What are your go to LP's for evaluating new gear or new tubes?

@billpete 

I'll have to look to see if I have any Hyperion. Sounds familiar but not sure. Are they D2D or just very well done? Who are the pianists?

On the Shostakovich, the pianist is the brilliant Canadian Marc-Andre Hamelin. The newly released vinyl is a tariff short of the original CD / SACD release - it drops the Shchedrin concerto, which is a pity as it includes a jazz band.  The digital versions were released in 2003.

Hyperion is one of the best British recording labels for classical, and seem to be just getting into vinyl!

The Beethoven Triple Concerto I was thinking of features Nicola Benedetti (violin), Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello) and Benjamin Grosvenor (piano) but is a new Decca (London?) release, not Hyperion.  My mistake.

I have ordered the new vinyl stampings of the 2001 recordings of Saint-Saens Piano Concertos from Hyperion with Stephen Hough, but they have not arrived yet.

These recordings all get top reviews from Gramophone magazine and are available from Presto at https://www.prestomusic.com/

@dogberry 

Going through old classical part of my collection. I came across a 3 record set on Vanguard Op. 3 from 1964. Says L'ESTRO ARMONICO Op.3 Vivaldi with Chamber Orchestra of The Vienna State Opera, Mario Rossi conductor. Not sure where I got it but probably a thrift store find. The records are very stiff like old 78's. They do say LP so I guess they are 33rpm? Each record is in a gray paper sleeve with Vanguard recordings in white lettering and some white artworks. No jacket other than a clear plastic envelope that is marked Simply Vinyl S160 vinyl LP.  Also says  Classic Albums, 160g virgin vinyl pressings. The outer sleeve can't be original, has a web address. simplyvinly.com. The records are stamped Rock Valley College, which was a Jr college back in the day, now part of NIU. They must have sent all their records to a thrift shop at some point. Just glad I never made that mistake.:)

@richardbrand 

Most of my classical collection is made up of very old records (50's 60's and 70's) and a few cds. I would pick them up at garage sales and thrift stores, looking for certain labels, artists and conductors whose name I recognized. I was amazed at how many perfect copies and even sealed copies of very old records that I would find. I found that quite a few even very old recordings could actually be very good. Most of my newer stuff will be Telarc, Crystal Clear or any other D2D that I could find. Quite a lot of Deutsche Gramaphon too

RCA had several different types, dynagroove and red label maybe were their premium ones? RCA probably ruled back in the 50's and 60's. Columbia was around but their recordings were not very good. Look at an old Columbia and the grooves all look identical and thin, zero dynamics. Look at the Telarc 1812 Overture and you can literally see the cannon blasts. Can be tricky to track.

EMI can be very good and some are EMI/Angel, also can be good.

London Phase 4 and London ffrr are both good. 

Decca also. 

I'm not a real classical aficionado like yourself but I grew up listening to it and have a fair collection of classical LP's that I listen to from time to time. The bulk of what I collected in classical was organ music, pipe organ that is and Virgil Fox is my favorite organist. Pipe organ is excellent to test your stereo system. No other single instrument even comes close in the range of what it can do and nothing plays deeper bass other than possibly some modern digital synthesizer. Theoretically, I suppose digital can reach lower than anything but the lowest I've ever heard (felt) recorded was 16hz from a pipe organ. I don't think my speakers can quite get there but they do reach 18hz and that's pretty close. Cd's cut off at 20hz, still very low but not quite as low as some vinyl. No idea about what streaming can do, possibly no limit? I don't know. Sorry to ramble. 

@dogberry 

Yes, that must be it. I don't have the original jacket.  I wondered if it was Vivaldi Op 3 but wasn't sure. That would explain why I couldn't find it in Op 3 recordings but I did find it under Vanguard Op 3 and got confused. I'm no expert on the classical stuff by any stretch.