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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
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Volodos and Richter are certainly great on Schubert !
My hears tell me , at least on the masterwork D 959, that Imogen Copper is more "Schubertish " .
She is one of the top Schubertians in the world .Is on idagio .
ei001h
283 posts
 
Gugnin, Kholodenko, Geniušas. Dedicated To The 90 Anniversary of Vera Gornostayeva (Live).
This title is only available on TIDAL and mp3 on amazon. Kholodenko plays 3 pieces by Schubert 3 Klavierstücke, D. 946: No. 1 in E-Flat Minor. Brilliant virtuosity, superb technical mastery.

Also check out his Stravinsky petrushka 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB7ccsJlw4k&t=1744s

scroll to 23:19 for petrushka
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,318 posts
 
Embarked on a Sibelius retrospective.  1, 2 and 4 so far.  Really liked 1 and 2, 4 not so much.  I don't know why I haven't thought more about this composer.  From previous listenings I only remember 5 as a favorite.  Perhaps now is the time to change that.  I see Lief Segerstam seems to be the favored conductor, followed by Berglund. 
jcazador
417 posts
 
Schubert et alI love Schubert, and the recordings you mention, i.e., Volodos, Richter, Cooper, also Arrau and Brendel.  To my ear, Cooper sounds very like Brendel, with whom she studied, and I mean this as a compliment. 

Missing from this discussion is Kempff, who popularized Schubert.  His recordings are limited by the technology of his time, but they stand up well for me; when I listen, I think of nothing else. 

Did you know that Rachmaninov never heard of Schubert's sonatas?  That is the darkness that Kempf illuminated.
jim204
881 posts
 
Arrau in Schubert's Last sonata in B Flat Major D960 always makes me feel so sad as he plays it like someone who themself knows he has very little time left on this earth. Arrau actually said that of all the composers he played he always found Schubert the most  difficult to express. Another thing Arrau did was play an horrendous cut that all other pianists did not play , the great Brendel and Cooper also did the cut much to the detriment of the first movement of this sonata. I remember in the late sixties having Kempff's whole set of these sonatas and I loved them but Kempff was from an entirely different age where people were grateful that someone had taken on the task of committing the herculean task of the complete sonatas that his set were not as dissected as "scholars" today would do. After all this I still hope Volodos commits a lot more to tape.
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