GMG Classical Music Forum

The Music Room => Classical Music for Beginners => Topic started by: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 08:06:33 AM

Title: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 08:06:33 AM
Okay, y'all:  We've gotten warmed up with a group effort at an Essentials List for newbies.  How about we each offer our own essentials list, picking a manageable number of titles (cycles included here) that's neither too daunting for a newbie nor insufficiently restrictive to prevent us from careful consideration of our selections...say, 25 titles apiece?  But to keep it a bit more challenging, let's limit the number of box sets to 5, and further restrict that to cycles (i.e. LvB 4tets) and not complete collections:  no 100-disc Complete Haydn on Brilliant or similar offerings.  Operas, oratorios, Mahler symphonies (  ;D ), etc.,  will not count as such a set but rather as one work

You can approach this however you like, as a broad overview intended for a rank newcomer, as a narrower but deeper exploration of a particular era or genre that excites you and you think will excite others, or as a personal "desert island faves" list that you would not want to be without...or by throwing darts at your CD collection, if that's what floats your boat!

Anyone care to begin?

Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: karlhenning on September 07, 2010, 08:59:20 AM
Taking title to include multi-disc issues makes this a bit easier.

Off the top of my head, 25 titles which, even if I somehow had to liquidate my library, I should refuse to let go:

Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky
Stravinsky, Threni, Les noces, Symphony of Psalms / Robt Craft conductor
Shostakovich, Complete Symphonies / Maksim Shostakovich, conductor
Shostakovich, Symphony № 10, Songs & Dances of Death / Jansons, Phila, Robt Lloyd
Shostakovich, Preludes & Fugues, Opus 87 / Nikolayeva

Shostakovich, Suite on Words of Michelangelo, Six Romances on Verses by Relaigh, Burns & Shakespeare, &c. / Abdrazakov, Noseda, BBC Phil
Shostakovich, Violin Concertos / Khatchatryan, Masur, Orchestre National de France

Hindemith, Complete Kammermusiken / Abbado, members of the Berlin Philharmonic
Hindemith, Das Marienleben (new version) / Isokoski, Viitasalo
Prokofiev, Violin Sonatas / Kremer, Argerich

Prokofiev, Romeo & Juliet / Ozawa, BSO
Prokofiev, L'enfant prodigue, Le pas d'acier / Jurowski, conductor
Boulez conducts Schoenberg I
Boulez conducts Schoenberg II
Feldman, Crippled Symmetries / California EAR Unit

Sibelius, Symphonies / Blomstedt, SFSO
Doráti conducts Bartók
Berlioz Box / Munch, BSO
Rakhmaninov, Symphony № 1, Isle of the Dead / Noseda, BBC Phil
Rakhmaninov, Complete Songs

Wuorinen, String Sextet & other works / Group for Contemporary Music, &al.
Markevich, Arrangement of JS Bach The Musical Offering / Lyndon-Gee, Arnhem Phil
Tallis, Complete Works
Cage, Cheap Imitation &c. / Schleiermacher
My 40-disc JS Bach box
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 10:27:30 AM
Way to go, Karl!  Perhaps your approach is wiser than mine--I'm having a hard time paring it down and up.  A dozen or so is easy, and 50+ might not be too hard, but trimming it to 25 is proving harder than I thought.  Heck, in most cases even choosing one version among several competing recordings of a work is tough!

Anyway, here's a go that's both aimed at newbies and none of which I'd care to be without:


1   Bach      Cello Suites      Fournier      
2   Bach   Goldberg Variations   Schiff ECM      
3   Bach      Violin Concertos        Suwanai/COE      
4   Beethoven   Piano Sonatas         Kovacevich      
5   Beethoven   String Quartets   Emerson SQ      
6   Beethoven   Symphonies   Abbado/BP (Rome)      
7   Brahms   Piano Concertos 1 & 2     Freire/Chailly/Gewandhaus Leipzig      
8   Copland   Appalachian Spring/Rodeo/Billy the Kid        MTT/SFS      
9   Debussy   Prelude...Faun/La Mer/Images/En Bateau   MTT/Giulini/BSO      
10   Debussy   Preludes      Planès      
11   Elgar   Cello Concerto/Enigma Variations    Tortelier/Boult/LPO      
12   Haydn   String Quartets op 33   Quatuor Mosaiques      
13   Mahler   Symphonies    Sinopoli/Philharmonia      
14   Mozart   Symphonies 40 & 41   Minkowski/Musiciens du Louvre      
15   Mozart   Cosi fan tutte    Jacobs      
16   Pärt     Tabula Rasa/Fratres/Cantus   Jarrett/Kremer      
17   Prokofiev   Piano Concerto 3 (+ Ravel Piano Concerto)   Argerich/Abbado/BP      
18   Rachmaninov   Piano Concertos 2 & 3   Ashkenazy/Kondrashin      
19   Rossini   Il Barbiere di Siviglia      Prey/Berganza/Abbado/LSO      
20   Sibelius   Symphonies   Blomstedt/SFS      
21   Sibelius   Tone Poems   Vänskä/Lahti      
22   Strauss, R.   Four Last Songs/Metamorphosen/Oboe Cto   Janowitz/Karajan/BP      
23   Stravinsky   Pétrouchka/ Le Sacre du Printemps      Boulez/CO      
24   Vaughan Williams   Symphony 5/The Lark Ascending   Davis/Thomson/LSO      
25   Vivaldi   Four Seasons/3 Violin Concertos   Carmignola/Marcon/Venice Baroque Orch      

Of course the list would probably be different tomorrow, but about half would probably be included every time (at least the works, if not the performers).

Edit: typo

Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Bulldog on September 07, 2010, 11:10:59 AM
Question:

Can more than one recording be cited for a particular work? 
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: The new erato on September 07, 2010, 11:12:27 AM
Quote from: Bulldog on September 07, 2010, 11:10:59 AM
Question:

Can more than one recording be cited for a particular work?
Translated: Is 50 Goldbergs acceptable?

:D
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Franco on September 07, 2010, 11:23:01 AM
I didn't spend much time on this, but here's a list that I can live with off the top of my head:

Bach B Minor Mass Harnoncourt
Bach WTC   Tureck
Beethoven Piano Sonatas  Arrau
Beethoven SQ Takacs
Beethoven Symphonies Karajan
Berg Boulez Edition   
Carter SQ   Arditti
Debussy (w/Saint-Saens) Chamber Music for Woodwinds   
Durufle/Faure Requiems Cleobury
Haydn SQ    Amadeus
Haydn Symphonies (mixed set) Weil
Mozart Symphonies 25-41 Bohm
Mozart Cosi fan tutte Jacobs
Mozart Requiem Hogwood
Mozart/Brahms Clarinet Quintets Emerson/Stolzman
Puccini Tosca Callas
Puccini La Boheme Tebaldi
Schoenberg Boulez Edition I   
Stravinsky Greek Ballets Craft
Stravinsky Concerto set Stravinsky
Stravinsky Minatures set Stravinsky
Verdi Otello Toscanini
Webern - comp. Boulez   
Wourinen Music of Two Decades I   
Wourinen Music of Two Decades II

EDIT: nixed Golijov and added Beethoven piano sonatas.   
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Bulldog on September 07, 2010, 11:27:00 AM
Quote from: erato on September 07, 2010, 11:12:27 AM
Translated: Is 50 Goldbergs acceptable?

:D

Wouldn't be more than 25.  Actually, a lot less.  I have to leave room for a few WTC's and recordings of other composers.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Lethevich on September 07, 2010, 11:54:01 AM
A location dedicated to lists with near-infinite subjects... I sense this becoming the most popular of all GMG threads ;D
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Bulldog on September 07, 2010, 12:09:19 PM
Here's mine:

Bach - Goldberg Variations - Hantai/Mirare
Bach - Goldberg Variations - Tureck/DG
Bach - Goldberg Variations - Schiff/ECM
Bach - Goldberg Variations - Gould (81)/Sony
Bach - French Suites - Cates/Music & Arts
Bach - ClavierUbung III - Suzuki/BIS
Bach - WTC - Tureck/DG
Bach - WTC - Woodward/Celestial Harmonies
Bach - WTC - Wilson/Teldec or Apex
Bach - WTC - Watchorn/Musica Omnia
Bach - Keyboard Partitas/Sheppard/Romeo
Bartok - String Quartets/Vegh/Music & Arts
Chopin - Preludes - Argerich/DG
Dvorak - String Quartets - Panocha/Supraphon
Granados - Goyescas - De Larrocha/EMI
Handel - Heroic Arias - Bowman/King/Hyperion
Haydn - Piano Sonatas - Brendel/Philips
Mahler - Symphony No. 4 - Fischer/Channel Classics
Mozart - Great Mass in C minor - Leppard/EMI
Myaskovsky/Vainberg - Violin Concertos/Yablonsky/Naxos
Schumann - Kreisleriana & Sym. Etudes/Schliessmann/Bayer
Scriabin/Shostakovich - Piano Preludes/Deyanova/Nimbus
Shostakovich - Preludes & Fugues, Op. 87 - Nikolayeva/Regis
Taneyev - String Quartets - Taneyev Qt./Northern Flowers
Taneyev - Piano Trio & Piano Quartet - Barbican Piano Trio/Dutton Epoch
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 12:34:57 PM
Quote from: Bulldog on September 07, 2010, 11:10:59 AM
Question:

Can more than one recording be cited for a particular work?
Quote from: erato on September 07, 2010, 11:12:27 AM
Translated: Is 50 Goldbergs acceptable?
As long as it's Bach!

I'm looking forward to seeing more lists.  Seems to me that this exercise might be helpful to newbies seeking recommendations re. music to investigate, to forum newcomers (new to CM or not) getting a handle on members' tastes and predilections, and also to old-timers hoping to discover unsuspected gems among the well-worn faves...as well as being surprised sometimes by others' picks, like Don's Mahler 4 and Granados, or MI's Bantock.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Luke on September 07, 2010, 12:52:01 PM
Mr Henning, I particularly love that you selected this!

