Great recordings of classical music

[Albertine]

Just discovered the Karajan / Gundula Janowitz version of Strauss's Last Four songs.
There's a remastering from 2022.

Just phenomenal. I already had the Solti/Kanawa recording, but Janowitz's voice is far superior. Beautiful.

Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder, TrV 296, Capriccio, Op. 85, TrV 279

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R. STRAUSS Four Last Songs / Janowitz | Deutsche Grammophon

Listen now in the new high-quality spatial listening experience of Dolby Atmos® on Apple Music, TIDAL HiFi Plus and Amazon Music Unlimited. on Deutsche Grammophon. Listen and buy now.

www.deutschegrammophon.com

I love this recording too, but interestingly it seems to divide critical opinion. I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit that hearing Soile Isokoski singing the Four Last Songs at the BBC Proms many years ago reduced me to uncontrollable tears. At least I wasn't the only one nearby who was similarly affected

 

[Elkerton]

I'm not sure I would wish to be free of any of the 5 versions I have: the two Schwarzkopf, the Norman, the Janowitz, nor the Isokoski. I suppose I play the latter more because it's the newest in the collection. I have a soft spot for Szell's Schwarzkopf. The Norman is powerful. The Janowitz mellifluous. It's hard to choose a favourite.

 

[Presently42]

For sound, try this one:

I think I just sang part of this.

 

[jeffbook]

I would highly recommend "Copland 100" performed by the Minneapolis Orchestra conducted by Eije Oue. The recording contains "Fanfare for the Common Man", "Appalachian Spring Suite", and Copland's "Third Symphony". A Reference Recordings release (RR-93 CD).

Obtainable directly from Reference Recordings; (www.ReferenceRecordings.com). Available as a CD, or download in various bit rates.

 

[A Cute Earring]

I've heard Ciccolini's (very fine) recordings of Erik Satie. These are quite different:

Discovered this recording because of this post. I am really enjoying it and hear Satie in a whole new light. Thanks Robin!

 

[Titurel]

Most historically informed performance is like that. It’s not based on a whim, but on studying performance practice of the respective period. And on the taste and insight of the conductor/performer, of course. That’s why HIP performances don’t all sound the same. They do tend to sound more interesting and engaging to me.

I know this is necro-posting and this is probably also not the best place to make this comment, but HIP performances are frequently based on the faulty assumption that the composer couldn't want (or didn't hope for) something other than what was available (instrument tech) or common practice. Classical literature is filled with "speculative" works, for example, J. S. Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, which would have been pretty unlistenable on a Bach era keyboard instrument (i.e., Bach era tuning). If you doubt the possibility of composers writing speculative works, look up 16th century composer Nicola Vincentino. He was hip before HIP was hip.

 

[LGD_]

I think we are missing a thread like this, with recommendations of great recordings of classical music.

I would start with this one:

Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor "From the New World" – Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Václav Neumann – SUPRAPHON.com

Dvořák - Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World" / Czech Philhamonic, Václav Neumann Antonín Dvořák - Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, "From the New World", analogue recording from 1972 Czech Philharmonic, conducted by Václav Neumann On two occasions during his tenure as chief conductor…

www.supraphon.com

and I am also posting a link to a 54 second full quality sample: https://pmacura.cz/Moltovivace.zip

I bought the high-res download of this from the Supraphon website - fanastic performance and stellar SQ.
The website is in Czech, but MS Edge will translate it for you.

 

[Robin L]

I know this is necro-posting and this is probably also not the best place to make this comment, but HIP performances are frequently based on the faulty assumption that the composer couldn't want (or didn't hope for) something other than what was available (instrument tech) or common practice. Classical literature is filled with "speculative" works, for example, J. S. Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, which would have been pretty unlistenable on a Bach era keyboard instrument (i.e., Bach era tuning). If you doubt the possibility of composers writing speculative works, look up 16th century composer Nicola Vincentino. He was hip before HIP was hip.

I worked for Joseph Spencer, he was involved in a lot of aspects of historically informed performance. One area was the tuning of old instruments, he was frequently called upon to tune harpsichords for performances and recording (also the tuning of modern pianos, thus equal temperament). He had his own record label - Wildboar Records - and produced a number of harpsichord recordings using "period" tunings. He told me of one that was great for Halloween music - if played with the CD player mixing the tracks at random as the tonal effect was so grating.

