus. Eventually you will develope an affinity for particular artists, conductors, or orchestras/groups, and be able to wade thru all of the critics and their reviews and make your on choices. With regards to the guides, I find the guides which are published in England quite useful BUT beware of the fact that they can be just as provincial, that is, placing undue emphasis on the quality of some English conductors, and the tendency to ignore some very high quality American conductors, composers, and orchestras.