Essential Listening for Newbies

[taisiawshan]

Listened to Schbert's 9th Symphony these few days, 4 times altogether.
Like the 1st, 2nd, 4th movement. Don't like the 3rd.

The 4th movement is very funny.
The theme is a very popular melody, yet off key( can I say that?).
Of course I know he did it deliberately.
Can anyone tell me actually what is the original melody's name.

I feel like listening to Beethoven's Symphonies after this.

[taisiawshan]

When I last listened to the 9th Symphony, I turn on the visual affect in Windows Media Player.
It helps me to concentrate.
It's hard for me to just sit down & listen only without doing anything.
That day, while turning the music on, I tidied up my room. And I found out that I can concentrate more.
Is this bad?
And I can never listen with my eyes close.

[Corlyss_D]

while turning the music on, I tidied up my room. And I found out that I can concentrate more.
Is this bad?

If it is, I'm bad too.

And I can never listen with my eyes close.

I don't usually when I'm at home. When I'm in the concert hall I have too or I get too easily distracted. With my eyes closed I can concentrate on the music and not the funny looking cellist or the short percussionist.

[taisiawshan]

I feel like listening to Beethoven's Symphonies after this.

And I did.
I listened to #2,#4,#5,#6,#7,#8,#9 by Herbert von Karajan.
Then, #5,#6 by John eliot Gardiner.

I prefer Karajan. His conducting is more "powerful".
In China, I think he's a very famous conductor.
But I don't see this forum talking about him. Why?

I love Beethoven's Symphonies.
I think they are all very "powerful".
Unlike Mozart, I always feel like his works are too "sweet".

Can anyone recommend me some good versions of Beethoven's Symphonies?

[jserraglio]

Awesome link to that Bach set!!! Who performs on those discs?

The Bach renaissance--which began in earnest in the early 19th century thanks to the efforts of Felix Mendelssohn and others--inspired an endeavor of far-reaching significance. It led to the founding of the Bach Society in 1850, with the goal of gathering and publishing the composer's complete works, and thus set into motion one of the great projects of musical scholarship. That effort has continued and been refined throughout the 20th century, ultimately influencing not only our perception of how to perform early music but fundamental ideas of musical history, evolution, and reception as well.

Teldec's mammoth Bach 2000 box set represents a kind of culmination of that original attempt to come to terms with Johann Sebastian Bach's unparalleled legacy. This set brings together performances recorded over the last several decades--a small percentage of the recordings are previously unreleased--of all the extant works determined by modern scholarship to be authentic. There are also some pieces the authorship of which is still in question and a few now deemed "inauthentic" but familiarly associated with the composer. Bach was a prodigious reviser of his compositions, and alternate versions of a particular work have been included "where the changes seemed sufficiently important," such as the glorious Magnificat. No doubt manuscripts will continue to be unearthed here and there in various archives (Bach 2000 contains, for example, the "Neumeister chorales," which were rediscovered in 1984), but the set does not represent the many fragments of music that consist of just a few bars; however, there are some reconstructions of lost concertos (such as one for three violins reconstructed by Christopher Hogwood from an extant concerto for harpsichords).

Of course a truly comprehensive recorded edition of every note Bach wrote remains a utopian impossibility--about one-third of his cantatas, for example, have not survived. Even so, the dimensions of Bach 2000 are staggering. With its 12 boxes comprising 153 CDs, the set can be compressed into fewer boxes to save shelf space yet is still about ten times as long as the Ring cycle. (It should be noted that the packaging--using thin cardboard sleeves for the CDs--is distinctively unattractive.) That adds up to just under 160 hours of music--but a lifetime of discovery. Each box (grouped according to genre) contains a booklet with excellent notes on individual works and--for all the choral works--texts and translations. Tracking indexes are useful and thorough. Also included is a profusely illustrated hardbound volume of 24 Inventions, in which journalist Wolfgang Sandberger uses the composer's biography as a peg for some enigmatic and fascinating musings on the meaning of Bach today.