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 07, 2010, 08:59:20 AM
Markevich, Arrangement of JS Bach The Musical Offering / Lyndon-Gee, Arnhem Phil

Glad I'm not alone in adoring it so much (though it could do with a better recording - somewhere I have an almost hallucinatory LP of it which I used to spin endlessly)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: mc ukrneal on September 07, 2010, 12:53:09 PM
Ukrneals Uberlist ( ;D) (utterly uber!):


Arriaga/Vorisek Symphonies, Mackerras on Hyperion
Beethoven Piano Sonatas Kempff (mono) on DG
British Light Music (4 discs, Hyperion set)
Brahms Hungarian Dances, Bogar on Naxos
Chopin (Set) Rubinstein on RCA/Sony
Copland Symphony No 3, Bernstein on DG
Debussy Various Piano, Koscis on Phillips
Dvorak Overtures/Slavonic Dances (3 discs, set), Kubelik on DG
Fete du Ballet, Bonynge on Decca (set)
Godowsky Complete Studies on Chopin's Etudes, Hamelin on Hyperion
Grainger/Coates Country Gardens, Fennell on Mercury
Grieg Peery Gynt, Lyric suite and S Jorslafer, Jarvi on DG
Holst The Planets, Steinberg BSO
Mozart Marriage of Figaro, Solti on Decca
Offenbach Entre Nous (Outstanding introduction to his music), Various artists on Opera Rara
Prokofiev, Peter and the wolf (includes Bizet, Debussy and Dukas), Sir Ralph Richardson
Puccini La Boheme, Karajan on Decca
Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherezade (+Capriccio Espagnol), Mackerras on Telarc
Rossini Overtures, Orpheus on DG
Schubert Impromtus, Brendel on Phillips
Schumann Dicterliebe, Wachter/Brendel on Decca
Strauss (Richard) Alpine Symphony, Haitink on LSO
Tchaikovsky Symphonies 4-6, Mravinsky on DG
Verdi Otello, Domingo/Mehta on RCA
Wagner Mesitersinger, Kubelik on Arts Music

There were some tough cuts, but this representa music I could listen to repeatedly and continue to enjoy. My rule was to limit each composer to one disc (filler was excluded).
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Lethevich on September 07, 2010, 01:04:39 PM
My personal favourite recordings. Not all ones I'd expect people to drop down and worship, or even like the music, but I return to these very frequently:

Schubert - String Quartet No.10, 13 (Mosaïques Quartet, Astrée)
Vaughan Williams - Violin Soanta, String Quartet No.2, etc (Nash Ensemble, Hyperion)
Bantock - Celtic Symphony, Hebridean Symphony, etc (Handley, Royal PO, Hyperion)
Vasks - Violin Concerto, Symphony No.1 (Kremer, Kremerata Baltica, Teldec)
Bax - Orchestral Works Vol.5 (Thomson, London PO, Chandos)
Bartók - Violin Duos (Keller, Pilz, ECM)
Britten - Frank Bridge Variations, Purcell Variations, Simple Symphony (Britten, ECO, LSO, Decca)
Cooke - Symphony No.1, String Concerto, etc (Braithwaite, London PO, Lyrita)
Bruckner - Symphony No.6 (Haitink, Staatskapelle Dresden, Profil)
Dvořák - Symphonic Poems (Järvi, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Chandos) --- this one surprises even myself
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No.6, Francesca da Rimini (Giulini, Beecham, Philharmonia, Royal PO, EMI)
Glass - Another Look at Harmony Part 4, Music for Voices (Riesman, etc, Orange Mountain)
Schubert - Winterreise (Padmore, Lewis, Harmonia Mundi)
Holmboe - Symphony No.11-13 (Hughes, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, BIS)
Ten Holt - Canto Ostinato (Brilliant Classics) [box]
Liszt - Piano Works (Bolet, Decca) [box]
Medtner - Piano Quintet, Piano Concerto No.1 (Alexeev, Lazarev, BBC SO, Hyperion)
Palestrina - Missa Ecce ego Joannes, etc (O'Donnell, Westminster Cathedral Choir, Hyperion)
Parry, Stanford - Songs of Farewell, etc (Marlow, Trinity College Cambridge Choir, Conifer)
Wagner - Tannhäuser (Solti, Vienna Philharmonic, Decca)
Skalkottas - Greek Dances (Fidetzis, Urals State Philharmonic Orchestra, Lyra)
Simpson - Symphony No.11, Nielsen Variations (Taylor, City of London Sinfonia, Hyperion)
Sibelius - Collection (Vänskä, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, etc, BIS) [box]
Schumann - Symphonic Étude, Bunte Blätter, Fantasiestücke (Richter, Regis)
Strauss - Der Rosenkavalier (Kleiber, Fassbaender, Jones, DG) [DVD]

@DavidRoss: Cue more Bantock surprise ;D

My memory is useless so I am no doubt forgetting vital things that could replace others on the list.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 01:32:38 PM
Quite a few surprises, Sarah.  I'm rather fond of that Bantock disc, too, but didn't know others liked it so much.  Perhaps the Glass is most surprising to me, even in a list with so few of the usual suspects.  I darned near included his Violin Cto coupled with Adams's.  Maybe I should look him up on the composers threads to see who else likes him.  8)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Luke on September 07, 2010, 01:46:41 PM
OK - I'll play!

I want to take that Bach/Markevitch disc too, of course. So, I'll put it first. Otherwise, just the order they occur to me:

1 - Bach/Markevitch - A Musical Offering. In the Marco Polo recording seeing as no other is available right now
2 - Martinu - Symphony 4/Tre Ricerare - Turnovsky (Apex disc also includes a wonderful PC 4, so I'll take that one)
3 - Enescu - works including Violin sonata 3 and Piano sonata 3 (Enescu/Lipatti, twofer)
4 - Janacek - String Quartets (Smetana Quartet)
5 - Brian - Emi twofer including symphonies 7, 8, 9 (Mackerras/Groves)
6 - Ravel - Piano Concerti/Gaspard (Francois)
7 - Ravel - L'enfant et les sortlieges (Ansermet)
8 - Janacek - piano works (many versions I'd be happy with)
9 - Janacek - Diary of one who Disappeared (Blachut)
10 - Janacek - Violin Concerto/Schluck und Jau (Suk)
11 - Faure - Nocturnes (Thyssens-Valentin)
12 - Chopin - Mazurkas (Rubinstein)
13 - Bryars - After the Requiem (Frisell etc.)
14 - Silvestrov - Silent Songs (ECM)
15 - Part - Arbos (ECM)
16 - Chopin - Preludes (Cortot)
17 - Ives - Concord Sonata (Lubimov - yes, really, that is my considered choice)
18 - Brahms - Violin Sonatas 1-3 (Grumiaux)
19 - Brahms - Horn Trio/Clarinet Quartet (A Brain/Kell)
20 - Beethoven - Late Quartets (Busch)
21 - Beethoven - Late Sonatas (again, I'd choose from a few possibles)
22 - Bach - Violin Sonatas/Partitas (possibly Sergiu Luca, if available)
23 - Cage - Sonatas and Interludes (Butterley, if available, otherwise Steinberg)
24 - Mozart - any of a number of choices of later piano concerti, but must include K488
25 - Xenakis - Chamber music (Arditti/Helffer)


Yes, I think I could be happy with that... though I'd want some late Schubert in there too, I might have to sneak in the Lindsay's box set...

Edit - and oh dear, I'd NEED the CPO disc of Schoeck's Elegie too. And Ian Partridge's Schumann Dichterliebe/Eichendorff Liederkreis.... Can I go to 30??

Further Edit - and what about Kagan/Bashmet/Richter in the Shostakovich violin/viola sonatas? Or a set of the quartets, or the fugues. What about the Brilliant box set of Poulenc chamber music and piano music. I also NEED all of those. More thought needed, I think....
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: bhodges on September 07, 2010, 02:03:19 PM
Arias & Scenes: Tchaikovsky, Puccini, Janáček, R. Strauss, Wagner,  Lehár (Karita Mattila/Yutaka Sado/LPO)
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (Concerto Italiano)
Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin/Concerto for Orchestra (Chailly/Concertgebouw)
Berio: Sinfonia/Folk Songs (Chailly/Concertgebouw)
Bernstein: West Side Story/On the Waterfront Suite/Fancy Free (Bernstein/NYPO)

Britten: Peter Grimes (Runnicles/MET, DVD)
Bruckner: Symphonies (Chailly/Concertgebouw)
Debussy: La Mer/Nocturnes (Boulez/Cleveland)
Dvořák: Symphony No. 6/Janáček: Taras Bulba (Dohnányi/Cleveland)
Gubaidulina: String Quartets (Danish Quartet)

Ives: Holidays Symphony (MTT/Chicago)
Lachenmann: String Quartets (Arditti String Quartet)
Mahler: Symphonies (Chailly/Concertgebouw)
Murail: Gondwana/Désintégrations (Yves Prin/Orch Natl. de France)
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3/Varèse: Arcana/Mosolov: Iron Foundry (Chailly/Concertgebouw)

R. Strauss: Four Last Songs (Janowitz/Karajan/Berlin)
Rachmaninov: Isle of the Dead/Symphonic Dances (Ashkenazy/Concertgebouw)
Ravel: Boléro/Rapsodie Espagnole (Boulez/Berlin)
Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Jansons/Concertgebouw, DVD)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 (Haitink/Chicago)

Stravinsky: Pétrouchka/Le Sacre du printemps (Boulez/Cleveland)
The Girl with Orange Lips: Falla, Stravinsky, Ravel, Delage, Kim (Dawn Upshaw)
Varèse: Complete Works (Chailly/Concertgebouw)
Xenakis: Complete Orchestral Works (Tamayo/Luxembourg)
Xenakis: String Quartets (JACK Quartet)

--Bruce
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Lethevich on September 07, 2010, 02:39:00 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 01:32:38 PM
Perhaps the Glass is most surprising to me, even in a list with so few of the usual suspects.  I darned near included his Violin Cto coupled with Adams's.  Maybe I should look him up on the composers threads to see who else likes him.  8)
:) As a caveat, Another Look At Harmony Part IV is the only Glass piece I would be sad if it went to the incinerator. Many others I enjoy but am not fanatical about, but ALAH IV is remarkable - it's like a cross between a Renaissance or Medieval mass (or more specifically, Léonin and Pérotin's brand of weird minimalism) and Music in 12 Parts.

Edit:

Quote from: Luke on September 07, 2010, 01:46:41 PM
12 - Chopin - Mazurkas (Rubinstein)
I knew I forgot something -_-
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Drasko on September 07, 2010, 03:14:57 PM
Couldn't get it under 30, I'm weak.

