Reference Level Recording of Classical on CD's?
It would be helpful if you narrowed your inquiry some, at least to composers and or periods of composition (baroque, classical, romantic, modern, neo classical, neo romantic, etc). BTW, Goode has been one of my favorites with Beethoven's sonatas, but I'm very impressed with Paul Lewis new performances on Harmonia Mundi. And the recordings are excellent! Of other recent releases that I enjoyed - Speaking of Beethoven, try Vanska's new performances on BIS, again very good performances and excellent recordings. If you looking for some traditional composers you might try Wild's performances of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto's as reissued by Chandos. Excellent performances and sound. A little off the beaten path, but very interesting music from the British Isles by Bantock on Hyperion. Great recordings of excellent performances. A little further off the beaten path, you might try Hovhaness' Mysterious Mountains on TELARC. Back on the well beaten path, one of my favorite new releases is Mahler 1 with Zander on TELARC. It includes an excellent rendition of Songs of a Wayfarer which IMHO fits perfectly with the mood of Sym #1. Chamber music - new to me are Beethoven Piano trios, complete by the Florestan Trio on Hyperion. Very good performances, I think. Excellent sound. Solo piano music - So much too choose from, actually too much. But I have a real fondness for Frederic Chiu's traversal of Prokofiev's music for solo piano on Harmonia Mundi, including all of the sonatas as well as some transcriptions of his orchestral music like Romeo & Juliet and Cinderella. Absolute clarity of tone in the recordings and excellent performances as well. Others that have impressed me include- Dvorak Cello Concerto w/Jean-Guihen on Harmonia Mundi Rachmaninov Sonata #2 by Olga Kern on Harmonia Mundi Rachmaninov's All Night Vigil on Harmonia Mundi (outstanding from my POV. Love those basses in the Estonian Chamber Chior. These are just a few new(er) releases - I have made no attempt to compare with earlier, and perhaps much greater performances on LP's or OOP CD's. More specifics from you re likes/dislikes, etc will produce a bit more specific recommendations. Enjoy. |
Without knowing your preferences it is difficult. I can list what I like: I second Newbee's recommendation of Mahler's 1st symphony on Telarc with Benjamin Zander. I also find Mahler's complete symphonies set with Chailly to be pretty good from both performance and recording quality standpoint. Also, a must have, in my opinion, is Mahler's 2nd with Bernstein on DG. It is an older recording, but still quiet good and preformance is very good, emotional, typical of Bernstein's Mahler. Shostakovich Piano Trios 1 and 2 Shostakovich's Quartets with Fitzwilliam String Quartet on Decca. Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues with Konstantin Scherbakov on Naxos(although this is a good performance with good sound, I still prefer Tatiana Nikolaeva's recording). Schoenberg, Silbelius violin concertos with Hilary Hahn on DG. Rachmaninov Piano Concertos with Ashkenazy, conducted by Previn. Rachmaninov Symphonies with Ashkenazy. Shostakovich's 5th symphony with Rostropovich. Bruckner's 8th symphony with Boulez. Bach's Cello Suites with Rostropovich. This one is a box set. Again, without knowing what type of classical music you're looking for, it is just a listing of some of the classical recordings I like. Hope that helps |