The presiding philosophy behind this project and its approach to musical interpretation can be largely ascribed to Nikolaus Harnoncourt, a true musical pioneer and galvanizing force of the "period performance" movement. Harnoncourt's epoch-making recordings of the sacred cantatas (using, for instance, boy sopranos and choristers according to the practice in Bach's time) with the Concentus musicus Wien and colleague Gustav Leonhardt comprise the first four volumes here (those who already own them can turn to the Bach 2000 Light edition, which contains everything sans the cantatas). These recordings--which were not remastered for this set--have long been controversial and are notably uneven, embracing some magnificent accounts as well as others that lack fire and seem clearly underrehearsed. But Harnoncourt is one of the most fascinating conductors of our era, and his interpretations amply bear out his assertion: "I have never felt that Bach worked in a routine manner, that he repeated himself in his works." Harnoncourt--who has articulated many of his ideas in his book The Musical Dialogue--displays his gifts as a cellist in a remarkably probing performance of the Cello Suites (originally recorded in 1965) and in his concertizing for a number of chamber works. For the St. Matthew Passion, you get Harnoncourt's groundbreaking earlier account from 1970, while his 1986 recording of the sublime B Minor Mass is also represented here (the St. John Passion included is Harnoncourt's 1995 acount).

Other artists included are colleague Gustav Leonhardt, whose thoughtful if occasionally dry harpsichord artistry is heard in the Goldberg Variations as well as in the concertos and chamber music. The harpsichord is in fact used throughout in preference to piano for the keyboard works. Ton Koopman (himself the conductor of an ongoing complete cantata series and of the Easter Oratorio included here) performs the organ works, including some newly recorded offerings, while Il Giardino Armonico's well-known high-energy account represents the Brandenburg Concertos. Violinist Thomas Zehetmair is exceptionally compelling in the unaccompanied sonatas and partitas, and the Concentus musicus Wien--again under Harnoncourt--perform a superb Musical Offering that richly repays frequent listening.

The result of Bach 2000 as a whole is an aptly encyclopedic grappling with the infinite legacy of this most compendious of composers, whose works are on one level a summation of all the styles available to him. Bach was once thought to represent a "terminal point" (to use Albert Schweitzer's famous formulation), the end of an era; today he is at least equally recognized as a fertile source of inspiration for composers since. To be sure, individual recordings of particular works will be found to be preferable, and it would be misguided to consider Bach 2000 any kind of "final" or "definitive" word. Instead, it's an indispensable starting point that represents a monumental achievement for our own contemporary understanding of Bach. --Thomas May

Product Description
Volume 1, 15 Discs
Sacred Cantatas Nos. 1-14, 16-47; 15 CDs; Harnoncourt/Leonhardt

Volume 2, 15 Discs
Sacred Cantatas Nos. 48-52, 54-69, 69A, 70-99; 15 CDs; Harnoncourt/Leonhardt

Volume 3, 15 Discs
Sacred Cantatas Nos. 100-117, 119-140,143-149; 15 CDs; Harnoncourt/Leonhardt

Volume 4, 15 Discs
Sacred Cantatas BWV 150-159, 161-188, 192, 194-199; 15 CDs; Harnoncourt/Leonhardt

Volume 5, 11 Discs
Secular Cantatas App. Sacred Cantatas; 11 CDs; Koopman, Harnoncourt, Koopman, Goebel and others

Volume 6, 14 Discs
The Sacred Vocal Works Masses,Magnificat, Passions, Oratorios; 14 CDs; Harnoncourt, Koopman, Corboz and others

Volume 7
, 7 Discs
The Motets, Chorales & Songs Kirnberger Chorales,Schemelli Songs, Quodlibet

Volume 8, 16 Discs
The Organ Works; 16 CDs; Ton Koopman

Volume 9, 11 Discs
The Keyboard Works (I) The Well-Tempered Clavier, English & French Suites, Partitas etc; 11 CDs; Curtis, Ross, Wilson, Ruzickova

Volume 10, 11 Discs
The Keyboard Works (II) Goldberg Variations, Toccatas, Fugues, Italian Concerto, etc; 11 CDs; Staier, Barchi, Leonhardt, von Asperen, Baumont, and others

Volume 11, 13 Discs
The Chamber Music Violin Sonatas & Partitas, Flute Sonatas, Works for Lute, Art of Fugue, Musical Offering, etc; 13 CDs; Harnoncourt, Pianca, Tachezi, Brggen, Zehetmair, and others

Volume 12, 10 Discs
The Orchestral Works The Concertos & Orchestral Suite; 10 CDs; Il Giardino Armonico, Harnoncourt, Leonhardt

There's a one disk sampler listed as available for 9 USD on Amazon.

[jserraglio]

Can anyone recommend me some good versions of Beethoven's Symphonies?

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1-9 ~ Andre Cluytens/Berlin Philharmonic

Costs less than $17.00 + $2.50 s & h, new.