Chant de l'Eglise de Rome Ensemble Organum (Zig Zag)
Janequin Masses Ensemble Clement Janequin (HM)
Monteverdi L'Orfeo Torres/Garrido (K617)
Bach French Suites Rousset (Ambroisie)
Rameau Pieces de Clavecin Ross (Still)
Delalande Grands Motets Christie (HM)
Lully Armide Laurens/Herreweghe II (HM)
Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice Jacobs (HM)
Mozart Piano Concerto No.24 Haskil/Markevitch (Philips)
Beethoven Sonatas 30-32 Richter (Parnassus)
Schubert Impromptus Zimerman (DG)
Chopin Ballades Francois (EMI)
Chopin Nocturnes, Mazurkas Rubinstein II (RCA)
Schumann Fantasia op.17 Sofronitsky (Denon)
Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Svetlanov (Melodiya)
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Heifetz/Barbirolli (Naxos)
Mussorgsky Sunless Nesterenko/Krainev (Melodiya)
Scriabin piano recitals Sofronitsky (Denon)
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3 Horowitz/Barbirolli (APR)
Rachmaninov All-Night Vigil Sveshnikov (Melodiya)
Verdi Otello Del Monaco/Serafin (Myto)
Bruckner Symphony No.9 Furtwangler (DG)
Mahler Symphony No.9 Karajan II (DG)
Strauss Salome Welitsch/Reiner (Gebhardt)
Berg Wozzeck Grundheber/Abbado (DG)
Ravel Concerto for left hand Francois/Cluytens (EMI)
Ravel Piano Trio Rouvier/Kantorow/Muller (Erato)
Debussy Images Michelangeli (DG)
Granados Goyescas deLarrocha (Decca)
Poulenc Clarinet Sonata Spaendonck/Tharaud (Naxos)
Janacek String Quartets Janacek Quartet (Supraphon)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 03:23:58 PM
Quote from: Drasko on September 07, 2010, 03:14:57 PM
Couldn't get it under 30, I'm weak.
;D  8)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on September 07, 2010, 05:27:04 PM
I may have too many box sets here. Tant pis.

Bach, Goldbergs, Gould
Bach, Mass in B minor, Harnoncourt
Bartok, Quartets, Takacs
Beethoven, Diabelli Variations, Rosen
Beethoven, Late Quartets, Yale Quartet

Beethoven, Missa, Bernstein Sony
Beethoven, Symphonies, Bernstein Sony for 3, Gunther Schuller for 5, Bystrik Rezucha for 6 (I'm serious), Toscanini NYP for 7, Scherchen for 8, Harnoncourt for the 3rd mvt. of 9 (but nothing else), Mackerras for the rest
Berg, Wozzeck, Dohnanyi
Berlioz, Troyens, Davis 1st version
Boulez, Pli Selon Pli, the Sony version

Brahms, all the chamber music on Philips, except substitute the Berg for the Italiani
Bruckner, Symphony 8, Solti
Carter, Concerto for Orchestra, Knussen
Chopin, Piano Works, Azhkenazy, with Anievas for the Etudes
Debussy, La Mer and Images for Orchestra, Boulez

Dufay, Isorhythmic Motets, Huelgas Ensemble
Mahler, Rückert and other Lieder, Baker/Barbirolli
Monteverdi, Vespers, Bernius
Mozart, Figaro, Giulini
Mozart, Quartets and Quintets, Heutling

Schubert and Schumann song cycles, Munteanu
Stravinsky, Agon, Atherton, filled out with Lenny's Symphony of Psalms
Verdi, Falstaff, Solti
Verdi, Requiem, Toscanini
Wagner, Meistersinger, Kempe
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Philoctetes on September 07, 2010, 07:02:11 PM
Only what I can recall:

Bach (Weissenberg)
Bach's Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas (Enescu)
Beethoven's Piano Concertos (Uchida)
Beethoven's Piano Sonatas (Kuerti)
Brahms's Piano Concertos (Gilels/Jochum)
Brahms's Symphonies (Barenboim)
Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 (Jochum)
Chopin (Argerich)
Mahler's Symphony No. 3 (Boulez)
Mahler's Symphony No. 5 (Solti)
Massnet's Esclarmonde (Sutherland)
Messiaen's Complete Organ Music (Latry)
Satie's Complete Piano Music (Aldo)
Schubert's Piano Music (Kuerti and Afanassiev)
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11 (Rozhdestvensky)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: canninator on September 08, 2010, 12:31:12 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 07, 2010, 03:14:57 PM

Chant de l'Eglise de Rome Ensemble Organum (Zig Zag)

I don't know if I'll put a list together but I do know this would be on it (either that or the Easter Vespers recording...both are superb). You should check out Soeur Marie Keyrouz-Byzantine Chant, I suspect it would be right up your street.


Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on September 08, 2010, 01:26:40 AM
As of today -

Bach: Goldberg Variations (Gould 1982, Sony)
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos (Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Harmonia Mundi)
Beethoven: Symphony #3 (Eroica), Symphony #8 (Szell, CO, Sony)
Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 (Kleiber, VPO, DG)
Beethoven: String Quartets (Alban Berg Qt., EMI)
Brahms: Symphonies (Solti, CSO, Decca)
Brahms: Piano Quintet; String Quartet #1 (Arcanto Qt., Harmonia Mundi)
Bruckner: Symphony #4 (Jochum, BPO, DG)
Bruckner: Symphony #9 (Walter, ColSO, Sony)
Byrd: Harpsichord Music (Leonhardt, Alpha)
Haydn: London Symphonies (Jochum, LPO, DG)
Ligeti: Piano Etudes etc. (Aimard, Sony)
Lutoslawski: The Essential Lutoslawski (Sym. #3 etc.) (Philips, various performers)
Mahler: Symphony #5 (Chailly, Con'bouw, Decca)
Mahler: Symphony #6 (Barbirolli, NPO, EMI)
Mahler: Symphony #9 (Abbado, BPO, DG)
Martinu: Symphony #5, Frescoes, Parables, Memorial to Lidice (Ancerl, CzPO, Supraphon)
Scarlatti: 22 Sonatas (Hantai)
Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire (DeGaetani et al., Nonesuch)
Sibelius: Symphonies 1, 2, 4, 5 (Davis, BSO, Philips)
Shostakovich: String Quartets (Fitzwilliam Qt., Decca)
Stravinsky: Symphonies and Concertos (Philips, various performers)
Vaughan Williams: Symphony #4 etc. (Berglund, RPO, EMI)
Xenakis: La Legende d'Eer(8-channel electronic tape)
Best of the Renaissance(various composers) (Tallis Scholars, Philips)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on September 08, 2010, 01:29:32 AM
Quote from: Sforzando on September 07, 2010, 05:27:04 PM
Dufay, Isorhythmic Motets, Huelgas Ensemble

Nice choice. People who think modern stuff is "too complex" oughta listen to this!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Octo_Russ on September 08, 2010, 02:45:04 AM
Who says it all needs to be Classical?, here's my top 25, in order of favourite,

1 Schubert - 8 Impromptus [Brendel] Philips digital
2 Chopin - 27 Etudes [Lortie] Chandos
3 Beethoven - 5 Piano Concertos [Perahia/Haitink] Sony/CBS
4 Bantock - Celtic Symphony / Witch Of Atlas [Handley] Hyperion
5 Jackson Browne [I'm Alive]
6 Victoria Soames [British Clarinet] Clarinet Classics
7 Keith Jarrett [Standards - Volume One]
8 Itzhak Perlman [Violin Showpieces] DG
9 Van Der Graaf Generator [World Record]
10 Eric Alexander [Straight Up]
11 Manic Street Preachers [The Holy Bible]
12 Schubert - Piano Sonata 21 [Brendel] Philips Digital
13 Mary Chapin Carpenter [Stones In The Road]
14 Bach - Goldberg Variations [Schiff] Decca
15 Chopin - 21 Nocturnes [Rev] Hyperion
16 Various Artists [Happy Buzzer - Volume One]
17 Brahms - Handel Variations / 4 Ballades [Osorio] ASV
18 John Hiatt - [Walk On]
19 Dvorak - Piano Quintet / String Quintet [Gaudier Ensemble] Hyperion
20 Ernie Watts [Reaching Up]
21 Schubert - Piano Sonata 16 / 3 Klavierstucke [Brendel] Philips Digital
22 Joshua Bell [Poeme / Violin Showpieces] Decca
23 Mozart - Serenade 10/Gran Partita [Marriner] Philips
24 Saint Saens - Symphony 3 [Preston/Levine] DG
25 The Muffs [Blonder And Blonder]
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on September 08, 2010, 03:34:14 AM
Quote from: Velimir on September 08, 2010, 01:29:32 AM
Nice choice. People who think modern stuff is "too complex" oughta listen to this!

Thanks! It's a fabulous disc.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Drasko on September 08, 2010, 03:41:56 AM
Quote from: Il Furioso on September 08, 2010, 12:31:12 AM
I don't know if I'll put a list together but I do know this would be on it (either that or the Easter Vespers recording...both are superb). You should check out Soeur Marie Keyrouz-Byzantine Chant, I suspect it would be right up your street.

I heard some of it, fantastic singing undoubtedly, but couldn't quite get into Arabic texts of Syrian Chant for some reason. Will give it another go some day. You could check Greek Byzantine Choir under Lycourgos Angelopoulos.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: karlhenning on September 08, 2010, 04:30:13 AM
Quote from: Luke on September 07, 2010, 12:52:01 PM
Mr Henning, I particularly love that you selected this!

Quote from: khMarkevich, Arrangement of JS Bach The Musical Offering / Lyndon-Gee, Arnhem Phil

Glad I'm not alone in adoring it so much (though it could do with a better recording - somewhere I have an almost hallucinatory LP of it which I used to spin endlessly)

It's an oasis, isn't it!

Quote from: Lethe on September 07, 2010, 02:39:00 PM

Quote from: Luke12 - Chopin - Mazurkas (Rubinstein)

I knew I forgot something -_-

Yes, I can hardly forgive myself for leaving the Mazurkas off, myself!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Sergeant Rock on September 08, 2010, 05:14:50 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 08:06:33 AM
Mahler symphonies (  ;D ), etc.,  will not count as such a set but rather as one work

Good man  ;)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on September 08, 2010, 05:38:13 AM
Quote from: Sforzando on September 07, 2010, 05:27:04 PM
Dufay, Isorhythmic Motets, Huelgas Ensemble
Quote from: Sforzando on September 08, 2010, 03:34:14 AM
Thanks! It's a fabulous disc.
Is that the one titled O Gemma Lux?
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Guido on September 08, 2010, 05:44:30 AM
Quote from: Luke on September 07, 2010, 01:46:41 PM
OK - I'll play!

