Starting a Classical Vinyl Music Collection


Don't have much so I'm wondering where to begin.

TIA

128x128jjbeason14

Bach

mozart

beethoven

schubert

schuman

brahms

chopin

mendelsohn

liszt

wagner

debussy

Tchaikovsky 

stravinsky

schoenberg

berg

webern

strauss

rachmaninoff

copland

barber

shostakovich

philidelphia orchestra / Eugene Ormandy recordings

cleveland orchestra/ George szell recordings

new York Philharmonic/ Bernstein recordings

Vienna, Berlin, concertgebow, orchestras.

good luck

 

steve girko

If you go to thrift shops, Readers Digest has made some compilation sets that are highly regarded. If you're lucky, you will find some sets un played. 

I couldn’t agree more with @larryi -

<< I probably have 1,000 classical LPs. I almost never listen to them. I do have, and listen to classical CDs ripped to a streamer. I MUCH prefer listening to classical digitally— no awkward breaks in programming, easy to find place in libretti when listening to opera, no ticks and pops during quiet passages, and most significantly, VASTLY greater selection of composers and performances (most legacy performances have been reissued digitally, very few new recordings have been issued on LPs since the early 1990s). >>

 

Until a few months ago, I had 1800 LPs of which 80% were classical, a carefully curated collection I began as a teenager. Like @ larryi, I wasn’t listening to them much and we needed the room to build bunkbeds for our grandkids. So I sold the records. [If you read TAS, check out the editorial for the February 2024 issue, which tells the story.] I agree that a listener without much experience with classical music should begin with inexpensive and wide-ranging sources—radio, streaming (with smart algorithms), used CDs at garage sales.

But the OP asked about LPs. I kept 50 or 60 of my vinyl albums for various reasons, some sentimental but most because they sound so good. Here are a dozen of the classical records currently on the very small shelf a few feet from where I’m typing in my office. Most are audiophile-quality reissues and worth the price - they all sound great and I bet the OP will actually listen to them, both for the content and their considerable audio merits.

You can get them from Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct, and Speakers Corner and, of course, used via eBay, Amazon, etc

1. Herold-Lanchbery: La fille mal gardeé (Decca)

2. Canteloube: Songs of the Auvergne. Davrath. Vanguard/AP)

3. Chopin’s Last Waltz. Robert Silverman (Stereophile)

4. Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (Telarc)

5. Stravinsky: Firebird Suite (Telarc)

6. Tchakovsky: 1812 Overture. Kunzel/Cincinnati (Telarc)

7. Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances. Dallas/Johanos (Turnabout)

8. Bach: Partita No. 2. Iivonen. (Yarlung)

9. Center Stage. Graham/National Symphonic Winds

10. Mercury Living Presence The Collectors Edition 1 & 2 (6 LPs each)

11. Archiv Production Classic Recordings 1956 - 1982 (5 LPs)

12. Classic Records Heifetz Box set (9 LPs)

Andy Quint

The Absolute Sound

 

 

 

 

Since musical tastes tend to be idiosyncratic, maybe the best bet is to listen to a range of music on whatever streaming service you have access to. Once you've decided you like a particular piece and/or composer, you can search for the "best" recording.

 

I have a fairly extensive vinyl collection and I picked up >100 vintage classical albums from an online sales posting. The seller bought records in large lots and was searching for particular items. He jettisoned the rest of them for <$1.00/album. Admittedly, some were in bad shape but all recordings I bought were 40-50 years old.