You could pay more and do a lot worse. Cluytens' interpretations wear well and his post-Furtwangler Berlin Phil. Orchestra sounds sweet and awesome--their HvKarajan fussiness set in later.

In stereo, late 50's, natural wide-ranging sound.

This is the set I turn to when I want to hear Beethoven and fogeddabout the conductor--warm performances, superb playing--I listen to it more than any other.

--see the current thread on this topic for more recs:
http://classicalmusicguide.com/phpBB2/v ... sc&start=0

[Corlyss_D]

I prefer Karajan. His conducting is more "powerful".
In China, I think he's a very famous conductor. But I don't see this forum talking about him. Why?

I can't speak for others, but I never cared for much of his output except his Strauss. When he was alive to keep his activities in the news, he was the object of strong passions: people either loved him or hated him. Since he's been dead for almost 20 years, I think he's fallen into the pack of second-tier conductors known for a couple of composers that they did very very well and not much else. Whatever he chose to do, I always preferred someone else in the same repertoire.

Can anyone recommend me some good versions of Beethoven's Symphonies?

Try them in Liszt's piano reductions, by Cyprien Katsaris, or the exciting young Russian pianist, Constantin Scherbakov. You will hear things and notice things that you missed in the orchestral versions. And find a good recording, like Brendel's youthful one on Vox, of the Choral Fantasy, his dress rehearsal of the 9th which I enjoy eversomuch more than the real thing.

[Corlyss_D]

Awesome link to that Bach set!!! Who performs on those discs?

Teldec's mammoth Bach 2000 box set represents a kind of culmination of that original attempt to come to terms with Johann Sebastian Bach's unparalleled legacy.

Well, talk about a weapon of mass distruction . . . .

[taisiawshan]

And find a good recording, like Brendel's youthful one on Vox, of the Choral Fantasy, his dress rehearsal of the 9th which I enjoy eversomuch more than the real thing.

I have this "Triple Concerto & Choral Fantasy" recording by
Berliner Philaharmonic/Chor Der Deutschen Staatsoper/Daniel Barenboim
I'll try it!
So happy!

[taisiawshan]

Try them in Liszt's piano reductions, by Cyprien Katsaris, or the exciting young Russian pianist, Constantin Scherbakov. You will hear things and notice things that you missed in the orchestral versions.

I also have this Liszt's piano transciption of the 6th, played by Glenn Gloud.
It's a very special gift for myself during my trip in Paris.
The 6th is my favourite, and I knew who Glenn Gloud is at that time,
so, happy to buy it.
I'll listen to it again, and see if I hear anything special like you say.

[taisiawshan]

And find a good recording, like Brendel's youthful one on Vox, of the Choral Fantasy, his dress rehearsal of the 9th which I enjoy eversomuch more than the real thing.

What do you mean by "dress rehearsal"?

I listened to the Choral Fantasy a few times. Then, it took me a long time to figure out the theme in the last movement is similar to the 9th Symphony.
Only skip 2 notes infront & change 2 or 3 note in the middle, right?

What is this call? I mean to change a little bit, but you can tell it is copied from another place?

Then, the Adagios are not slow at all.
The whole piece sounds so powerful.
Piano plays the main part, I must say.

[Corlyss_D]

And find a good recording, like Brendel's youthful one on Vox, of the Choral Fantasy, his dress rehearsal of the 9th which I enjoy eversomuch more than the real thing.

What do you mean by "dress rehearsal"?

He wrote the Choral Fantasy first, working on ideas he later expanded and nailed down in the 9th Symphony.

The whole piece sounds so powerful.

I like it much more than the 9th.

[RebLem]

Classics Today has a list of what they think should be the first 100 CDs in a classical collection. I decided, for this list, to take that as a starting point, paste it in here, ignore the 100 part, and then make my own changes. I have put an asterik after every recommendation that remains unchanged from the Classics Today list. In a few cases,. I didn't check to see if these things were all currently available. I mostly used my own collection as a resource.

This is a work in progress. My hope, eventually--and I am pretty close to it now, is to have a list of exactly 300 CDs. I suggest that most people could follow a 5 year plan to purchase these CDs. If you buy 4 CDs per month (with an occasional month in which you buy a 5 CD set, and then the next month only 3 CDs, so that you average 4 per month) you will have 240 CDs in 5 years. What of the other 60? Well, the.first group of CDs on this list is of sets of CDs with more than 5 CDs in each. These are potential plan busters. I suggest you keep a separate printout of these CD sets, and whenever someone asks what you want for your birthday (or Christmas, or Channukah, or for a graduation gift, or whatever), just give him/her this list of sets and say, "Get me something from this list." Pretty simple, eh?

