Great recordings of classical music

[Nitreb]

Bob van Asperen's series of recordings of Froberger's harpsichord works sound great. He uses period instruments.

 

[deweydm]

Schippers, New York Philharmonic*
Thomas Schippers Conducts Barber….

Enjoyed the above today more than Barber* - Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, David Zinman - Adagio • Symphony No. 1 • The School For Scandal • Essays, which is what I usually play when it comes to Samuel Barber. Kind of a dilettante when it comes to classical, so would be very curious to know if others have favorite recordings of Barber’s music.

 

[dualazmak]

Bob van Asperen's series of recordings of Froberger's harpsichord works sound great. He uses period instruments.
View attachment 360503

Oh, harpsichord (cembaro, clavecin) music in excellent recording quality...., I too love much.

Have you listened to Jean Rondeau's recent wonderful performances of Rameau and Royer?
Jean Rondeau's album “VERTIGO; Rameau, Royer”, ERATO 0 825646 974580 (2015):

Spoiler

- Excellent Recording Quality Music Albums/Tracks for Subjective (and Possibly Objective) Test/Check/Tuning of Multichannel Multi-Driver Multi-Way Multi-Amplifier Time-Aligned Active Stereo Audio System and Room Acoustics; at least a Portion and/or One Track being Analyzed by Color Spectrum of Adobe Audition in Common Parameters: [Part-13] Harpsichord (Cembalo, Clavecin) Music: #645 on my project thread

Especially this one;

 

[Daverz]

Schippers, New York Philharmonic*
Thomas Schippers Conducts Barber….

Enjoyed the above today more than Barber* - Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, David Zinman - Adagio • Symphony No. 1 • The School For Scandal • Essays, which is what I usually play when it comes to Samuel Barber. Kind of a dilettante when it comes to classical, so would be very curious to know if others have favorite recordings of Barber’s music.

That Schippers disc is one of my favorite Barber discs.

There are many good recordings of the Violin Concerto. Stern/Bernstein, Olivera/Slatkin, Hilary Hahn, ...

 

[Daverz]

I've owned/listened to a lot of recordings of Bruckner's 9th symphony. My favorite of all is Furtwängler's famous taping of 1944 with the Berlin Philharmonic and I was surprised at how "authentic" Harnoncourt's performance with the Vienna Philharmonic is (on an RCA SACD for those who are interested). Also had a fine recording featuring Gunter Wand directing the Berlin Philharmonic and now have a predictably mild-mannered rendering by Bernard Haitink with the Concertgebouw, digitally recorded in 1982. My first recording was the Carl Schuricht/VPO recording, back when it was offered as a $2 Seraphim budget reissue. It is one of the most characterful performances, with excellent sound. Managed to get the 2 SACD set back when SACDs were a "thing", some 10 years ago or so. I now realize the DSD part of the equation doesn't really matter, it's the quality of the remastering that really counts. The recording of the 9th symphony is coupled with a fine performance of Bruckner's 8th symphony, though the sound quality of that recording isn't quite as good, lacking depth.

View attachment 360198

He also recorded Symphony No. 3 (the usual final 1889 version) with the Vienna Philharmonic in stereo. It's in the Schuricht Icon box.

That duplicates the 8 & 9 unfortunately. The Beethoven cycle is in good mono and preserves the sound of the Paris Conservatory Orchestra back when French orchestras still sounded French.

His 1963 live mono recording of Bruckner Symphony No. 5 with the Vienna Philharmonic on DG is also worth tracking down.

 

[Robin L]

He also recorded Symphony No. 3 (the usual final 1889 version) with the Vienna Philharmonic in stereo. It's in the Schuricht Icon box.

That duplicates the 8 & 9 unfortunately. The Beethoven cycle is in good mono and preserves the sound of the Paris Conservatory Orchestra back when French orchestras still sounded French.

His 1963 live mono recording of Bruckner Symphony No. 5 with the Vienna Philharmonic on DG is also worth tracking down.

Have a digital dupe of the Schuricht recording of Bruckner's 3rd. Also have the Jochum box of symphonies 1 - 9. The 3rd symphony is with the Symphony Orchestra of Bayerischen Radio. I've also got the Kent Nagano SACD of the earlier version of the 3rd symphony, glorious in its own way.

 

[Elkerton]

Of the 10 recordings I have of Das Lied Von Der Erde, which include all mentioned above save for the BIS, I favour the Baker/ Haitink for Janet Baker's singing. Her Audite recording is also fine though not as well recorded. FD does extremely well too, particularly considering the songs were meant for male voice. I burned a CD of the Baker and Ben Hepner from Gary Bertini's EMI recording. Hepner is the best heldentenor in the part I have heard.

 

[Multicore]

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

Isn't it E# minor?

 

[Robin L]

Isn't it E# minor?

All my copies say E minor, as does the Wiki article. I've got five recordings right now, Szell/Cleveland, Kertesz/VPO and LSO, Colin Davis/RCO and Dohnanyi/Cleveland. They all have their virtues (which is why I still have all five). The Dohnanyi, being as it's a digital recording, has the best sound, though the early (1961) Kertesz/VPO recording has an interesting stereo spread.

A Dvorak recording that really surprised me is the Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra CD of Dvorak's 7th and 8th symphonies. The disc issued on some sort of a "on demand" disc from Japan, with liner notes in Japanese, but the recording dates can be gleaned from the booklet - October 19, 1976 for the 7th, February 28, 1977 for the 8th. Excellent sound, with performances more idiomatic than I expected. My guess is that it would be difficult to find a copy of the CD and there's no sign of the recording on YouTube.

 

[Multicore]

All my copies say E minor, as does the Wiki article.

I thought it was fishy. Are there any symphonies in E sharp major or minor? I searched and the sharp seems like a data entry error that has propagated through the digital music supply chain.

