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Recommend some Classical music recordings for me

post #1 of 117
5/3/08 at 11:15pm
Thread Starter 
I'm making up an order from Amazon this weekend and would like to get some classical music recordings in. Do you have any favorites that you'd recommend to everyone? What about particular recordings that you think should be in everyone's collection?
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post #2 of 117
5/3/08 at 11:33pm
Vivaldi Four Seasons
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post #3 of 117
5/3/08 at 11:47pm
Bartok:
Concerto for Orchestra,
Bluebeard (opera, but not what you think of when opera comes to mind)
Miraculous Madrian Suite
The violin and Viola Concertos
Complete string quartets

The complete Beethoven Symphonies
Any and all piano music
String quartets

Any 20th century British Symphonies

Bach:
Well Tempered Clavier
Violin Sonata's and Partitas


Brahms Symphonies
String Quartets
All piano music

Dvorak Symphonies
String quartets

Grofe: Grand Canyon Suite

Debussy piano works, a must for string quartet music, and his symphonic works are all wonderful.

Ravel string quartet

So, if you buy that, you need no more....well, depends on why you want to buy classical music.
I have left out so so so much, but I think if you are looking for accessable, interesting, and diverse music of different genre, this is a good list to start from.

I am not being specific in performance as that gets too complex.
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post #4 of 117
5/3/08 at 11:50pm
Get a boxed set compilation of classical "hits" ? Not sure if they used that vernacular in those days however.

Holst's "The Planets" - quite popular. Anything by the Strauss family.
Merckx's suggestion of Vivaldi is a sound choice too. Good for driving.

20th Century classic - go Gershwin.
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post #5 of 117
5/4/08 at 12:08am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the recommendations so far. I'm browsing around amazon for some right now.

Quote:
Get a boxed set compilation of classical "hits" ?
Those tend to be bad values in my opinion and limited experience, unless there are some particular sets I've not heard about.
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post #6 of 117
5/4/08 at 12:26am
I am also very interested in this. As long as my uf student id holds out i have unlimited access to the classical music library which is great since every piece people here could possibly think of and more is on there for free. The only things i own beethoven recrod box sets from my grandparent's garage. All the symphonies, piano concertos and piano sonatas(yea, there are a ton of records in the boxes). I need to actually own more. Excited about seeing some more recommendations.
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post #7 of 117
5/4/08 at 12:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Merckx View Post
Vivaldi Four Seasons

+1.
Cheesy but gets me every time.
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post #8 of 117
5/4/08 at 12:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by antirabbit View Post
The complete Beethoven Symphonies

Dvorak Symphonies

+1.
I'm a fan.
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post #9 of 117
5/4/08 at 12:36am
Bach - Goldberg Variations Brandenburg Concertos Violin Concerto in E Vivaldi - Four Seasons Handel - Water Music / Royal Fireworks Beethoven - Symphonies 3, 5, 7, 9 Violin Concerto in D Sonata for Violin and Piano: Kreutzer, Spring Emperor Piano Concerto Piano Sonatas Pathetique, Waldstein Schubert - Unfinished Symphony, Trout Quintet Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E Bruch - Violin Concerto #1 Sarasate - Zigeunerweisen Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D, Overture to 1812 Orff - Carmina Burana Dvorak - From the New World Symphony Bizet - Carmen Ravel - Bolero Holst - Planets Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man, Appalachian Spring Satie - Trois Gymnopedies
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post #10 of 117
5/4/08 at 1:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by robin View Post
Thanks for the recommendations so far. I'm browsing around amazon for some right now.


Those tend to be bad values in my opinion and limited experience, unless there are some particular sets I've not heard about.

If choosy - go by the way of music catalogued in the "Hyperion" brand collections. It is to music as "Criterion" is to DVD.
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post #11 of 117
5/4/08 at 1:35am
Ferde Grofe: Mississippi and Grand Canyon Suites

Copland: Appalachian Spring Suite (Reference Recordings)

Michael Tilson Thomas Mahler Cycle

Anything on the Living Stereo SACD series and they play in CD players as well. Classic recordings perfectly mastered.

Check out Julia Fischer recordings on Pentatone. Hell, anything on Pentatone is superb as is Telarc. As is Channel Classics and Vanguard.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performing Higdon Cityscape and Rainbow Body.
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post #12 of 117
5/4/08 at 12:49pm
Classical Thunder!!!
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post #13 of 117
5/4/08 at 6:25pm
Both Tatiana Nikolayeva's and the Keller Quartet's recording of Bach's Art of Fugue are amazing.

Glenn Gould's recordings of Bach are almost uniformly superb, but his 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations are essential.

Pablo Casals's recordings of Bach's cello suites are amazing.

Fürtwängler's recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1942 is one of the best things I've ever heard.

Von Karajan's recording of Ravel's Bolero has been described as "perfect." Von Karajan's conducting of Wagner's Parsifal is intensely moving.

Anything featuring Mitsuko Uchida playing Mozart.
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post #14 of 117
5/5/08 at 12:37am
Quote:
Anything featuring Mitsuko Uchida playing Mozart.

Agreed. Lovely playing.
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post #15 of 117
5/5/08 at 12:08pm
I'll get into specifics of what I really dig:

Gould's 1955 Goldberg variations (Bach)
Kleiber's Beethoven fifth and seventh symphonies
Bernstein's Shostakovich fifth and ninth symphonies with NYPhil
Bernstein's Shostakovich seventh with CSO
Pollini's Beethoven Hammerklavier / final piano sonatas (trust me, keep this one even if it doesn't click for you right away)
Richter's 1958 Sofia Piano recital
Furtwaengler's 1953 Beethoven ninth symphony. Sound is murky but final movement still gives me chills.
Horowitz plays Chopin volume 3
Tchaikovsky - symphony 4,5,6 - Mravinsky
Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker - Dorati for the full suite, or Ormandy for the highlights
Prokofiev - Peter and the Wolf - Ormondy / Bowie narrating.
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