The second group of CDs are a series of multi-composer records. When mixed in with the other listings, some people just don't see any but the first composer listed, so I decided to segregate them in their own section. And then finally, the single composer CDs and 2, 3, 4, and 5 CD boxes.

Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas. Kempff. (9 DG)
Dvorak: Complete String Quartets, incl. 18 Cypresses. Prague Qr. (9 DG)
Mahler: Symphonies (complete); 3 Ruckert Songs; Kindertotenlieder. Bernstein (12 Sony)
Schubert: Piano Sonatas (complete) Kempff (7 DG)
Shostakovich: String Quartets (complete) Piano Trio 2, Piano Quintet. St Petersburg Quartet (6 Hyperion)
Shostakovich: Symphonies (complete). Barshai (11 Brilliant)
Strauss R.: Complete Orchestral Music. Kempe (9 EMI)
Vaughan Williams: Symphonies (9, complete) + 10 other orch. works. Boult (8 EMI)

Beethoven: Piano Concerti. Fleisher, Szell, Cleveland Orch (Mozart PC 25, too) (3 Sony)
Berg: Violin Conc. Szeryng |Schoenberg: Violin Conc; Piano Conc. Zetlin, Brendel, Kubelik, Bav RSO (DG)
Britten, Berg: Violin Concerti. Hope, Watkins, BBC Phil (Warner Classics)
Britten: Young Person's Guide |Prokofiev: Peter & the Wolf; Lt. Kije Suite. Connery, Dorati (London Phase 4)
Brahms: Piano Conc 2 |Beethoven: Appassionata Sonata. Richter, Leinsdorf, CSO (RCA)
Faure, Franck: Violin Sonatas. Grumiaux (Philips)*
Franck: Piano Quintet. Curzon | Mozart: Clarinet Qn |Strauss: Prelude for Str. Sextet. Amadeus Qt+ (BBC Legends mono)
Holst: Planets |Elgar: Enigma Vars.Holst (EMI)
Liszt: Piano Conc (2) |Prokofiev: Piano Conc 3, 5: Pn Son 7 |Schumann: Pn Conc. Samson Francois (2 EMI)
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana |Leoncavallo: Pagliacci. Callas, Serafin (2 EMI mono)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade |Borodin: Polovtsian Dances. Beecham, RPO (EMI)
Strauss, R. Metamorphosen |Mahler: Sym 9 |Wagner: Siegfried Idyll. Klemperer (2 EMI)
Tchaikovsky, Brahms: Violin Concerti. Heifetz, Reiner, CSO (RCA)

Bach: Brandenburg Concerti. Marriner, ASMF (2 Philips CDs)
Bach: Toccata & Fuge in D Minor, S. 565 & 17 other organ works. Peter Hurford (2 Decca)
Bach: 4 Secular Cantatas. Collegium Aureum, Elly Ameling, et al (2 DHM Edito Classica CDs)
Bartok: Complete String Quarterts (6). Emerson SQ (2 DG)
Bartók: Piano Concertos. Boulez. 3 pianists. DGG
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta. Reiner, Chicago Sym (RCA)
Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle. Kertesz, Ludwig, Berry, LSO (Decca) (although mne is from MHS relicensed from Decca)

