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Buidling a Classical Library - MUST HAVES!

I started a r2d4 thread last week and am so impressed with the depth of music knowledge on this site that I'm going to start this one too. My knowledge of great classical recordings is so limited it's embarrassing to call myself a music lover. I've tried following some of the reviews in Stereophile, TAS and Golden Ear, but they all seam to have some agenda other than great sound, great performance and great material in mind. The fact that my system can resolve the subsonic activity of an earthquake during the highschool bands performance of Nutcracker or what ever Stereophile is about does nothing to help me find great music. My request, if you choose to accept it, is to identify the must have recordings to build library from scratch. PLEASE CONSIDER SONIC QUALITY, PERFORMANCE AND MATERIAL EQUALLY. As a lover of music I believe all three should be superior. Also, in the spirit of my last post, PLEASE REFRAIN FROM CRITICIZING OTHERS SELECTIONS. IF YOU WANT TO ARGUE A SELECTION START A THREAD, LEAVE THIS ONE FOR KNOWLEDGE FOR THOSE OF US WHO NEED IT. THANK-YOU. Finally, please list a maximum top ten and even if your favorites already appear, list them anyway. This will help me figure out the first ones to buy. Vinyl and/or digital are acceptable as long as the material is still avalible.
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Showing 1 response by jdaniel13

jdaniel13
129 posts
 
Oh man, great performances plus audiophile sound? You know the old, cynical saying, right? Here's a vinyl list, countless glaring omissions, (none are my personal "must haves" anymore, and some are not my current favorite performances), but I've tried to imagine myself just starting out and you want at least "good" sound:

Bach: Brandenberg's/Overtures Collegium Aureum German DHM
Barber: Adagio for Strings ASMF Marriner Argo
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra Boulez/NYP Columbia*
Beethoven: Symphony 5 Kleiber
Chopin: Nocturnes Moravec Connoisseur Society
Copland: Rodeo/Billy the Kid Bernstein Columbia
Dvorak: Symphony 9 Walter Columbia
Grofe Grand Canyon Suite Ormandy/Columbia
Holst: Planets Solti/London/MFSL
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition Ansermet/Suisse Romande London
Orff: Carmina Burana MTT/Columbia
Prokofiev Symphony 5 Maazel Cleveland London
Rachmaninoff Rhapsody/PC #2 Rubenstein/Reiner
Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works: Scrowakzewski/Minnesota Vox
Rossini: Overtures Gamba/LSO London
Respighi: Pines/Festivals Maazel Cleveland London
Stravinsky Firebird Suite Muti Philadelphia EMI
Suppe Overtures Solti/VPO London
Tchaikovsky 1812/Romeo Previn LSO EMI
Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia Barbirolli/LSO EMI
Wagner Overtures/Scenes Szell Cleveland Columbia

*Columbia's house sound can often be dismal, but the few listed above--while not audiophile quality--aren't bad at all.

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