George,
If you have Beethoven's 9th by Cleveland/Szell, hold, on to it.
If you have Beethoven's 9th by Cleveland/Szell, hold, on to it.
Recommendations for a few high SQ classical CDs
The San Francisco Symphony runs their own music label which is always of very high quality for both the performance and the recording. They have all of Mahler’s Symphonies (including the 4th). They also have the Beethoven 9th. If you get these on SACD, they are recorded in natural 5 channel surround sound that is REALLY AWESOME if you have the system to play it on. https://bluecoastmusic.com/store?f%5B0%5D=field_record_label%3A139 |
n80, Once upon a time, I heard a report on the radio that talked about popularity of opera among people who otherwise prefer punk rock. It talked about similarities between those two, what appears to be completely different, styles of music. I cannot repeat it now, but they dissected it and it made sense. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=911160 |
I'd like to comment on SQ of some of the CD's listed. The Karajan New Years Concert was mentioned. First some history; Deutsche Grammophon's digital recordings from the 1980's are far from good sound quality. Sound was dry, harsh, and their technique of multi-mic'ing resulted in a closed-in and flat presentation. DG was far behind other record labels during the early years of the CD. My point is to steer clear of the early DG DDD recordings, as most were remastered later in an attempt to make them listenable. Now, I would assume the Japanese K2 CD would be superior to the DG issues for sale from US vendors. One last comment; The San Francisco Symphony's recordings from their record label are some of the best I've heard. It's true the SQ and performances are top class. Other major symphonies have created their own record labels and sell very high quality CD's. One that comes to mind is The London Symphony Orchestra. |
Thanks lowrider. I've got several CDs by the London Symphony Orchestra. Not home right now so I'll check which ones later. glupson, in Italy opera is still popular with young people. I saw Tosca at the Parma opera house in April (my first opera) and there were lots of young people and children there. They sell tickets for the top tier which is standing only, no seats, and they say it is often full of young people who stand through these two hour productions. My first thought was that these must be wealthy young folks because even standing tickets aren't cheap and floor seats are high....but you commonly see rock concert tickets for $150 and pro football tickets are that high too. |