I want to take that Bach/Markevitch disc too, of course. So, I'll put it first. Otherwise, just the order they occur to me:

1 - Bach/Markevitch - A Musical Offering. In the Marco Polo recording seeing as no other is available right now
2 - Martinu - Symphony 4/Tre Ricerare - Turnovsky (Apex disc also includes a wonderful PC 4, so I'll take that one)
3 - Enescu - works including Violin sonata 3 and Piano sonata 3 (Enescu/Lipatti, twofer)
4 - Janacek - String Quartets (Smetana Quartet)
5 - Brian - Emi twofer including symphonies 7, 8, 9 (Mackerras/Groves)
6 - Ravel - Piano Concerti/Gaspard (Francois)
7 - Ravel - L'enfant et les sortlieges (Ansermet)
8 - Janacek - piano works (many versions I'd be happy with)
9 - Janacek - Diary of one who Disappeared (Blachut)
10 - Janacek - Violin Concerto/Schluck und Jau (Suk)
11 - Faure - Nocturnes (Thyssens-Valentin)
12 - Chopin - Mazurkas (Rubinstein)
13 - Bryars - After the Requiem (Frisell etc.)
14 - Silvestrov - Silent Songs (ECM)
15 - Part - Arbos (ECM)
16 - Chopin - Preludes (Cortot)
17 - Ives - Concord Sonata (Lubimov - yes, really, that is my considered choice)
18 - Brahms - Violin Sonatas 1-3 (Grumiaux)
19 - Brahms - Horn Trio/Clarinet Quartet (A Brain/Kell)
20 - Beethoven - Late Quartets (Busch)
21 - Beethoven - Late Sonatas (again, I'd choose from a few possibles)
22 - Bach - Violin Sonatas/Partitas (possibly Sergiu Luca, if available)
23 - Cage - Sonatas and Interludes (Butterley, if available, otherwise Steinberg)
24 - Mozart - any of a number of choices of later piano concerti, but must include K488
25 - Xenakis - Chamber music (Arditti/Helffer)


Yes, I think I could be happy with that... though I'd want some late Schubert in there too, I might have to sneak in the Lindsay's box set...

Edit - and oh dear, I'd NEED the CPO disc of Schoeck's Elegie too. And Ian Partridge's Schumann Dichterliebe/Eichendorff Liederkreis.... Can I go to 30??

Further Edit - and what about Kagan/Bashmet/Richter in the Shostakovich violin/viola sonatas? Or a set of the quartets, or the fugues. What about the Brilliant box set of Poulenc chamber music and piano music. I also NEED all of those. More thought needed, I think....

Glad that the Smetana is your favourite for the Jnacek quartets - I love the too. What is yor reasons for that Ives interprter? And I should get hold of that Musical Offering I guess too
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on September 08, 2010, 06:04:20 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on September 08, 2010, 05:38:13 AM
Is that the one titled O Gemma Lux?

That's the one
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Sergeant Rock on September 08, 2010, 06:14:27 AM
No surprises, I'm afraid.

Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen Karajan/Berlin Phil
Wagner Parsifal Knappertsbusch/Bayreuth 1964 (with Jon Vickers)
Beethoven Complete Symphonies and Overtures Szell/Cleveland
Beethoven String Quartets Gewandhaus Quartet
Beethoven 29 Piano Sonatas Gilels
Berg Violin Concerto Mutter/Levine/Chicago
Brahms Complete Symphonies and Piano Concert #2 Furtwängler/Various Orchestras (Archipel Box)
Brian Symphony #1 "Gothic" Lenard/CSR Bratislava
Brian Symphonies 7 and 31 Mackerras/Royal Liverpool
Brian Symphonies 8 and 9 Groves/Royal Liverpool
Bruckner Symphonies 3-9 Celibidache/Munich Phil
Bruckner Symphony #9 Giulini/Wiener Phil
Bruckner Symphony #5 Dohnányi/Cleveland
Dvorak Complete Symphonies Rowicki/LSO
Haydn Symphonies 93-104 Norrington/RSO Stuttgart
Haydn Symphonies 88,92-99,104 Szell/Cleveland
Haydn Symphonies 82-87 Haroncourt
Mahler Complete Symphonies Chailly/Concertgebouw
Mahler Complete Symphonies Sinopoli/Philharmonia
Mahler Symphony #6 Szell/Cleveland
Mahler Symphony #4 Battle/Maazel/Wiener Phil
Mozart Die Zauberflöte Klemperer/Philharmonia
Mozart Original Jacket Collection Szell/Cleveland
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2/Prokofiev Piano Concerto #5 Richter/Wislocki/Rowicki/Warsaw Phil
Schmidt Complete Symphonies Rajter/RSO Bratislava
Schönberg 5 Pieces op.16, Berg 3 Pieces op.6, Webern 6 Pieces op.6 Levine/Berlin
Schubert Complete Songs The Hyperion Box
Shostakovich Symphony #15 Sanderling/Cleveland
Sibelius Symphonies 3, 6, 7, Violin Concerto, Tapiola Davis/Boston
Sibelius 1 and 4 Maazel/Wiener Phil
Sibelius Symphony 5 and Night Ride and Sunrise Rattle/Philharmonia
Sibelius Kullervo Davis/LSO
Strauss Elektra Solti/Wiener Phil
Strauss Der Rosenkavalier Solti/Wiener Phil
Strauss Four Last Songs plus Orchestral Lieder Fleming/Eschenbach/Houston
Strauss Complete Orchestral Works Kempe/Staats Dresden
Vaughan Williams Complete Symphonies Haitink/LPO

Sarge
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: canninator on September 08, 2010, 06:40:44 AM
1. Chants de L'Eglise de Rome-Byzantine Period (Ensemble Organum, Harmonia Mundi)
2. Canto Gregoranio-Missa de Difuntos, Oficio de difuntos (Dom Jean Claire; Coro de monjes de la abadia San Pedro de Solesmes)
3. Early French Polyphony (Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Cantus)
4. Machaut-Messe de Notre Dame (Ensemble Organum, Harmonia Mundi)
5. Desprez-Messes de l'Homme Arme (A Sei Voci, Naïve)
6. Desprez-Missa Pange Lingua (Tallis Scholars)
7. Bach-WTC (Glenn Gould, Sony)
8. Gibbons/Byrd/Sweelinck Keyboard Works (Glenn Gould, Sony)
9. La Belle Homicide (Rolf Lislevand, Astree)
10. Weiss-Sonatas (Jakob Lindberg, BIS)
11. Music for the Vihuela (Dolores Costoyas, Glissando)
12. La Guitarra Espanola (1536-1836) (Jose Miguel Moreno, Glossa)
13. Schubert-Winterreise (Fischer-Dieskau and Moore, EMI)
14. Bruckner Symphony No. 8 (Boulez, DG)
15. Faure-Requiem (Willcocks-Cambridge College Choir)
16. Durufle-Complete Organ Works (Friedhlem Flamme, cpo)
17. Debussy-Orchestral Music (Haitink)
18. Debussy-Martyr de San Sebastien (Tilson, Sony)
19. Messiaen-Vingt regards pour l'enfant Jesus (Yvonne Loriod, Warner)
20. Nielsen-Symphony 4; Sibelius-Symphony 5 (Simon Rattle, CBSO)
21. Shostakovich-VC1 and 2 (Vengerov, Rostropovich, LSO)
22. Stockhausen-Electronic Music (Stockhausen-Verlag)
23. Gerard Grisey-Les Espace Acoustiques (Kairos)
24. English String Music (Barbirolli, EMI)
25. Agustin Barrios-Guitar Music Vol 2 (Enno Voorhorst, Naxos)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: kishnevi on September 08, 2010, 07:56:58 AM
That limitation to five sets is a killer!  Had a larger number been allowed, the list would have a somewhat different look.
Yes, there are some obvious works that aren't on here, but there just wasn't enough space for them, given my obvious liking for Bach, Beethoven. Mahler, and Shostakovich.  As it was, I had to delete one whole category (opera), and winnow down the Bach to only six (which is why the WTC, cello suites, and cantatas make no appearances on this list)

Five sets:
Beethoven: Symphonies/Gardiner
Beethoven: Late String Quartets/Quartetto Italiano
Beethoven: Piano Concertos/Triple Concerto/Pollini-Abbado
Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas/Brendel (last cycle)
Mahler:  Symphonies/Bernstein  (DG cycle)

Six Bach:
Brandenburg Concertos/English Baroque Soloists
Violin Concertos/Manze/Podger/AAM
Partitas/Schiff (ECM recording)
"A State of Wonder" (both Gould recordings of the Goldberg Variations paired together)
Preludes, Fantasia and Fugues for Organ/Rogg
Solo Violin Works/Podger

Four Shostakovich:
Symphony 4/Gergiev
Symphony 11/Rostropovich/LSO
Violin Concertos (with Prokofiev concertos)--Sitkovetsky
String Quartets 2,3, 7,8, 12--Borodin Quartet

Ten others:
Tallis Scholars: Masters of the Renaissance
Vivaldi: Late Violin Concertos/Carmignola/Marcon
Handel: Messiah (Jacobs recording)
Haydn:  Symphonies 99-104/Norrington
Mozart: Violin Concertos/Carmignola/Abbado
Schubert: Schone Mullerin /Fischer Dieskau (EMI recording)
Chopin: Nocturnes/Rubinstein (1965 recording)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony 4/Solti
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde/Klemperer
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto 2-Paganini Rhapsody/Rubinstein/Reiner

On another day, I might take the Sony Bernstein Mahler cycle, which includes DLvdE, and put in a Brahms CD in place of the individual entry for DLvdE, but there are more performances on the DG cycle I wouldn't want to be without than on the Sony cycle.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: MN Dave on September 08, 2010, 08:01:18 AM
I don't think I listen enough to make a list like this but I will sure enjoy browsing through them! Thanks.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: bhodges on September 08, 2010, 08:05:20 AM
Quote from: Il Furioso on September 08, 2010, 06:40:44 AM
6. Desprez-Missa Pange Lingua (Tallis Scholars)
23. Gerard Grisey-Les Espace Acoustiques (Kairos)

I had these two on my list originally, but had to cull something.  That Tallis Scholars disc is a longtime fave, and I think the Grisey piece is one of the most important works of the late 20th century.

--Bruce
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on September 08, 2010, 08:23:38 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on September 08, 2010, 05:38:13 AM
Is that the one titled O Gemma Lux?

Yes!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Papy Oli on September 08, 2010, 12:02:42 PM
25 recordings I couldn't live without, with the ones in bold being among the very first records I bought when I started to explore classical music 3 to 4 years ago and that are still among my very favourites.

