music you cant live without

I'll try to add to the minority. Anything by J.S. Bach, particularly his choral pieces, and Brahms, Shostakovich's 1st and 5th symphonies, Prokofiev's 2nd and 3rd piano concerti and first symphony, Rachmaninoff's 2nd and 3rd piano concerti and solo piano works, particularly the Corelli Variations, Copland's Symphony No. 3, Mahler's 1st, 2nd, 4th and 9th symphonies, Vaughn-Williams symphonies and Tallis Fantasia, Dvorak (anything by him)-- too many to mention, when you think of it. Check out the Most Aching-Beautiful Music thread for more.

Tubegroover, I'm going to have to check out the Pratt Rachmaninoff, thanks. My favorite interpretation of that piece has been the unusual Richter one on DG from the 60s, but the sonics are such that you have a gigantic piano stretching across the soundstage, little bass and wiry strings--typical DG. The one thing that I cannot yet find in any of the recordings of Rachmaninoff 2 and 3, and I've heard a lot of them, is the incredible power of the pianist that you hear in concert (last year I heard the 3rd played by Toradze with the NJSO, and I'll swear he almost moved that piano off the stage at times!). Argerich has the fire in her live recording, but not quite that power in the lower registers on the recording which I know she has live. Let me know if you've found one that has it--maybe it's just one of those things that cannot be conveyed, even by a good system and recording.

Shubertmaniac makes a good point. I've always liked Murray Perihia's CBS recording of the Schubert Impromptus, not for sonic reasons or necessarily for performance reasons, but because it is well-played and the first recording I ever heard of the piece, and I liked the music and kept listening to it. When I think of it, many of the performances of classical pieces I like best are the first ones I heard of them (for example, the Richter Rachmaninoff 2nd Piano Concerto, which is quite different than any other I've heard, and Rubenstein's performance of the Rhapsodies on a Theme of Paganini). Hasn't stopped me from listening to or enjoying other interpretations, fortunately, but the first ones are the ones I wind up comparing all others to.

Kitch29, I've got the original Merc with Janis playing the 3rd, it is excellent, also very good on the CD transfer. I have always liked Gilels, I'm hoping that Classic reissues his Brahms 2, which was a Mohr/Layton production released by RCA as a Victrola. My favorite performance of that piece.