Very happy to see a few forumites with excelsior taste in music. A nod to Manton and Dr. Checks, especially.
Choosing a favourite piece of classical music is like choosing your favourite emotion. It's a foolish exercise, if not impossible.
My Gods are Beethoven, Bach, and Wagner. What I return to most frequently:
- Beethoven piano sonatas, particularly 28-32. Favorites are early Kempff (mono cycle), Annie Fischer, Artur Schnabel and Wilhelm Backhaus. Of the four, I consider Annie Fischer the greatest interpreter of Beethoven I've ever heard.
- Beethoven symphonies. OOooooo too many good ones to choose from! Klemperer, Furtwangler, and Mengelberg are probably my favs. I have a soft spot for Bruno Walter, too.
- Late Beethoven string quartets. Early Hungarian String Quartet cycle. Quartetto Italiano have their moments, as do the Tallich, Budapest, Vegh, etc. etc.
- Any Chopin by Rubinstein. The Nocturines under Arrau are phenomenal, too.
... blah blah blah, there's actually too much to list. Some hearty namedropping, just for good measure: Sviatoslav Richter for Beethoven, Schubert, Bach's WTC; Glenn Gould doing anything is worth a listen (especially Bach's Preludes), all of Bach's masses especially the B minor (under Klemperer or Jochum), Sibelius' symphonies under Karajan, some Shostakovich chamber music, Bruckner's symphonies under Jochum or - if you're feeling daring - Celibidache, etc. etc.
Nice thread.