My parents were keen on Dvořák and other late romantic works like this. It has lots of really tremendous material in it, cleverly developed and orchestrated. At the same time this sort of thing gives me the uneasy feeling that I'm supposed to respond with a swelling german-romantic heart and I have always reacted against that. I don't mind being moved but I don't like to be pushed.

 

[Nitreb]

Oh, harpsichord (cembaro, clavecin) music in excellent recording quality...., I too love much.

Have you listened to Jean Rondeau's recent wonderful performances of Rameau and Royer?
Jean Rondeau's album “VERTIGO; Rameau, Royer”, ERATO 0 825646 974580 (2015):

Spoiler

- Excellent Recording Quality Music Albums/Tracks for Subjective (and Possibly Objective) Test/Check/Tuning of Multichannel Multi-Driver Multi-Way Multi-Amplifier Time-Aligned Active Stereo Audio System and Room Acoustics; at least a Portion and/or One Track being Analyzed by Color Spectrum of Adobe Audition in Common Parameters: [Part-13] Harpsichord (Cembalo, Clavecin) Music: #645 on my project thread

Especially this one;

Great playing. Looks like he's using a period instrument, and it's sounding beautifully.

 

[Robin L]

I thought it was fishy. Are there any symphonies in E sharp major or minor? I searched and the sharp seems like a data entry error that has propagated through the digital music supply chain.

My parents were keen on Dvořák and other late romantic works like this. It has lots of really tremendous material in it, cleverly developed and orchestrated. At the same time this sort of thing gives me the uneasy feeling that I'm supposed to respond with a swelling german-romantic heart and I have always reacted against that. I don't mind being moved but I don't like to be pushed.

View attachment 360914

It's really a swelling Czech-Romantic heart. Smetana's Má vlast (Vltava, better known in English speaking countries as The Moldau) is a section of Smetana's "My Country" and the very heart of the Czech-Romantic heart. Vaclav Talich's recording with the Czech Philharmonic is my favorite, though Rafael Kubelík's digital recording of Má vlast with the Czech Philharmonic is also very good and in much better sound:

 

[sleepy.sock]

Lots of symphonies are in E sharp, a key better known as F

 

[Multicore]

Lots of symphonies are in E sharp, a key better known as F

iiuc, there is a difference. not a practical one for us listeners but music theorists and composers take these differences seriously, perhaps as a signifier of in/out group membership, i really dk. similarly, most of us punters don't find double sharps or double flats very useful but some consider these distinctions important.

 

[Multicore]

It's really a swelling Czech-Romantic heart. Smetana's Má vlast (Vltava, better known in English speaking countries as The Moldau) is a section of Smetana's "My Country" and the very heart of the Czech-Romantic heart. Vaclav Talich's recording with the Czech Philharmonic is my favorite, though Rafael Kubelík's digital recording of Má vlast with the Czech Philharmonic is also very good and in much better sound:

you're right about the sources, of course. the influences from cultures from east and south of germany is a welcome addition to the canon from the composers coming from down there. often that aspect is good enough to carry the day even for someone as allergic to romanticism as me. the problem is the domineering aesthetic influence of rw and gm on the forms. since i don't believe i'll ever sucessfully express my discomfort with romanticism i really shouldn't try, so i leave it there.

 

[Robin L]

you're right about the sources, of course. the influences from cultures from east and south of germany is a welcome addition to the canon from the composers coming from down there. often that aspect is good enough to carry the day even for someone as allergic to romanticism as me. the problem is the domineering aesthetic influence of rw and gm on the forms. since i don't believe i'll ever sucessfully express my discomfort with romanticism i really shouldn't try, so i leave it there.

Out of curiosity, what do you think of Sibelius? As far as I can tell, he started out as a Romantic but ended up in an altogether different aesthetic space.

 

[Multicore]

Out of curiosity, what do you think of Sibelius? As far as I can tell, he started out as a Romantic but ended up in an altogether different aesthetic space.

Difficult to say. I haven't listened for decades but my recollection is two things. 1) bit of a snooze, 2) I grew up in Britain when it was still politically correct to substitute Sibelius for the german music classical music lovers really wanted to listen to, so it was all a bit half-hearted. Maybe that luekwarm praise rubbed off on me.

 

[Robin L]

Difficult to say. I haven't listened for decades but my recollection is two things. 1) bit of a snooze, 2) I grew up in Britain when it was still politically correct to substitute Sibelius for the german music classical music lovers really wanted to listen to, so it was all a bit half-hearted. Maybe that luekwarm praise rubbed off on me.

The 4th symphony is really different, interesting. It doesn't resolve in triumph, more like indecision, starts off in the sound of a bitter cold winter. Tapiola is interesting in much the same way, the depiction of an elder forest god who has little use for humans.

 

[Keith_W]

Lots of symphonies are in E sharp, a key better known as F

There are just as many in F flat. Better known as E

 

[mSpot]

Rafael Kubelík's digital recording of Má vlast with the Czech Philharmonic is also very good and in much better sound:

Kubelík recorded Má Vlast multiple times, but that recording is of a special occasion: Kubelík's 1990 return to Czechoslovakia after exile. Kubelík had left Czechoslovakia in 1948 following the communist takeover and vowed not to return until it was restored to democracy, which occurred in 1989 following the Soviet collapse. By then, Kubelík had already retired from conducting due to physical ailments, but he came out of retirement to conduct at the 1990 Prague Spring Festival (he was the founder of the annual festival in 1946).

There is a video of the concert. Something striking is that as late as 1990, the Czech Philharmonic still consisted entirely of men (except the harpists). There is applause and a break in the performance after the third movement (Šárka). I've seen it in videos of other live performances of Má Vlast and it seems to be traditional.