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How to go about collecting Classical Music

At age 68 I’ve started to like Classical Music. It’s been mostly Jazz, Rock n Roll, and R&B up to now. I’m familiar with those genres, know their history, artists, and how to best and most economically acquire their recordings. Not so the Classical repertoire which covers a much longer time period and encompasses so many styles and forms.

What genres and/or periods of Classical music should I be exploring? I’m not looking for recommendations on particular composers or artists, only genres or periods. In Classical music there is orchestral music, chamber music, opera, church music and who knows what else to try out. Maybe you could advise me, if you wouldn’t mind, of some types to try? Or maybe you could recommend a book on the subject that would help a rookie get a start understanding what’s out there.

In buying classical music, for any one work, there may be innumerable recordings by various artists, orchestras and ensembles. How do you sort out which recordings you want in that respect. For example, I looked up Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring on Ebay last night to get some idea of pricing and what classical music available there. There were so many recordings of that work, I would have no idea how to sort out which would have been a good choice. Are there web sites where there are recommendations on which recordings are most exceptional? Or alternately, are there classical record labels you can rely on routinely to provide superior quality recordings? I’ve heard Deutsche Gramophone may be a reliable label for one, but that’s about it. Could you recommend any other labels to look for?

There seems to be a lot of Classical music in SACD format relative to Jazz or Rock n ’Roll. Is there some reason for that? Should SACD be the format of choice for purchasing Classical music, or is there good classical material in Redbook format to be found? I prefer to stay away from used vinyl due to condition issues, or new vinyl due to cost. I’m guessing the better dynamic range of CD’s lends itself to orchestral music. Is there any market for used classical SACD’s? Are there any sites you prefer to purchase your Classical CD’s, either new or used?

I grew up on Long Island. On one trip to midtown Manhattan I walked into an old church not too far from St. Patrick’s to view its’ magnificent stained glass window. Once inside I heard some equally magnificent classical organ being played. I discovered the church’s incredible organ was being played by some of New York City’s finest classical organists who would book time to practice on it. That large church was always deserted, and I went back many times for what amounted to free private concerts. I’d like to know what kind of music that was to try and replicate that experience to some degree at home, From what I’ve read here and elsewhere there surely is a plethora of other wonderful Classical music to explore and enjoy. Thanks in advance for any advice,

Mike






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Showing 4 responses by label19

label19
36 posts
 
Thee things:
1. I think it is a mistake to identify great orchestras, great performers, and just buy their stuff.  The good people did lots of good stuff, also lots of dogs, and that path overly concentrates you on the mainstream canon.  Furthermore, even a single artist can show tremendous variance over the course of a career, e.g. Karajan's Beethoven Symphonies.  (And, pace Inna, he would not make my top 10.  That's what makes horse races.)  There are people who are not household names who have a good take in particular areas.  At the moment, my Bernstein, Haitink, Walter vinyl is gathering dust while I'm enjoying Daniel Harding's Mahler.  

So, how does one find good stuff?  This leads to point 2.

2. To listen well, you have to read.  You can learn a lot about wine just by tasting, but there are things you won't figure out unless someone points it out to you.  Same with classical music.  For finding out what's going on, I read a few bloggers, including Alex Ross, the Opera Tattler, Condemned to Music (who hasn't posted in a while),... But for learning how to listen:  I got a lot out of Aaron Copeland's "What to Listen for in Music" when I was a kid.  It made me hear differently.  Charles Rosen is always a good read.  He was an interesting performer, a big and wide intellect, and he carried a very sharp pencil.  (Recent piece on him in the New York Review of Books).  I recommend Ross' "Wagnerism", and some combination of his "The Rest is Noise" and pushing from a friend led me to start paying attention to more contemporary music.  One good thing about developing a taste for 20th/21st century music - when you buy a disc at a garage sale or used book or record shop, it is ALWAYS near mint.