Obviously, Lots more works and genres to discover and get familiar within my own collection or to purchase later, but it will take something special to knock some off that list. 

Mahler Symphony No.1 – Maazel / VPO
Mahler Symphony No.2 – Boulez / VPO (live)
Mahler Symphony No.3 – Haitink / Concertgebouw / Forrester
Mahler Symphony No.4 – Reiner / Chicago
Mahler symphony No.5 – Tennstedt / LPO (Live)
Mahler Symphony No.6 – Fischer / Budapest
Mahler Symphony No.6 – Barbirolli

Beethoven – Symphony No.9 – Karajan '63
Bruckner – Symphonies 3-9 – Celibidache / Munich
Bruckner – Symphony No.8 – Giulini / VPO
Gorecki – Symphony No.3 (Swoboda / Kilanowicz / Polish State PO)

Arvo Part – Kanon Pokajanen (ECM)
Tallis – Spem in Alium / Salve Intemerata – Summerly / Oxford Camerata
Pergolesi – Stabat Mater – Alessandrini / Concerto Italiano
Arvo Part – Berliner Messe (Naxos)
Byrd – Mass for 4 & 5 voices - Summerly / Oxford Camerata

Chopin – Nocturnes - Moravec
Rameau – Suite en Mi Mineur – Marcelle Meyer
Satie – Piano Works – Klara Kormendi (Naxos)
Schumann – Piano Works (Kempff)
Schubert – D.940 (Lupu / Perahia)
Schubert – Arpeggione sonata (Queyras / Tharaud)
Schubert – Impromptus (MJ Pires)
Beethoven Op.7 / Brahms 4 Ballads / Schubert D.537 – Michelangeli

Beethoven – String Quartets – Gewandhaus Qt.


Credit where it is due, my thanks to GMG members for their guidance and recommendations which helped shaping up that list along time  :)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Bogey on September 08, 2010, 03:42:12 PM
Ah, a bit more breathing room as the last list I plugged in pieces I loved, but also wanted to round out what was already chosen, hence leaving many favorites off.

1. Bach St. Matthew Passion Herreweghe (1985)
2. Bach Complete Harpsichord Concerti Vol. II Leonhardt  Consort/Gustav Leonhardt
3. Bach Cello Suites Ma
4. Bach Goldberg Variations Gould ('55 or '81...it's all good.)

5. Beethoven Symphonies 1-9 Karajan/BPO '63
6. Beethoven Triple Concerto/Rondo in B Flat/Choral Fantasy Harnoncourt/Aimard
7. Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 Serkin/Ozawa/BSO
8. Beethoven The Chamber Music for Winds Consortium Classicum
9. Beethoven Complete String Quartets Végh Quartet

10. Bruckner Symphony No. 4 Karajan/BPO (EMI)

11. Copland "Copland Conducts Copland/LSO" Our Town/Red Pony Suite/El Salón México/Danzón Cubano/Three Latin American Sketches

12. Dvořák String Quartet No. 12 "American"/Piano Quintet in A Major Op. 81 Smetana Quartet/Josef Hala

13. Haydn String Quartet Op. 77 Tátrai Quartet

14. Handel Italian Cantatas Kirkby/Hogwood/AAM
15. Handel Water Music Pinnock/English Consort

16. Hildegard  A Feather on the Breath of God-Sequences and Hymns Kirkby, et al

17. Mozart Requiem Böhm/Wiener Philharmoniker
18. Mozart Symphonies Mozart: The Late Symphonies: Nos. 25, 29, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41 (I actually do not own this, but it is the only way to net 39-41 without repeating two 40's like I had to do.)
Bernstein/Wiener Philharmoniker
19. Mozart Flute Quartets Kuijken/ Kuijken/Van Dael/ Kuijken
20. Mozart Piano Sonatas Uchida 0:)

21. Rachmaninov Isle of the Dead/Symphonic Dances Ashkernazy/Concertebouw Orchestra
22. Rachmaninov  Vespers Svechnikov/USSR Nat'l Choir
 
23. Ravel Complete Works for Solo Piano Collard

24. Tallis Spem in Alium Summerly/Oxford Camerata

25 Vivaldi Complete Works for Italian Lute Linberg

David,
I only ask that with the guidelines that you set down that you do not report my list to the NCAA.  I would hate to return my:

(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTTx9qZ7gx7SHo6y7g-aV6RIDcM89kKPZuJMW-8B9Dg5CNv8yU&t=1&usg=__S5prhFn7iiXqMKxgONMvY7PVewQ=)


Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on September 08, 2010, 04:16:10 PM
Quote from: Bogey on September 08, 2010, 03:42:12 PM
David,
I only ask that with the guidelines that you set down that you do not report my list to the NCAA.  I would hate to return my:

(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTTx9qZ7gx7SHo6y7g-aV6RIDcM89kKPZuJMW-8B9Dg5CNv8yU&t=1&usg=__S5prhFn7iiXqMKxgONMvY7PVewQ=)
No worries, Bill...that old trophy you picked up at OJ's garage sale to raise bail money is safe...for at least 7 more years.  ;D
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: hornteacher on September 08, 2010, 05:29:40 PM
Had to go to 30.  Rather lop-sided but it is my list after all.   :)

Bach - Violin Concertos - Hilary Hahn
Bach - Brandenburg Concertos - Concerto Italiano
Haydn - Symphony 88/92 - Kuijken
Haydn - Symphony 100/103 - Mackerras
Haydn - Symphony 101/104 - Mackerras
Haydn - Trumpet Concerto - Tine Thing Hilseth
Mozart - Clarinet Concerto/Quintet - Martin Frost
Mozart - Marriage of Figaro - Gardiner
Mozart - Symphony 40/41 - Mackerras
Mozart - Cosi Fan Tutte - Mackerras
Beethoven - Piano Sonatas - O'Conor
Beethoven - Symphonies - Mackerras/RLP
Beethoven - String Quartets - Tackas
Beethoven - Violin Concerto - Hilary Hahn
Beethoven - Piano Concertos - Bronfman
Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto - Hilary Hahn
Brahms - Symphonies - Mackerras
Brahms - Violin Concerto - Hilary Hahn
Dvorak - Symphony 7 - Levine/CSO
Dvorak - Symphony 8/9 - Mackerras/PSO
Dvorak - Violin Concerto - Ehnes
Dvorak - Cello Concerto - Bruns
Dvorak - American Quartet - Talich
Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto - Hilary Hahn
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concertos - Hough
Holst - Planets - Gardiner
Stravinsky - Rite of Spring - Gergiev
Shostakovich - Symphony 5/9 - ASO
Copland - Appalachian Spring/Rodeo - Lane/ASO
Copland - Symphony 3 - Levi/ASO
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on September 08, 2010, 05:41:45 PM
If he can take 30, I can take 30.

I have to add a Mendelssohn compilation with the Octet, 2nd Quartet, and Italian Symphony.

Then I want Josquin's 2 L'Homme Armé masses.

Lessee . . . 3 more.

Bernstein's Candide, IMO his best work, and I'd round off the CD with the slow movement of Harold Shapero's Symphony for Classical Orchestra, in one of LB's earliest recordings.

Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet + Nuits d'Eté with Munch and de los Angeles for the songs.

And a Richard Strauss compilation including Don Juan, Till, 4 Last Songs, and if there's room somewhere on any of my 30 choices, I have to fit in Britten's Young Person's Guide. (My parents once showed me the LP where, at age 14, I had written "Sforzando's Favorite Piece.")

Oh wait - I gotta take G+S's Yeomen of the Guard.....
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: canninator on September 09, 2010, 12:04:46 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 08, 2010, 03:41:56 AM
I heard some of it, fantastic singing undoubtedly, but couldn't quite get into Arabic texts of Syrian Chant for some reason. Will give it another go some day. You could check Greek Byzantine Choir under Lycourgos Angelopoulos.

Yes, I loved his work as Cantor with Ensemble Organum, the delicate timbre of his voice is similar to the Solesmes Gregorian recording in my list. It prompted me to get his recording, with the Greek Byzantine Choir, of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. The Gregorian recording of the Mass of the Dead and Office of the Dead (Solesmes reference SN09) from my list is the greatest single post-Solesmes chant I have heard and you would definitely enjoy it.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: canninator on September 09, 2010, 12:08:37 AM
Quote from: bhodges on September 08, 2010, 08:05:20 AM
I had these two on my list originally, but had to cull something.  That Tallis Scholars disc is a longtime fave, and I think the Grisey piece is one of the most important works of the late 20th century.

--Bruce

Yes, is the Tallis Missa Pange Lingua the best out there? I don't know and I'm generally not a big fan of the Tallis Scholars approach to the Flemish masters BUT I've had it for nearly 20 years and wouldn't part with it for the world. As for the Grisey, I agree, it stands alone as a monument to sound and what one person can get out a single viola  :o
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: MN Dave on September 09, 2010, 05:28:58 AM
Has Herman done this yet?
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: AndyD. on September 09, 2010, 06:17:09 AM
Bach WTC (Richter/RCA)
Bach Brandenburg Concertos (Pinnock)
Beethoven Missa Solemnis (Klemperer)
Beethoven Symphony no. 9 (Furtwangler in front of the Nazis)
Beethoven opus 132 (Borodin)
Beethoven String Quartets (Vegh and Takacs)
Beethoven Symphonies 1-5 and 7 (Karajan, '60's)
Bartok Bluebeard's Castle (Solti, Sass)
Berg Lulu (Schäfer)
Copland Appalachian Spring, etc. (Bernstein)
Copland - Symphony 3 - Levi/ASO
Gorecki Symphony no.3 (Zinman)
Handel Messiah (Koch)
Joseph Haydn Opus 20, 33, 76 (Quatuor Mosaiques)
Joseph Haydn opus 54 (Endellion)
Joseph Haydn opus 77 (Kodaly)
Joseph Haydn Symphonies (Fischer)
Mahler Symphony No. 1 (Walter)
Mahler #7 (Solti)
Mahler # 6 and #9 (Abbado)
Mozart Requiem (Marriner)
Mozart String Duos and Trios (Grumiaux)
Puccini Madame Butterfly (Huang, Troxell)
Puccini Tosca (Pavarotti, Oren)
Arnold Schoenberg String Quartets (Vienna)
Richard Strauss Eine Alpensinfonie (Kempe)
Richard Strauss Salome (Nilsson, Solti)
Verdi La Traviata (Callas)
Verdi Othello (Maazel)
Wagner Lohengrin (Solti)
Richard Wagner Der Ring Des Nibelungen (Solti and Boulez)
Wagner Tristan und Isolde (Kleiber studio and Bohm live)
Wagner Die Meistersinger (Solti's most recent)
Wagner Parsifal (Kubelik)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: karlhenning on September 09, 2010, 06:21:00 AM
These lists are personal, so one fears to seem to critique . . . but the only non-German speakers there, Andy, are Bartók, Górecki & Copland. I am a little surprised there is not more diversification in your portfolio : )
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: AndyD. on September 09, 2010, 06:25:35 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 09, 2010, 06:21:00 AM
These lists are personal, so one fears to seem to critique . . . but the only non-German speakers there, Andy, are Bartók, Górecki & Copland. I am a little surprised there is not more diversification in your portfolio : )


Maybe it's 'cause I'm such a heavy metal dude...
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Scarpia on September 09, 2010, 06:29:19 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on September 09, 2010, 06:17:09 AM
Bach Brandenburg Concertos (Pinnock)

How can a metal fan abide such sissy Brandenburgs?   ;D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X4j53PUTL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZbB-ImRYL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uXPrPqOiL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: karlhenning on September 09, 2010, 06:30:13 AM
Quote from: AndyD. on September 09, 2010, 06:25:35 AM

Maybe it's 'cause I'm such a heavy metal dude...

