Classical Music for Aficionados


I would like to start a thread, similar to Orpheus’ jazz site, for lovers of classical music.
I will list some of my favorite recordings, CDs as well as LP’s. While good sound is not a prime requisite, it will be a consideration.
  Classical music lovers please feel free to add to my lists.
Discussion of musical and recording issues will be welcome.

I’ll start with a list of CDs.  Records to follow in a later post.

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique.  Chesky  — Royal Phil. Orch.  Freccia, conductor.
Mahler:  Des Knaben Wunderhorn.  Vanguard Classics — Vienna Festival Orch. Prohaska, conductor.
Prokofiev:  Scythian Suite et. al.  DG  — Chicago Symphony  Abbado, conductor.
Brahms: Symphony #1.  Chesky — London Symph. Orch.  Horenstein, conductor.
Stravinsky: L’Histoire du Soldat. HDTT — Ars Nova.  Mandell, conductor.
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances. Analogue Productions. — Dallas Symph Orch. Johanos, cond.
Respighi: Roman Festivals et. al. Chesky — Royal Phil. Orch. Freccia, conductor.

All of the above happen to be great sounding recordings, but, as I said, sonics is not a prerequisite.


128x128rvpiano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T1arhfVE1oThis is not Classical music per se but it is considered one of the greatest American military march’s and is played world wide as music for musics sake .
I often heard it in Japan and Germany .
The reason I am linking it is this rendition is done by a big band of German
teens . I didn’t think this level was possible by any teens !
P.S. Bernstein and NY Phil . recorded it as well .

If you're in the mood for a really stirring, Liszt-ian piano concerto, try Henselt on Hyperion.  Hamelin is also one of my favorite pianists.
I’ve copied this post of mine from another thread because it might be useful here:

Some observations about the different streaming services for classical music:

The best of course is IDAGIO because it is designed for classical.
In classical works oftentimes there is no gap in between the tracks.
Idagio, Qobuz and Spotify don’t insert any gaps, Tidal does.  That ruins the continuity of the music.  On Tidal, also, it is very difficult  to find specific works by composers.  Their search engine just doesn’t do that job well.   Again, the best is IDAGIO, as it has many search engines.  The other two services do a fair job.
 I, at first thought SQ was the best in Tidal, but in classical music anyway, they all seem pretty equal.
I have to amend my assessment of pauses between tracks in the various streaming services.
Upon further listening, I found that all the services had the pauses in varying degrees, unfortunately.
That is what I hate about Qobuz the pauses, in work like Also Sprach Zarathustra there are so many micro pauses that it gets to the point no matter how good the performance that I abandon it. The same happens in Ein Heldenlieben and many others , now we don't have these micro pauses when we are at a concert so I don't want it at home.