Thanks for remindng us about the Nonesuch label. Although not sonically consistent throughout its catalog, when those guys got it right, they produced recordings that still stand up to many of today's best. And the fact that the NS catalog included so much new music -- many pieces by modern composers that were never recorded in any form elsewhere -- is icing. Lots of unique material available used online at modest prices.
About 6 years ago. I was at a Los Angeles Orange County Audio Society club event at a high end store near LA, Sunny's Components.
Peter McGrath from Wilson Audio was there, during his talk at the event, he was giving a history of his recording live classical performances. After his talk, I approached him and brought up the contemporary classical Nonesuch recordings mentioned earlier. And his eyes lit up.
Turns out, one of his main mentors when he was learning live recording, was one of the recording engineers responsible for several of these Nonesuch modern classical recordings.
McGrath said something to the effect of, "those budget recordings are a real condemnation of modern recordings".