In any case, this is my favorite harpsichord recording of the WTC:

 

[Titurel]

I worked for Joseph Spencer, he was involved in a lot of aspects of historically informed performance. One area was the tuning of old instruments, he was frequently called upon to tune harpsichords for performances and recording (also the tuning of modern pianos, thus equal temperament). He had his own record label - Wildboar Records - and produced a number of harpsichord recordings using "period" tunings. He told me of one that was great for Halloween music if played with the CD player mixing the tracks at random as the tonal effect was so grating.

In any case, this is my favorite harpsichord recording of the WTC:

Anyone interested in temperament during the transitional period (mid-18th century to the 20th) should take a look and listen to Eben Goresko's videos on youtube. Thought provoking stuff...

Eben Goresko

Piano Videos that demonstrate for and educate viewers about benefits, enjoyment and value of playing the piano. We cover topics pertaining to music, piano lessons, piano tuning, jazz, classical, ragtime musical styles.

www.youtube.com

 

[Titurel]

These recordings may not be H.I.P., but they are molto-hip. Highest recommendation.

I've heard most of the usual suspects - Mariner, Pinnock, et al. - take their shots at the Brandenburgs, but none of them come close to these performances for shear joy in the playing (and the listening). Too many 'scholars,' i fear, have forgotten the suite's grounding in dance forms, consequently stripping them of gesture and humanity. You got to do a lot more than simply play the notes. Sometimes it's better to be controversial than constipated.

 

[Robin L]

These recordings may not be H.I.P., but they are molto-hip. Highest recommendation.

I've heard most of the usual suspects - Mariner, Pinnock, et al. - take their shots at the Brandenburgs, but none of them come close to these performances for shear joy in the playing (and the listening). Too many 'scholars,' i fear, have forgotten the suite's grounding in dance forms, consequently stripping them of gesture and humanity. You got to do a lot more than simply play the notes. Sometimes it's better to be controversial than constipated.

I'd say the Rinaldo Alessandrini/Concerto Italiano performances of the Brandenburg Concertos are Historically informed and very, very good. Marriner's performances predate H.I.P. Pinnock made two recordings of these works, the second recording rivals Alessandrini's:

 

[Titurel]

I'd say the Rinaldo Alessandrini/Concerto Italiano performances of the Brandenburg Concertos are Historically informed and very, very good. Marriner's performances predate H.I.P. Pinnock made two recordings of these works, the second recording rivals Alessandrini's:

I think we may be splitting terminological hairs (or I'm showing my disdain for what frequently strikes me as weakly supported scholarship - musical cargo cultism, if you will). The label HIP, which I tend to use in the pejorative, is of fairly recent coinage, but the movement is not, certainly it was a major force in performance practice long before Basil Lam took over the classical music division of the BBC in 1960.

I use HIP almost as a synonym for pretentious and hip for things which stand on their own merit. (Ironically, I'm frequently accused of being pretentious, which I suppose is a risk of being a polymath. )

 

[Robin L]

I think we may be splitting terminological hairs (or I'm showing my disdain for what frequently strikes me as weakly supported scholarship - musical cargo cultism, if you will). The label HIP, which I tend to use in the pejorative, is of fairly recent coinage, but the movement is not, certainly it was a major force in performance practice long before Basil Lam took over the classical music division of the BBC in 1960.

I use HIP almost as a synonym for pretentious and hip for things which stand on their own merit. (Ironically, I'm frequently accused of being pretentious, which I suppose is a risk of being a polymath. )

For Baroque music HIP means "Historically Informed Performance". I was the recording engineer for the San Francisco Early Music Society in the 1990's, peak years for the movement. The people recorded were scholars for the most part, and excellent musicians as well.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Sorry for dragging out a 2-year-old-post, but as it happens I was just going through that part of this thread and lent this one an ear, being familiar with the Kleiber/DG which has been with me (on the '90s 5&7 CD release) since my teens:

Thank you Johannes. I was still editing my post when you quoted it. I have finished adding to that post now, but I could really make it very long, haha! Anyway, it's time for some of my own recommendations:

Beethoven Symphony No. 7, Carlos Kleiber, Bayerische Staatsorchester

There are two Kleiber recordings I am aware of, one with DG and one with Orfeo (live recording). The Orfeo, shown below, is the one to get. For one, it does not suffer from DG's usual muddy sound. But the real reason to get it is because it is THE greatest recording of Beethoven's 7th ever made. And before you ask, I have heard nearly all of the famous recordings, sometimes multiple versions by the same conductor. I have read someone else's opinion that not only is this the greatest recording of Beethoven's 7th, it is the greatest recording in the history of all classical recordings, ever.

