Beethoven Symphonies - best perf + sonics on CD

"Plus the remastering and restoration releases from Andante, d'Orfeo, Testament, Music and Arts of America, and Pearl."

and I'm glad we have companies like these (also the Cheskys) to preserve the great music of the past. The major record labels either cut the classical budgets or shut down operations worldwide. That's one reason a company like Naxos is thriving.
I hope this makes sense of the earlier posts.

OK, thanks for clarifying Lowrider, now I see your point. Also, these smaller niche labels like Harmonia Mundi are able to rise from the ashes and become a major player in the recording industry. Even though they have been around for a fairly long time, it wasn't until the affordability of the compact disk that they could be taken seriously. In a way, I view this as an improvement but there is nothing to be gained from RCA Victor's lack of involvement by comparison to its past and no, that's not being overly nostalgic. I just wish there could be more of an emphasis put on live recordings and damn the mistakes, that's just part of the process.

It certainly seems that the Japanese remasters, especially sacds (e.g. HvK LvB 3), are superior to most others. After all, they have the largest per capita classical music audience of any country, and the technology as well.

Hi Goofyfoot. For Mahler, the DG remastering of Bernstein's cycle is superb. I have Boxes I and II, and not III, because the eighth is my least favorite and it is an older recording, and this version of the ninth is awful.

I purchased Lenny's ninth with the BPO separately, which is wonderful.

"I just wish there could be more of an emphasis put on live recordings and damn the mistakes, that's just part of the process."

I love live recordings in a good concert hall, and not only that, I wish a classical work would be recorded continuously and not edited in post. I have a CD (forget which one) that lists something like : Mvmt 1... Thursday performance, Mvmt 2... Friday performance, Mvmt 3... Rehearsal.

That's IMO worse than the current Pop/Rock recording procedure of 1 musician at a time, then edit the band together,