Beethoven: Violin Concerto. Violin Romances 1 & 2. Grumiaux, Galleira (in concero) (Philips)
Beethoven: Fidelio. Klemperer (2 EMI)*
Beethoven: Complete Symphonies. Szell (5 Sony)
Beethoven: Missa Solemnis. Bernstein (either recording, 2 CDs)
Beethoven: Late String Quartets. Yale Quartet. (3 Vanguard)
Beethoven: Piano Trios + Kempff, Szerying, Fournier. (5 DG)
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas 5, 8, 9. Szerying, Rubinsten. (RCA)
Bellini: Norma. Callas-Serafin (2 EMI).*
Berlioz: Les Nuits d'ete; La Mort de Cleopatre; Les Troyens excerpts. Janet Baker, Barbirolli, Gibson (EMI)
? Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique. Le Roi Lear Over. Le Carnaval romain. Beecham (EMI)
Biber: Rosary Sonatas. Maier, Lehrndorfer, Engel, Junghanel. (2 DHM Edito Classica)
Bizet: Carmen. De los Angeles, Beecham (2 EMI)
Brahms: Violin Concerto. Szerying, Monteux, LSO (RCA))
Brahms: Violin Sonatas. Suk-Katchen (2 Decca)*
Brahms: Symphonies + Solti, Chicago SO (4 Decca).*
Brahms: Piano Trios; Horn Trio; Clarinet Trio. Trio di Trieste in Pn Trios; Eschenbach, BPO players in others. (2 DG)
Britten: 11 orchestral works, incl. Diversions for piano left hand & orch, & Sinfonia da Requiem. Rattle, CBSO (2 EMI)
Britten: 4 String Quartets; Simple Symphony. Britten Q (2 Collins Classics)
Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn, & Strings; Noye's Fludde. Hickox (Virgin Classics)
Britten: War Requiem. Britten (2 Decca).*
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4. Kertesz, LSO (Decca)
Byrd: 3 Masses. Tallis Scholars. (Gimell)
Charpentier: Anthems for Advent; In Nativitatem DNJC Canticum. Christie, Les Arts Florissants (FHM)
Chopin: 4 Impromptus; 3 Nouvelle etudes, Andante spianato & grande polonaise, 4 other pieces. Rubinstein RCA
Copland: Appalachian Spring; Rodeo-4 dance episodes: Billy the Kid SuiteEl salon Mexico; Fanfare for the common man; Quiet City; Down a Country Land, Nonet for strings. Copland, cond. (2 Sony)
Debussy:Complete Piano Works, incl. Fantasy for Piano & Orch. Gieseking (4 EMI)
Debussy: Complete Meloidies (i.e. that's French for Songs). Baldwin, piano, Elly Ameling & 4 other singers. (3 EMI)
Debussy: La Mer, Nocturnes. Tilson Thomas (Sony)*
Debussy: The Martyrdom of St Sebastian. Bernstein, NYPO (Sony)
Dutilleux: Complete Orchestral Works (11). Tortelier, BBC Phil (4 Chandos)
Dvorak: Cello Concerto; Othello; The Noon Witch. Rostropovich, Talich, Czech Phil (Suprophon mono)
Dvorak: Symphony 6: My Home Ov; Hussite Ov; Carnival Ov. Ancerl, Czech Phil (Supraphon)
Dvorak: Symphony 9; Symphonic Var. Macal, London PO (EMI Classics for Pleasure)

Falla: The Three-Cornered Hat + 5 other de Falla works. de los Angeles, De Burgos (2 EMI)
Fauré: Requiem. Cluytens. (EMI)
Franck: Symphonie in D minor. Monteux, Chicago SO. (RCA)*
Franck: Les Beatitudes.(oratorio) Rilling. (2 MHS, lic from Hanssler)
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue. An American in Paris. Tilson Thomas (RCA)*
Gounod: Faust. Cluytens (3 EMI)*

Handel: Water Music, Royal Fireworks Music. Amaryllis Suite. Water Music excerpts. Menuhin (MCA Classics)
Handel: Water Music (complete) Menuhin, Bath Fest Orch (EMI Eminence)
Handel: Messiah. Mackerras (2 EMI)*
Haydn: The Creation. Bernstein (2 Sony)
Haydn: London Symphonies. Jochum (4 DG)*
Janácek: Glagolitic Mass; Sinfonietta; Taras Bulba. Ancerl (Supraphon)*
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde. Ferrier, Patzak, Walter, VPO (Decca mono)
Mendelssohn: Symphonies (complete) Abbado (3 DG)*
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition. Giulini, Chicago Sym (DG)
Mozart: Piano Sonatas (complete) Klara Wurtz (5 Brilliant)
Mozart: Piano Concerti 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27. Casadesus-Szell (3 Sony)*
Mozart: Don Giovanni. Giulini (3 EMI)*
Mozart: Syms 35-41. 3 Flute Conc. Posthorn Serenade; Serenata notturni, 2 other works--Menuhin (5 Virgin Classics)
Mozart: String Quartets 14-19 "Haydn" Hagen Q (3 DGG)
Mozart: Requiem. Giulini (Sony)
Nielsen: String Quartets (4, complete): String Qn; Wind Qn. Nielsen SQ + (2 DG)
Nielsen: Syms (compl) + 4 other orch. works. Blomstedt, San Francisco SO (4 Decca [2 sets of 2 CDs each])
Orff: Carmina Burana. Jochum (DG)
Paganini: Caprices. Accardo (DG Galleria)
Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas (complete). Boris Berman. (2 MHS, lic from Chandos)
Prokofiev: Piano Conc 1. Moravec. Sym 1; Scythian Suite; Seven They Are. Ancerl, Czech Phil (Praga)
Prokofiev: Violin Concerti. Mintz, Abbado, Chicago S.O. (DG)
Prokofiev: Syms 1, 5. Levine, Chicago SO (DG)
Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky; Lt. Kije. Previn, LAPO (Telarc)
Puccini: La Bohème. de los Angeles, Bjorling, Beecham (2 EMI mono)
Puccini: Madame Butterfly. de los Angeles, Bjorling, Santini (2 EMI)
Puccini: Tosca. Callas-de Sabata (2 EMI mono)*

