Recommendations for a few high SQ classical CDs

Thanks guys. I will look for the Mahler CD. I also have Mahler's 5th and I like it but not as much as 4. I'll look for a good recording of his 1st also.

Thanks for the excellent recommendations. I'm making a list.

A lot of my little collection is the from the Cleveland Symphony orchestra either Szell or Dohnanyi conducting. These came from my late uncle who was an aficionado. Record companies sent him music to preview so we often got some of his extras. I do not know if he particularly liked the Cleveland Symphony or just had extra ones. 

In my original post I mentioned Dvorak's 4th but I meant the 9th. One of my favorites and it seems certain to me that Williams borrowed heavily for his Star Wars themes.

Side story (I have two). The little former mill city that I live in has just founded a symphony orchestra. My sister in-law is on the founding committee and my wife has helped them with fund raising. They are an excellent group of musicians from around the region (Charlotte, Atlanta, etc). The conductor is from New York. They will be doing Dvorak's 9th for their opener next month. Can't wait. I think it is a wise choice as it will be very accessible even for us local hicks.

Second story (which relates to posts above):  One of the other board members is the chair of the piano department at the University of Colorado.  He is in a duo with a violinist named Bill Terwilliger who teaches violin at the University of South Carolina. They have a number of CDs under the name of Opus Two. They specialize in the American composers, especially Copland. They will be performing with our new symphony from time to time. They are friends of the family and I must admit have never been really into Copland. I think it is time for me to broaden my horizons as I suspect my wife and her sister are likely to stay involved in the symphony.

Anyway, you've all given me a good place to start building from. Thanks.

George

glupson, thanks, I will add those to my list.

bdp24, thanks for that suggestion. I have always thought of 'classical' being from Bach through Beethoven's early work...but am probably mistaken. But yes, in regard to this thread I meant pretty much everything up to Copland, etc, in the popular sense of classical.

I am familiar with some Bach, some Handel and some Vivaldi as most people are. But other than a few exceptions Baroque has not drawn my interest....which is not to say that it won't, but I'll have to make an effort. Years ago when I decided to dive into southern literature I realized that I needed to understand what it was built on. And while it is still my primary literary focus I came to love and enjoy Homer, Virgil, Dante, Cervantes and Shakespeare. ( I wish I had as much music as I do books!). Which is all to say, if I take the plunge into Classical and Romantic era music, I'll probably want to at least explore the foundational stuff. I do have 8 or 10 Haydn symphonies which I have not listened to in ages.

But I will say, a lot of my rock taste is progressive...so the long, heavy, dramatic symphonies of the Romantics fit well with that rock genre.

Thanks lowrider. I've got several CDs by the London Symphony Orchestra. Not home right now so I'll check which ones later.

glupson, in Italy opera is still popular with young people. I saw Tosca at the Parma opera house in April (my first opera) and there were lots of young people and children there. They sell tickets for the top tier which is standing only, no seats, and they say it is often full of young people who stand through these two hour productions.

My first thought was that these must be wealthy young folks because even standing tickets aren't cheap and floor seats are high....but you commonly see rock concert tickets for $150 and pro football tickets are that high too.

Great resource, thanks.

I've got the Tidal 30 day trial but am not satisfied with the SQ just running it from my laptop via headphone jack/RCA y cable.

bdp24, I think Dave Edmunds did some solo work too. I love "Pictures at an Exhibtion". I'll look into Sabre Dance.

Would also like a reference for a good CD of "Pictures at an Exhibition."
It seems like it always has stuff I don't want tacked onto the CD with it.

daverz, I don't mind boxed sets of good recordings. I'm never going to be an aficionado or a serious collector of classical CDs. I'll probable never own many duplicates of any given works. So a well recorded box set makes sense. I'll look into that Dvorak set.

I need to dig deeper there. Free 30 day Tidal and 90 day Apple Music will help with that.

Thanks guys, the list is getting longer!

This has been mentioned several times. I am at the end of my one month free trial. It does have its appeal but to achieve the level of quality that I would like (much less the quality which my system is capable of) would require more money in equipment and software than I am ready to spend right now. The SQ from laptop to line stage via an RCA patch cord into the headphone jack just doesn't sound all that good to me.

It is a good way to at least research works that I'm unfamiliar with.

I still like the idea of CDs. Solid media that I own and can keep. I know that is a primitive notion these days and I also know that CDs can degrade and be damaged.

I am still looking into a cheap, simple DAC and ripping CDs into a library which I can run with Apple Remote on my cell phone. If/when I get there I might consider Tidal again. But to be honest, lack of a simple way to run Tidal with a remote is a bit of a deal breaker for me anyway. Truly perplexing that they cannot develop an app for this. It appears that users have been asking for it for several years.

I have Saint-Saen's 3rd on Telarc, Eugene Ormandy and Philadelphia Orchestra. I'll listen to it tonight and see how it sounds.

I agree. To hear the first movement and the beginning of the second movement well the volume has to be up fairly high; over 1/3rd on my system. At that volume you can feel the bass and vibration in the floor with that rousing ending.