3. Good places to find out about recordings:  Listening to the radio is only occasionally helpful.  You probably know about the Penguin and Gramophone Guides.  I've found good recordings by listening in odd places e.g. Hamelin's recording of Schumann and Janacek forest walks on a flight from Frankfurt to NY. (But for "On an Overgrown Path", find the Firkusny vinyl.  It's not available on CD, I think.). I subscribe to emails from Presto Classical and from the master or remastering, Andrew Rose at Pristine Classical.  You can learn a lot just from reading their notes.  I buy from both.
label19
36 posts
 
Sorry, Mike, I should have been more clear.  Alex Ross has a blog, therestisnoise.com.  He writes for the New Yorker and his columns are quite good (even when I disagree).  You might find him in his columns, as I do, too interested in the newest music, but he has a lot to say about the whole thing.  "The Rest is Noise", which is worth reading at the start, and "Wagnerism" (save for later, perhaps) are both recent books.  

I like Pristine because the restorations he provides by himself, Mark Obert-Thorn, and others, make historic performances much more listenable --- best of both worlds.

I also recommend, rather than narrowing in on a few composers, just listen to a lot of different stuff and see where your ear takes you.  I recall you're averse to streaming, but here it's where it's your friend.  For $15 you can get the Berliner Phil digital concert hall for a month and just plow through their archives.  You can also hear a lot of stuff on youtube.  
One fun thing to do with it is to compare different artists in the same piece.  I recorded off of youtube a playlist of performances of Stormy Weather.  Of course youtube will never be your go-to source, but to build experience, learn new stuff, you can't beat the price.  And there are some things there that I haven't found elsewhere, like the Bostridge-Drake performance of Schubert's Winterreise.  

OK: Winterreise - One more thing.  It is easy to overinvest in the orchestral and concerto literature to the neglect of smaller ensembles, chamber music and solo performance.  Schubert's Winterreise and his C major quintet are ahead of the big symphonies on my desert island list.  Some nights you just don't have the energy for another big bash; also the big orchestral standards are sufficiently ubiquitous that the ear is  quickly jaded.  But the non-orchestral literature is so voluminous that it is hard to know where to start.  Beethoven wrote only 9 symphonies, but he wrote 32 piano sonatas and 16 string quartets.  And the best of these  are just as deep, as dramatic, as totally engrossing, as the best of the orchestral works.

Have fun!
label19
36 posts
 
Yep, the Times and the New Yorker are still here, although less well-written than they used to be; and what's the point of the New Yorker if not the writing.  Ross is an exception.  (I don't live in NYC, btw.  I'm an upstater, and we, being completely irrational, think the only thing wrong with NYS is NYC.  But my wife lives down there and we commute.)  And to round out the big 3, I'll mention that a recent issue of the New York Review had an appreciation of Charles Rosen's writings.  Much fun to read.

I'm writing though, because I thought of one more good resource:
https://theclassicreview.com/category/beginners-guides/
I did some due diligence here, and read the entries on Brahms, Tschaikovsky, and Schubert.  I like them because they span the oeuvre, the big pieces, chamber and solo.  In these single-composer entries they list 10 pieces that, they claim, will give you a feel for the work.  You really can't argue with the choices.  They also recommend recordings, and there is nothing wrong about those they recommend that I'm familiar with.  (In particular, how smart to choose Carlos Kleiber for the Brahms 4.  I don't know anyone who knows this recording and doesn't put this recording at the top of their list although Audiogon, being Audiogon, will now find me a few.)
label19
36 posts
 
Primephonic+1. Not long ago they were running a half-price sale. One problem with Primephonic though, is that you are constrained to their app or a web interface. Can’t use my Innuos Zenith. One is similarly constrained with Idagio.

Larryi, +1 on the Schubert quintet and Winterreise. I have only 5 recordings.

Between lps and cds I have around 1000 disks. This is a small collection compared to those of many in this thread. A big problem with even 1000 is to get around to listening to everything. There is a big temptation to settle in to 30 or 50 disks that you just love, and visit with them again and again. I finally decided I needed a listening strategy. Mine is to take a week or so every month and binge by category -- an opera binge, the next time a chamber music binge, etc. I’ve found that not only do the binges force me to listen to stuff I might not have gotten around to in a less structured way, but my set of favorites slowly evolves. However you do it, this is something to think about. With 150+ Bach cd’s, it’s just going to be hard to manage, and if you listen to them all at once you will learn to hate Bach.
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