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
A couple of days ago listened to the Bryden Thomson Enigma on Chandos and liked it a lot.  Will have to hunt down that other one.  Then I will never eradicate the Nimrod earworm.
A stellar rendition of one of the very greatest Chamber pieces . The piece itself is beyond comment .
May not be otherwise be recorded ?
https://youtu.be/g3k81__bwrM?t=13
For pure joy on Vanguard the Eugene List The World of Louis Moreau Gottschalk along with Grand Tarantelle with Nibley and A Night in the Tropics with Abravanal is a must have. Less weighty but it will make you very happy.
Vera Dulova, harp
Russian Performing School (1995)
Mozart, Donizetti, Saint-Saens, Ravel, Pascal
If you like pretty music, find this.

For a truly ear opening experience, listen to Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique performed on original instruments from 1830, by Francois-Xavier Roth and his group Les Siècles. Of course this work was a true revolution in sound  when it was written, but not quite as magniloquent as when it’s played on modern instruments.
It really is instructive to hear it with the sonorities of the time in which it was written.  Not quite as bombastically fantastic as we usually hear it, but revolutionary and extraordinary nonetheless.

Its available on Idagio.