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerti. Wild, Horenstein (2 Chandos)
Ravel: Complete Solo Piano Music. Monique Haas. (2 Erato)
Ravel: Piano Concerti (2) Francois, Cluytens (EMI)
Ravel: Orchestral Works.. Cluytens (2 EMI)*
Rossini: Overtures. Reiner (RCA)*
Schubert: Die schone Mullerin song cycle. Fischer-Dieskau, Moore (EMI)*
Schubert: Schwanengasang song cycle. Fischer-Dieskau, Moore. (EMI)*
Schubert:Winterreise song cycle. Hotter, Moore. (EMI)
Schubert: Complete Trios (2 str trios, 3 piano trios+) various artists. (2 Philips)
Schubert: String Q "Rosamunde"; String Q "Death & the Maiden"; Stri Q, D 887, Quarttr movement in C minor; String Quintet. Emerson Quartet, Rostropovich in Quintet. (3 DG)
Schubert: Symphonies (complete); Rosamundo Over; Grand Duo. Abbado (5 DG)

Schumann: 14 solo piano works. Kempff. (4 DG)
Schumann: Complete Piano Trios (4); Piano Quartet, Op. 47, Piano Quintet. Beaux Arts Trio + (2 Philips)
Schumann: Complete String Quartets (3). Eroica Quartet (HM)
Schumann: Symphonies (compl); Manfred Over. Szell, Cleveland Orch (2 Sony)
Sibelius: Symphonies (7, complete); 9 other orch works. Barbirolli, Halle Orch., (5 EMI)
Smetana: Ma Vlast (My Country). Ancerl, Czech Phil (Supraphon)
Strauss J.: Waltzes. 1992 New Year’s Concert. Kleiber (Sony)*
Strauss,R. Four Last Songs; Capriccio (closing scene); Arabela (excerpts) Schwarzkopf, Ackermann, von Matacic (EMI)
Strauss R.: Der Rosenkavalier. Solti (3 Decca)

Stravinsky: The Firebird. Song of the Nightingale. Boulez, NYPO (Sony)
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring. Petrouchka. Stravinsky (Sony)
Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, 6. Monteux, Boston SO (2 RCA)
Tchaikovsky: The ballets (Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker). Previn, London SO (6 EMI)
Verdi: Aida. Price, Solti (3 Decca)*
Verdi: Don Carlos. Giulini (3 EMI)
Verdi: Requiem. 4 Sacred Pieces. Price, Bjorling +, Reiner, Viennal Phil (2 London)
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons. Standage. (MHS)
Wagner: Overtures and Preludes. Szell, Cleveland Orch (2 Sony)
Wagner: Tristan and Isolde. Bernstein. (3 DG)
Walton: Sym. 2; Variations on a theme by Hindemith; Partita for Orch. Szell, Cleveland (Sony)
Zwilich: Sym. 1; Prologue & Variations; Celebration. Nelson, Indianapolis Sym. (New World)

[Corlyss_D]

Thanks, Reb. I'm glad to see so many older recordings and so many old favorites.

[taisiawshan]

RebLem,

Thanks for sharing your list.
It'll be my refrence.
Sorry for replying so late. When I saw your list, I hesitated.

It's only that sometimes I think it's impossible for me to buy so many CDs.
There are so so many of them.

Then, another problem is that I don't know which recording to buy(for the same piece). It's like shopping blindly for me, you know.

Yet, I appreciate your effort in sharing.

[taisiawshan]

After I listen to Beethoven, I turn to Bach.

I like Bach. Especially those piano suites.
His music doesn't attract me like Beethoven's.
However, I feel so comfortable listening to his music.

But, not Toccata & Fudge for organ in D minor.
And I dislike the sound of organ. The iron sound is very piercing to me.
How I hope some of the Brandenburgs use piano instead of organ.

Is there any piano version for his organ pieces?