Wagner said of the Beethoven 7, "All tumult, all yearning and storming of the heart, become here the blissful insolence of joy, which carries us away with bacchanalian power through the roomy space of nature, through all the streams and seas of life, shouting in glad self-consciousness as we sound throughout the universe the daring strains of this human sphere-dance. The Symphony is the Apotheosis of the Dance itself: it is Dance in its highest aspect, the loftiest deed of bodily motion, incorporated into an ideal mold of tone."

I am not quite as erudite as Wagner, but I would describe Beethoven's 7th as "starts off mad, then descends into insanity" (but in a joyful way). The work was intended as a celebration of Wellington's defeat of Napoleon. The first movement is a burst of pure joy. The second is a funeral march. The Presto is somewhat giddy and weird. It stops and starts and jumps to new keys. And the finale is like an exuberant whirlwind that goes faster and faster and climaxes with a scream of exultation. For an analysis of Beethoven's 7th, read this.

Kleiber's opening Vivace sounds almost Karajan-like in its military precision but he is much more intense. As for the slow movement, to be honest I have heard better versions elsewhere (e.g. Toscanini) and is a bit of a let-down in this otherwise fine recording. He really picks up the pace in the 3rd movement. And the 4th ... it really is a Tour de Force. He already starts off faster than anybody else, and he is supposed to go faster. And he does. By the time he reaches the climax, you marvel at how that orchestra can still play together at that speed. It is simply thrilling. And the applause at the end - the audience is stunned into silence before responding. When Kleiber turns around they erupt in enthusiastic bravo's which is what I feel like doing every time I listen to this piece. I want to jump to my feet and yell "bravo!" and I am sure, so will you.

I am not going to disagree with the assessment of the interpretation - in fact, that's one fiery Allegro con brio - but would only give the recording quality 3.5 out of 5 stars. There is some immediately obvious hiss, and the treble is a bit too hot. I guess it's fine for a live recording from 1982 - still on tape no less - but definitely not flawless. I get why the DG recording's lush presentation may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this isn't perfect either.

What brought me here in the first place was this old hat (well, to you guys it probably is):

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade / Stravinsky: Song Of The Nightingale, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony
I found part of Scheherazade being used as a test track for phono cartridges and figured it might sound even better without the usual vinyl ticks and pops.
This 1996 CD - I got the Amazon MP3 version - combines two acclaimed recordings, first released in 1960 and 1958, respectively. The Stravinsky - Grammy nominated for best engineered album classical in 1959 - sounds fine, maybe a bit warm and rounded off in the treble (you know, the "old tape recording" sound), although the noise floor is hard to miss. The real star of the show is Scheherazade though - what they got out of that is quite remarkable. I suspect it's been denoised to some degree, but either way the result is quite demanding and seems limited more by mic noise than tape noise. It's not entirely as clean as an actual '90s recording (that would be a bit of a miracle), but for something basically as old as dirt I'm impressed. As a dynamic range junkie with a penchant for old recordings that are better than they have any right to be, this is right up my alley.

This disc is also available on SACD (2005), and Scheherazade alone has been released as a hybrid SACD (2014) with the SACD layer sporting the 3-channel audio originally recorded (the early days of stereophonic recording were a wild time!). Neither seem to be in print at this time. The latest remaster from 2023 may be vinyl and streaming only (2ch, 16/44)?

 

[Robin L]

Sorry for dragging out a 2-year-old-post, but as it happens I was just going through that part of this thread and lent this one an ear, being familiar with the Kleiber/DG which has been with me (on the '90s 5&7 CD release) since my teens:

I am not going to disagree with the assessment of the interpretation - in fact, that's one fiery Allegro con brio - but would only give the recording quality 3.5 out of 5 stars. There is some immediately obvious hiss, and the treble is a bit too hot. I guess it's fine for a live recording from 1982 - still on tape no less - but definitely not flawless. I get why the DG recording's lush presentation may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this isn't perfect either.

What brought me here in the first place was this old hat (well, to you guys it probably is):

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade / Stravinsky: Song Of The Nightingale, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony
I found part of Scheherazade being used as a test track for phono cartridges and figured it might sound even better without the usual vinyl ticks and pops.
This 1996 CD - I got the Amazon MP3 version - combines two acclaimed recordings, first released in 1960 and 1958, respectively. The Stravinsky - Grammy nominated for best engineered album classical in 1959 - sounds fine, maybe a bit warm and rounded off in the treble (you know, the "old tape recording" sound), although the noise floor is hard to miss. The real star of the show is Scheherazade though - what they got out of that is quite remarkable. I suspect it's been denoised to some degree, but either way the result is quite demanding and seems limited more by mic noise than tape noise. It's not entirely as clean as an actual '90s recording (that would be a bit of a miracle), but for something basically as old as dirt I'm impressed. As a dynamic range junkie with a penchant for old recordings that are better than they have any right to be, this is right up my alley.