Hey! You snuck some Verdi in there! ; )
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: AndyD. on September 09, 2010, 06:38:13 AM
Quote from: Scarpia on September 09, 2010, 06:29:19 AM
How can a metal fan abide such sissy Brandenburgs?   ;D

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X4j53PUTL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZbB-ImRYL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uXPrPqOiL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)


Oh thtop  :P! (no offense to anybody)

Hey, those Brandenburgs look really good, now I need to win the lottery so I can check 'em out!

I like the Pinnock alot, I also like the way it sounds, recording wise.

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 09, 2010, 06:30:13 AM
Hey! You snuck some Verdi in there! ; )

I felt like a real loser, forgetting him and Puccini earlier. Especially Othello..how much more Wagnerian Italian Opera can you get? A monument.

I'm an unabashed Germano-Italophile from way back.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: karlhenning on September 09, 2010, 06:42:18 AM
Well, don't start abashing now! : )
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: AndyD. on September 09, 2010, 06:53:08 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 09, 2010, 06:42:18 AM
Well, don't start abashing now! : )


(http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i97/Apostate_2006/047.gif)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on September 09, 2010, 07:19:56 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 09, 2010, 06:21:00 AM
These lists are personal, so one fears to seem to critique . . . but the only non-German speakers there, Andy, are Bartók, Górecki & Copland. I am a little surprised there is not more diversification in your portfolio : )

I have it on good authority that Verdi spake very choice Italian.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: karlhenning on September 09, 2010, 07:28:08 AM
Quote from: Sforzando on September 09, 2010, 07:19:56 AM
I have it on good authority that Verdi spake very choice Italian.

Yes, but (with an Italian's sense of punctuality) Giuseppe was late to Andy's post.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Drasko on September 09, 2010, 07:28:40 AM
Quote from: Il Furioso on September 09, 2010, 12:04:46 AM
The Gregorian recording of the Mass of the Dead and Office of the Dead (Solesmes reference SN09) from my list is the greatest single post-Solesmes chant I have heard and you would definitely enjoy it.

Thanks, I'll have to check that out. It seems CD can be bought online directly from Solesmes Abbey website.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: AndyD. on September 09, 2010, 07:31:07 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 09, 2010, 07:28:08 AM
Yes, but (with an Italian's sense of punctuality) Giuseppe was late to Andy's post.


;)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: canninator on September 09, 2010, 07:32:51 AM
Quote from: Drasko on September 09, 2010, 07:28:40 AM
Thanks, I'll have to check that out. It seems CD can be bought online directly from Solesmes Abbey website.

I've purchased numerous recordings from the site without any problems. There are some really lovely collections. The 3 CD Tenebrae (SN03) is another favorite of mine.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on September 09, 2010, 07:39:54 AM
Wow--this and the other "essentials" thread are providing plenty of material to expand my wish list on Amazon. Thanks, y'all!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: kishnevi on September 09, 2010, 05:59:22 PM
Quote from: Il Furioso on September 09, 2010, 12:08:37 AM
Yes, is the Tallis Missa Pange Lingua the best out there? I don't know and I'm generally not a big fan of the Tallis Scholars approach to the Flemish masters BUT I've had it for nearly 20 years and wouldn't part with it for the world. As for the Grisey, I agree, it stands alone as a monument to sound and what one person can get out a single viola  :o

Suggested more as an alternative approach than as something "superior" is the recording by Ensemble Organum with Ensemble Clement Janequin on Harmonia Mundi (reissued in 2008 as part of their HMGold series, which is the one I have).

The music of Josquin is presented as part of a full mass for the Feast of Corpus Christi,  with the hymn Pange lingua as the last track, so you hear the Gregorian Propers (am I remembering the terminology correctly?) and another short hymn interspersed with Josquin in liturgical order:  Introit, Kyrie, Gloria, Gradual, Alleluia, Credo, Offertory, Sanctus, the short hymn O salutaris, Agnus.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: George on September 09, 2010, 06:57:19 PM
Bach - WTC - Samuel Feinberg
Bach - Cello Suites  -Wispelwey - Channel Classics
Haydn - Piano Sonatas - Brendel
Mozart - Piano Concertos - Serkin/Szell/Ormandy
Schubert - Piano Sonatas - Richter
Beethoven - 9 Symphonies - Wand - RCA
Beethoven - 32 Piano Sonatas - Annie Fischer
Beethoven - String Quartets - Vegh stereo
Chopin - Nocturnes - Arrau
Chopin - Preludes - Sokolov
Chopin - Ballades - Moravec
Brahms - Late solo works - Lupu
Brahms - Piano Concertos - Barenboim/Barbirolli
Rachmaninoff - PC 2 and 3 - Janis/Dorati
Rachmaninoff - Preludes - Ashkenazy
Debussy - Preludes - Michelangeli
Satie - Piano Works - Thibaudet
Bruckner - Celibidache EMI set
Shostakovich - String Quartets - Borodin Chandos
Schoenberg - String Quartets - Arditti

Josef Hofmann - The Complete Josef Hofmann Vol. 6 "The Casimir Recital - Marston Records
Moritz Rosenthal - The Complete American Recordings - Biddulph
Cortot - Schumann - Carnaval, Kresleriana, Kinderszenen
Richter - Rachmaninoff Preludes and Etudes - Olympia/Regis
Natan Brand - Schumann and Chopin - Studio Recordings
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Bogey on September 09, 2010, 07:02:20 PM
Quote from: George on September 09, 2010, 06:54:55 PM

Beethoven - String Quartets - Vegh stereo


(http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b45/sbreik/animated%20images/smileys/mgyes.gif)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Sid on September 09, 2010, 11:53:28 PM
Ok, well here are some personal favourites off the top of my head, which I try to listen to as much as I can:

C20th:

American Piano Sonatas - Griffes, Sessions, Ives (EMI American Classics)
Berg - Wozzeck (Berlin Classics)
Carter - String Quartets 1 & 5 (Naxos)
Carter - Concerto for Orchestra; Three Occasions for Orchestra; Violin Concerto (EMI American Classics)
Debussy - Jeux, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Images, La Mer, etc (Double Decca)
Dutilleux & Lutoslawski - Cello Concertos (EMI)
Ives - Songs; Sets for chamber or Theatre Orchestra (EMI American Classics)
Ligeti - Chamber Concerto, Ramifications, Lux Aeterna, Atmospheres (Wergo)
Ligeti - Requiem, Aventures, Nouvelles Aventures (Wergo)
Martin - Petite Symphonie Concertante; Mass for Double Choir; Ballades; etc (EMI Gemini Double)
Messiaen - Poemes pour Mi, etc (Naxos)
Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time (Philips Eloquence)
Schoenberg & Sibelius - Violin Concertos (DG)
Sculthorpe - Sun Musics I-IV, Piano Concerto, Irkanda IV, Small Town (ABC Classics)
Varese - Deserts, Arcana, Integrales, Offrandes (Naxos)
Walton - String Quartet (Naxos)
Xenakis - Le Legende d'eer (Naive/Montagne)

C19th:

Liszt - A Faust Symphony (EMI Encore)
Sibelius - Lemminkainen, Tapiola (EMI Encore)
Beethoven - Grosse Fuge (EMI Encore)
Schubert - Piano Trios, Notturno, Trio Sonata (EMI Gemini Double)
Schumann - Cello Concerto; Piano Concerto; Manfred Overture; etc (Double Decca Eloquence)

C18th:

Handel - Messiah (Naxos)
Haydn - The Seven Last Words of Christ (Naxos)
Mozart - Clarinet Quintet (coupled with Brahms) (Supraphon Archiv)

Renaissance:

Byrd - Three Masses (Decca Eloquence)

EDIT - so much I'd have liked to have added, but especially:
Partch - Delusion of the Fury (Sony/Innova)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Archaic Torso of Apollo on September 10, 2010, 12:01:01 AM
Quote from: Sid on September 09, 2010, 11:53:28 PM
Ligeti - Chamber Concerto, Ramifications, Lux Aeterna, Atmospheres (Wergo)

This was the first Ligeti disc I ever got, back in 1997. I still think it's probably the best 1-disc survey of the composer. I put the Aimard piano etudes on my essentials list, though.

QuoteXenakis - Le Legende d'eer (Naive/Montagne)

Well that didn't take long!  :D  Made my list too.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: canninator on September 10, 2010, 03:35:10 AM
Quote from: kishnevi on September 09, 2010, 05:59:22 PM
Suggested more as an alternative approach than as something "superior" is the recording by Ensemble Organum with Ensemble Clement Janequin on Harmonia Mundi (reissued in 2008 as part of their HMGold series, which is the one I have).

The music of Josquin is presented as part of a full mass for the Feast of Corpus Christi,  with the hymn Pange lingua as the last track, so you hear the Gregorian Propers (am I remembering the terminology correctly?) and another short hymn interspersed with Josquin in liturgical order:  Introit, Kyrie, Gloria, Gradual, Alleluia, Credo, Offertory, Sanctus, the short hymn O salutaris, Agnus.

