Recommend some Classical music recordings for me

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?

Vivaldi Four Seasons

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.

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.

Thanks for the recommendations so far. I'm browsing around amazon for some right now.

Get a boxed set compilation of classical "hits" ?

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

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.

Originally Posted by Merckx

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Vivaldi Four Seasons

+1.
Cheesy but gets me every time.

Originally Posted by antirabbit

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The complete Beethoven Symphonies

Dvorak Symphonies

+1.
I'm a fan.

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

Originally Posted by robin

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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.

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.

Classical Thunder!!!

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.

Anything featuring Mitsuko Uchida playing Mozart.

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Agreed. Lovely playing.

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.