This disc is also available on SACD (2005), and Scheherazade alone has been released as a hybrid SACD (2014) with the SACD layer sporting the 3-channel audio originally recorded (the early days of stereophonic recording were a wild time!). Neither seem to be in print at this time. The latest remaster from 2023 may be vinyl and streaming only (2ch, 16/44)?

I've got the 2005 SACD of Scheherazade - it also has 3-channel audio in the DSD layer. I used to have a surround sound system, heard this disc in that version. To these ears there's some sort of limiting going on, probably due to the original recording being well into the red. This has a good performance of Song of the Nightingale but the Mercury Living Presence recording on CD featuring Antal Dorati leading the London Symphony Orchestra has a better recording and an equally fine performance. There's a SACD of that recording, coupled with The Firebird:

 

[Sokel]

Sorry for dragging out a 2-year-old-post, but as it happens I was just going through that part of this thread and lent this one an ear, being familiar with the Kleiber/DG which has been with me (on the '90s 5&7 CD release) since my teens:

I am not going to disagree with the assessment of the interpretation - in fact, that's one fiery Allegro con brio - but would only give the recording quality 3.5 out of 5 stars. There is some immediately obvious hiss, and the treble is a bit too hot. I guess it's fine for a live recording from 1982 - still on tape no less - but definitely not flawless. I get why the DG recording's lush presentation may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this isn't perfect either.

What brought me here in the first place was this old hat (well, to you guys it probably is):

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade / Stravinsky: Song Of The Nightingale, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony
I found part of Scheherazade being used as a test track for phono cartridges and figured it might sound even better without the usual vinyl ticks and pops.
This 1996 CD - I got the Amazon MP3 version - combines two acclaimed recordings, first released in 1960 and 1958, respectively. The Stravinsky - Grammy nominated for best engineered album classical in 1959 - sounds fine, maybe a bit warm and rounded off in the treble (you know, the "old tape recording" sound), although the noise floor is hard to miss. The real star of the show is Scheherazade though - what they got out of that is quite remarkable. I suspect it's been denoised to some degree, but either way the result is quite demanding and seems limited more by mic noise than tape noise. It's not entirely as clean as an actual '90s recording (that would be a bit of a miracle), but for something basically as old as dirt I'm impressed. As a dynamic range junkie with a penchant for old recordings that are better than they have any right to be, this is right up my alley.

This disc is also available on SACD (2005), and Scheherazade alone has been released as a hybrid SACD (2014) with the SACD layer sporting the 3-channel audio originally recorded (the early days of stereophonic recording were a wild time!). Neither seem to be in print at this time. The latest remaster from 2023 may be vinyl and streaming only (2ch, 16/44)?

I must have post this probably 100 times here,to me the stars aligned at this.
Apart from the recording with the means of the era (Lew Layton is a hero),Reiner gathered the best of the best.

In a work that's usually as emotional (or pretentious) as it gets Reiner achieved what I call a prologued struggle before the orgasm.
I mean you can tell,you want to grab this violin at its lowest and make it ascend to heaven.But no.Iron discipline.Or Reiner.

(there's also a famous "master" tape around,I have listened to it.The original RCA stereo is still the best and amongst the best 3D recordings out there)

 

[EERecordist]

I would like a little more reverb, and I don't know how big the space is, or wether they plan a longer release.

Bach recorded in an ice cave in Alaska by Joshua Nakazawa

 

[MRC01]

Bach recorded in an ice cave in Alaska by Joshua Nakazawa ...

That would shift his tuning upward, I suspect A > 440 for that recording. Good thing it's strings only; he wouldn't have been able to play with woodwinds because they go flat at cold temperatures. Since temps affect their pitch in opposite directions, strings & woodwinds can only play together in tune in a range of "normal" room temperatures.

 

[Robin L]

We lost Alfred Brendel today, age 94:

 

[Tim Link]

Bach recorded in an ice cave in Alaska by Joshua Nakazawa

His playing seems a bit cold. Probably on purpose to keep the cave from melting.