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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
newbee
4,778 posts
 
jcazador, I agree and for folks who want to explore on the cheap there is a 10 CD set (on Amazon) title ’Complete Recordings’ for $44. Only a couple of nits: 1) it isn’t complete; 2) These are excerpts from live performances so the recordings aren’t really SOTA but they are fine none the less. The music though is truly outstanding. And for me his Schubert 960 is transcending - hard to describe, but it is musical poetry of the highest order.

pete23, I get weekly e-mails from Presto Music in England - they are both an excellent source for classical music as well as reviews and alerts for new recordings. Prestomusic.com.

A new acquisition from Chandos that I really love. "Old American Dances" by Robert Russell Bennett. Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra by Clark Rundell. An excellent break from all the ’serious’ stuff.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
newbee, if 960 is transcending i must have it !!
Would you please give me the full  details I need to Amazon it .
newbee
4,778 posts
 
Amazon has it under 'Schubert Grigory Sokolov' Sonatas D 894 and 960. A two disc set which only contains the two sonatas, one on each disc. A Naive disc OP30387. BTW the 894 ain't chopped liver!  :-)

This set is also part of the "Complete Recording" set referred to above so if you want to hear more from him this set is certainly worthwhile.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,320 posts
 
No. 2 seems much more put together, if still very "virtuoso" in style.  I'm really enjoying Cecile Licad's playing, beautifully delicate in the quieter passages, accompanied by Mr Previn.
jcazador
417 posts
 
pete
i gave up on lp's, too much trouble to keep clean
and i gave up on cd's because i could not keep track of them
i keep everything on a hard drive
and it easy to locate a composer, a musician, a particular piece of music
I use a program "qBittorrent" to handle the downloads to the hard drive
there are a number of free peer to peer (p2p) sites that are good sources of recordings
these sites remove any recording if/when a copyright holder objects
they specify the quality of the recording, so i don't bother with mp3
unless it is some song i am trying to learn and there is no better source
there are lots of dead and incomplete links, so it takes a bit of fishing
but there is a universe of free high quality music out there
More to discover