I do have this one also and it is a great choice. I always prefer to listen to sacred music from the Renaissance and earlier in an appropriate liturgical setting so appreciate the efforts that Marcel Peres goes to to present more than just the Ordinary (as most other ensembles are wont). Having said that, I do listen to the Magnifitat in the morning sometimes  :)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Holden on September 10, 2010, 03:30:19 PM
I will treat this as if I was going on a sabbatical/retreat/vacation.

Bach - Goldbergs, Rieu
Bach - WTC Richter (RCA)
Bach Partitas - Schepkin
Bach - Inventions and Sinfonias - Koroliov

Beethoven - Symphonies, Cluytens
Beethoven - PCs Perahia
Beethoven - PS Fischer
Beethoven - VS Francescatti/Casadesus

Brahms - late piano , Lupu
Brahms - Symphonies, Walter
Brahms PCs Gilels (1) Richter/Ormandy (2)
Brahms VC - Heifetz

Bruckner - Symphony 9, Walter

Chopin - Etudes, Ashkenazy
Chopin - Ballades and Scherzos Rubinstein
Chopin - Nocturnes - Rubinstein (Stereo)
Chopin Waltzes - Anievas

Debussy - Anything by Michelangeli

Grieg - Lyric pieces, Gilels
Grieg - Peer Gynt Incidental Music - Barbirolli/Halle

Hummel Piano trios BAT

Janacek Piano works - Firkusny

Liszt TEs - Ovchinnikov
Liszt Paganini Etudes - Ousset
Liszt - PCs Richter

Mahler Symphony 1 and 2 - Walter
Mahler Sym 4 - Klemperer

Mozart PCs - Perahia
Mozart PS - Wurtz

Paganini VCs Perlman

Orff -Carmina Burana - Previn EMI

Ravel PC in G - ABM

Rachmaninov - Preludes/Etudes Tableaux - Richter
Rachmaninov - PCs, Rachmaninov

Scarlatti - PS Babayan

Schubert - Sym 9, Abbado/COE
Schubert String Quintet - Hollywood SQ
Schubert PS - Lupu
Schubert Leider - Ann Muray, Lott
Schubert Wintereisse , DF-D
Schubert Piano Trios BAT

Schumann Op 9 Solomon, Op 12 Rubinstein, Op 17 Fiorentino

Shostakovich Symphony 8 - Haitink/LSO

Tchaikovsky Symphonies - Markevitch

Verdi Requiem - HvK/Soloists/La Scala Milan.

Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: George on September 10, 2010, 03:47:31 PM
Quote from: Holden on September 10, 2010, 03:30:19 PM
Brahms Richter/Ormandy (2)

Do you mean Leinsdorf or Maazel?

Quote
Chopin - Etudes, Ashkenazy

Early Melodiya or later Decca?


Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Gabriel on September 10, 2010, 04:11:37 PM
Let's see what appears from this exercise:

Arriaga/Vorísek: Symphonies (Mackerras)
Beethoven: Leonore (Blomstedt)
Boccherini: Fandango, Sinfonie & La Musica Notturna di Madrid (Savall)
Boieldieu: La Dame Blanche (Minkowski)
Cherubini: Mass in D minor (Muti)
Chopin: Works for Piano and Orchestra (Arrau/Inbal)
Dussek: Chamber music for piano (Barton)
Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten (Jacobs)
Hummel: Piano Trios (Parnassus)
Krommer: Oboe Concertos (Shelley)
Massenet: Mélodies (Kruysen/Lee)
Méhul: Overtures (Sanderling)
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Herreweghe)
Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (Jacobs)
Rameau: Keyboard works (Tharaud)
Rejcha: Piano Trios (Guarnieri)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Suites (Järvi)
Rode: Violin Concertos (Pasquet)
Rossini: Le Comte Ory (Gardiner)
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin (Wunderlich)
Shostakovich: Piano Concertos, Piano Quintet (Salonen)
Spohr: Die Letzten Dinge (Kuhn)
Victoria: O Magnum Mysterium (Hill)
Vivaldi: Vespri per l'Assunzione di Maria Vergine (Alessandrini)
Weber: Piano Concertos (Mackerras)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Holden on September 11, 2010, 01:39:50 AM
Quote from: George on September 10, 2010, 03:47:31 PM
Do you mean Leinsdorf or Maazel?

Early Melodiya or later Decca?

Hello George - I always make this mistake - Leinsdorf!

The Melodiya, though I also have the Decca and place it second
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Sid on September 12, 2010, 07:14:13 PM
Quote from: Velimir on September 10, 2010, 12:01:01 AM
This was the first Ligeti disc I ever got, back in 1997. I still think it's probably the best 1-disc survey of the composer. I put the Aimard piano etudes on my essentials list, though.

...Well that didn't take long!  :D  Made my list too.

Yes, considering how old those Wergo Ligeti recordings are (1960's & '70's) it's amazing how clear and bright the sound is - not easy to get right with this kind of music. & the Xenakis I just got last week, but now I'm addicted to it, and it's instantly become one of my favourites. Such exciting, visceral and well thought out/structured music...
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Clever Hans on September 15, 2010, 08:55:07 PM
Here's a collection which I could survive on:

Machaut: Mirror of Narcissus (Gothic Voices), Motets (Ensemble Musica Nova), Messe de Nostre Dame (Ensemble Gilles Binchois)
Dufay: Sacred Music from Bologna Q15 (Clerks' Group), Missa Se la face ay pale (Diabolus in Musica)
Ockeghem: Missa de plus en plus - chansons (Orlando Consort), Requiem (Ensemble Organum)
Josquin: Missa Pange Lingua (Ensemble Clement Janequin), Motets (Orlando Consort)
Byrd: Masses (Tallis Scholars), Keyboard Music (Moroney)
Lassus: Lagrime di San Pietro (Herreweghe)
Monteverdi: Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi (Concerto Italiano)
Biber: Rosenkranz-Sonaten (Goebel)
Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (Hogwood), The Fairy Queen (Christie), King Arthur (Christie)
Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie (Christie)
Handel: Messiah (Dunedin Consort), Acis & Galatea (Dunedin Consort), Alcina (Curtis), Giulio Cesare (Jacobs or Minkowski), Ariodante (Minkowski), Water Music (Savall)
Francois Couperin: (Hantai), (Scott Ross)
Scarlatti: (Scott Ross), (Hantai), (Pogorelich)
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos, Orchestral Suites, and Chamber Music (Musica Antiqua Koln), Goldberg Variations (Hantai I and Gould I), WTC (Gilbert and Koroliov), Partitas (Gilbert or Leonhardt and Xiao-Mei), Violin Sonatas & Partitas (Kuijken I or Mullova), Cello Suites (Bylsma I), Matthew Passion (Herreweghe I or Leonhardt), Cantatas (Leonhardt/Harnoncourt, Herreweghe, Gardiner, Suzuki), Organ Works (Rubsam, Alain, Foccroulle, or Vernet)
C.P.E Bach: (Spanyi, Keyboard Concertos vols 13, 14 & 15), Symphonies and Cello Concerto (English Concert)
Haydn: Quartets (Quatuor Mosaiques), Paris Symphonies (Harnoncourt), Sturm und Drang and London Symphonies (Bruggen and Harnoncourt), The Creation (Hogwood or McCreesh), The Seasons (Jacobs), Piano Sonatas (Brautigam or Schornsheim)
Mozart: Piano Concertos (Bilson and Gardiner), Da Ponte Operas (Jacobs), Magic Flute (Ostman or we'll see new Jacobs), Symphonies (Mackerras on Linn), Requiem (Harnoncourt), Mass in C Minor (Gardiner or Herreweghe), Piano Sonatas (Brautigam and Gulda), Night Music (Manze), Quartets (Quatuor Mosaiques), Quintets (Quatuor Talich)
Beethoven: Symphonies (Harnoncourt and Mackerras/Edinburgh, 6th Walter, 9th Fricsay and Lucerne Furtwangler), Sonatas (Schnabel, Gulda, Serkin, mono Kempff, Pollini and Richter late, Brautigam), Diabelli Variations (Schnabel or Serkin), String Quartets (Takacs and Talich), Cello Sonatas (Schnabel/Fournier), Violin Sonatas (Faust/Melnikov), Archduke Trio (Cortot/Thibaud/Casals), Piano Concertos (Schnabel/Sargent, Fleisher/Szell, Kempff/Kempen, and Lubin/Hogwood, Gilels/Ludwig 4, Moravec/Turnovsky 4), Missa solemnis (Klemperer and Herreweghe)
Schubert: Winterreise (Fishcer-Dieskau, Quasthoff), Die Schone Mullerin (Fischer-Dieskau, Gura), Late Sonatas, Musicaux etc (Schnabel, Richter, and Staier), String Quartets (Takacs), Trios (Cortot/Thibaud/Casals and Stern/Istomin/Rose; or Florestan Trio), Symphonies (Harnoncourt), Quintet (Casals)
Chopin: Nocturnes (Moravec), Preludes (Cortot), Ballades (Cortot), Etudes (Pollini), Scherzi (Pogorelich or Moravec), Waltzes (Cortot or Lipatti), Mazurkas (Sofronitsky or Kapell), Sonata 2 (Rachmaninov), Sonata 3 (Argerich) 
Schumann: Kreisleriana, Davidsbundlertanze, Dichterliebe (Cortot), Symphonic Etudes (Richter or Pollini or Cortot), Kinderszenen (Cortot or Moravec), Carnaval (Rachmaninov or Michelangeli '57), Toccata (Pogorelich), Concerto (Richter or Moravec), Quintet (Serkin/Budapest)
Liszt: Sonata (Levy perhaps), Transcendental Etudes (Arrau or Berman), Concertos (Richter), Richter in the 1950s 3
Wagner: Tristan and Isolde (Furtwangler), Walkure (Keilberth or Krauss)
Brahms: Symphonies (Klemperer, Walter/Columbia 2-3, Giulini LAPO 1 and 2, Kertesz, Kleiber 4), Serenades (Mackerras or Kertesz) Piano Music (Katchen), Ballades (Michelangeli or Gilels), Piano Concertos (Fleisher/Szell, Freire/Chailly), String Quintets (Leipziger Streichquartett), Trios (Stern/Rose/Istomin or Florestan Trio), Piano Quintet (Staier/Leipziger, Tackas/Hough), Piano Quartets (Gilels/Amadeus), Cello Sonatas (Immerseel/Hough or Serkin/Rostropovich)
Bruckner: Symphonies (set Jochum DG, Giulini 8 & 9)
Verdi: La traviata (Callas), Falstaff (Karajan), Requiem (Giulini)
Dvorak 7-9 Harnoncourt, 8-9 Kubelik, 9 Ancerl and 8 & 9 Talich, Slavonic Dances (Harnoncourt or Kubelik), Quartets (American, etc, Janacek Quartet or Panocha Quartet)
Scriabin: Sofronitsky (Denon)
Janacek: Piano Music (Firkusny), Cunning Little Vixen and From the House of the Dead (Mackerras), Taras Bulba, Glagolitic Mass, Sinfonietta (Mackerras and Ancerl)
Debussy: La Mer/Nocturnes, and Images/Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Boulez/Cleveland), Preludes I and Images (Michelangeli), Complete Piano Works (Bavouzet), Pelleas et Melisande (Desormiere)
Ravel:Daphnis et Chloe (Boulez or Munch), Bolero (Boulez), Concerto in G (Michelangeli), Piano Works (Bavouzet), Gaspard (Michelangeli BBC and Pogorelich), Trio (Trio Dali)
Mahler: Symphonies (impossible to list but some options):  1 Kubelik (Audite) 2 Walter or Klemperer 3 Kubelik (Audite) or Bernstein (NYPO) or Gielen 4 Walter, Kubelik (DG) or Kletzki 5 Walter or Barshai 6 Mitropoulos (WDR) or Bernstein (NYPO) or Boulez 7 Kubelik (Audite) or Gielen 8 Kubelik (Audite) 9 Walter or Ancerl 
Rachmaninov: Richter (Regis)
Stravinsky: Petrouchka (Monteux/Boston), Le Sacre (Markevitch), or Stravinsky for both, Symphony of Psalms (Ancerl or Stravinsky), Les Noces (Ancerl)
Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht (Hollywood Quartet), Quartets (Juilliard mono), Piano Music (Pollini or Paul Jacobs), Serenade and 5 Pieces for Orchestra (Boulez, BBC), Pierrot Lunaire (Boulez and Schafer)
Box sets, because they are great:
Berg: Alban Berg Collection (DG)
Webern Complete Webern (DG)
Bartok: Quartets (Juilliard '63 or Vegh stereo), Concerto for Orchestra (Reiner), Piano Concertos (Anda or Kocsis), Mikrokosmos/Piano Music (Kocsis), Bluebeard's Castle (Kertesz)
Ligeti Ligeti Project I-IV, Ligeti Edition 1-3, 4 - or the two main Wergo cds with Lux Aeterna and Requiem
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: rimon45 on November 07, 2010, 09:57:26 AM
But to keep it a bit more challenging, let's limit the number of box sets to 5, and further restrict that to cycles (i.e. LvB 4tets) and not complete collections:  no 100-disc Complete Haydn on Brilliant or similar offerings.  Operas, oratorios, Mahler symphonies (  ;D ), etc.,  will not count as such a set but rather as one work



