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Basic Repertoire

Long ago, in a different galaxy, Stereo Review published in instalments and also made available as a little brochure something called "The Basic Repertoire" of orchestral or symphonic music. I remember avidly buying on the basis of these recommendations. People with a massive library of serious music probably have multiple recordings of all these old chestnuts and don't need such a listing. Many others, though, could benefit from something similar, especially all those who are curious about how good a system performs when seriously challenged but are a bit gun shy about stuffy, old, serious or "classical" music. Audiophiles could also benefit from such listings for performances with the best sound quality. Is there anything similar already out there and, if not, maybe developing one here under the " music " heading would be a good idea. How to assess and validate all recommendations and to edit such a list would be a problem, it would seem. Any thoughts? Would keep a bunch of us from the well known equipment debates. I always wondered why such a list was not available for chamber music as well. Trying both would double our chances of keeping us out of mischief.
pbb
pbb OP
1,140 posts
 
Hi, thanks for the suggestion, I realise that many books are available. Covering types of music quite removed from "classical" music, I have the AMG All Music Guide to Jazz and The Music Hound Guide to Blues. I don't know if any of you remember, but the little guide issued by Stereo Review was really a simple affair, maybe eight pages in all. The problem with books is that by the time they are in print, some new recordings have been issued that may be preferable to the ones listed. The problem with serious music magazines like Fanfare is that a lot of people are not interested in becoming full-blown record collectors and buying multiple recordings of the same piece. I also think that, while not relegating the quality of the performance itself to the level of a minor concern, the emphasis could be put on the quality of the recording. The idea is to have what basically would be a short list of available audiophile quality (or as near to any such ideal may exist, all arcane disputes aside) recordings of what is the more standard bread and butter repertoire. Moreover, the opinion of audiophiles on what recordings someone should really short-list would be interesting, I guess... How someone might decide to branch out later is another issue. Regards.
bomarc
501 posts
 
The problem is getting someone who both knows music and can identify good sound. The only guy I know who's written anything rating recordings on their sound quality is Howard Ferstler, and I wouldn't necessarily ask him which Beethoven 5 to buy.

For that matter, I'd take a bad recording of a good performance over the reverse any day of the week. And if I weren't prepared to go out and buy multiple versions of a piece, I wouldn't get hung up about whether I'd found the very best one--or whether a better one had come out since the guidebook I had consulted was published.
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
If you do not want to buy those NPR books (which I recommend), they have listings on their website as well.


http://www.npr.org/programs/pt/features/pt50/index.html


http://www.npr.org/programs/pt/features/brl/index.html

bishopwill
369 posts
 
The NPR materials are quite useful.

Dubal's book has received a warm reception but I found it heavily biased toward the piano (he's a pianist) and quite idiosyncratic. A good read, though.

will
unsound
7,361 posts
 
Pbb, you might be onto something. It doesn't have to limited to classical, though thats where it will probably do the most good. Perhaps we could solicit a "best recording of: ..... " thread. A discussion of parameters might be in order, so that a template could be made, followed by a space for a brief review of x# of words.
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