اغاني  (http://www.mixania.com/)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Fëanor on January 06, 2011, 05:33:16 AM
I'm submitting my 50 recommendations for chamber music.  I've included recommended records for each, but I admit that these recordings are from my own, small collection hence they are not necessarily the best versions available, but I think they are all respectable.


50 Great Chamber Works Recommended by Feanor (http://www.ody.ca/~wbailey/GreatChamber.pdf)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: MishaK on January 07, 2011, 12:42:59 PM
Late to the game, but here is mine:

Un viaggio musicale - Il Giardino Armonico
Monteverdi - Vespro della beata Vergine - Christie/LAF
Bach Brandenburg Concertos - Il Giardino Armonico
Bach Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin - Hahn
Mozart Zauberflöte - Abbado

Mozart piano concertos - Barenboim/BPO
Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro - Solti/te Kanawa/von Stade et al.
Beethoven Sym. No.3 Eroica - Antonini
Beethoven Sym. No.9 - Solti/CSO/Norman et al.
Beethoven Pathetique Sonata etc. - Moravec

Beethoven Hammerklavier Sonata etc. - Gilels
Chopin Nocturnes - Moravec
Wagner Parsifal - Kubelik/BRSO
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique - Jansons/RCO
Brahms Symphonies - Barenboim/CSO

Schubert 9 "the Great" - Furtwängler/BPO
Bruckner 8 - Schuricht/VPO
Mahler 5 - Chailly/RCO
Mahler 9 - Barenboim/Staatskapelle Berlin
Strauss Tod und Verklärung/Vier Letzte Lieder - Janowitz/Karajan/BPO

Strauss Eine Alpensinfonie - Dresden/Luisi
Stravinsky Firebird - Boulez/CSO
Debussy Piano Works - Michelangeli
Debussy La Mèr etc. - Rattle/BPO
Janacek Glagolitic Mass - Boulez/CSO (forthcoming recording)  8)  :P
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: laredo on January 10, 2011, 04:41:02 AM
Bach - Die Kunst der Fuge - Gould (uncomplete)
Bach - Matthaus Passion - K. Richter
Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro - Giulini
Mozart - Don Giovanni - Giulini
Beethoven - Sonata op. 111 - Arrau
Beethoven - Ninth Symphony op. 125 - W. Furtwangler, BPO, 1942
Beethoven - Grosse Fuge op. 133 - Quartetto Italiano
Wagner - Tristan und Isolde - W. Furtwangler

Greatest recordings ever?
Furtwangler recording the Ninth in 1942
Gould plays Goldberg Variation in 1982.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: chung on February 08, 2011, 02:29:07 PM
Quote from: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 08:06:33 AM
Okay, y'all:  We've gotten warmed up with a group effort at an Essentials List for newbies.  How about we each offer our own essentials list, picking a manageable number of titles (cycles included here) that's neither too daunting for a newbie nor insufficiently restrictive to prevent us from careful consideration of our selections...say, 25 titles apiece?  But to keep it a bit more challenging, let's limit the number of box sets to 5, and further restrict that to cycles (i.e. LvB 4tets) and not complete collections:  no 100-disc Complete Haydn on Brilliant or similar offerings.  Operas, oratorios, Mahler symphonies (  ;D ), etc.,  will not count as such a set but rather as one work

You can approach this however you like, as a broad overview intended for a rank newcomer, as a narrower but deeper exploration of a particular era or genre that excites you and you think will excite others, or as a personal "desert island faves" list that you would not want to be without...or by throwing darts at your CD collection, if that's what floats your boat!

Anyone care to begin?

I've taken the added liberty of defining a box set as anything with 3 CDs or more containing any music, regardless of whether it forms a cycle or not.

1. Balakirev: Symphony No. 2 (http://www.amazon.com/Balakirev-Symphony-No-2-Russia/dp/B0000013YJ/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1297205463&sr=8-11) (Naxos - Golovschin, Russian State Symphony Orchestra)
2. Bartók: Complete Solo Piano Works (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Solo-Piano-Music-Bartok/dp/B003Y3MYWW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297204454&sr=8-1) (Decca - Kocsis) (BOX SET 1 - 8 CDs)
3. Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 1 (http://www.amazon.com/Bart%C3%B3k-Piano-Concertos-Nos-1-3/dp/B0000013Y5/ref=sr_1_9?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297204984&sr=1-9) (Naxos - Ligeti, Jandó et al.)
4. Beethoven: Choral Fantasy (http://www.amazon.com/Choral-Fantasy-Overtures-Preludes-Beethoven/dp/B000001K48/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1297204902&sr=1-1) (Vox - Semkow et al.)
5. Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (http://www.amazon.com/Symphony-1-3-Beethoven/dp/B000000UXI/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297203672&sr=1-4) (EMI - Cluytens, BP)
6. Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Symphonies-5-Ludwig-van/dp/B000001GPX/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297203620&sr=8-1) (DG - C. Kleiber, WP)
7. Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 (http://www.amazon.de/Symphonies-Nos-5-Franz-Konwitschny/dp/B0000264M3/ref=sr_1_44?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297203563&sr=1-44) (Berlin Classics - Konwitschny, LGO)
8. Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Symphony-Choral-Schoenberg-Survivor/dp/B00004TCPT/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297203700&sr=8-1) (RCA - Leinsdorf, BSO et al.)
9. Brahms: Hungarian Dances (http://www.amazon.com/Brahms-Hungarian-Dances-Nos-1-21/dp/B00000E2PL/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1297204532&sr=1-1) (Philips - Masur, LGO)
10. Chopin: Polonaises (http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Polonaises-Frederic/dp/B000B668W2/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297204241&sr=1-1) (EMI - Ohlsson)
11. Handel: Messiah (http://www.amazon.com/Handel-Messiah-Andrew-Davis/dp/B001EZ1H1G/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_2_2) (EMI - A. Davis, TSO et al.)
12. Janáček: Lachian Dances (http://www.amazon.com/Sinfonietta-Lachian-Dances-Taras-Bulba/dp/B0000015A1/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297205041&sr=1-4) (Reference Recordings - Serebrier, Czech State Philharmonic)
13. Khachaturian: Gayaneh (Complete ballet) (http://www.amazon.com/Khachaturian-Complete-Selections-Spartacus-Masquerade/dp/B0007INY2Q/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1297206116&sr=8-7) (RCA - Tjeknavorian, LSO)
14. Kodály: Háry János (http://www.amazon.com/Kodaly-H%C3%A1ry-J%C3%A1nos-Balazs-P%C3%B2ka/dp/B00000306P/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1297205125&sr=8-8) (Hungaroton - Ferencsik, Sólyom-Nagy et al.) (N.B. I mean the complete "opera" with the original dialogue. As far as I know that version was issued only on vinyl or cassettes (which I have). The current version on 2 CDs includes almost all of the music but none of the dialogues)
15. Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos. 1-6 (for orchestra) (http://www.amazon.com/Hungarian-Rhapsodies-1-6-Rakoczy-March/dp/B000002S4M/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297204620&sr=1-2) (EMI - Boskovsky, Philharmonia Hungarica)
16. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 (http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Piano-Concertos-Giovanni-Overture/dp/B00000E6C2/ref=sr_1_11?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297205248&sr=1-11) (RCA - Anda, WS)
17. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Mozart-Piano-Concertos-Vol/dp/B004HW7H26/ref=sr_1_11?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297205288&sr=1-11) (Pro Arte - Freeman, Han, The Philharmonia)
18. Mozart: Complete Symphonies (http://www.amazon.com/Mozart-Complete-Symphonies-Leopold/dp/B0000041LN/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1297205416&sr=8-15) (Philips - Marriner, Krips, ASMF, COA) (BOX SET 2 - 12 CDs)
19. Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphony No. 1 (http://www.amazon.com/Rimsky-Korsakov-Symphonies-No-Antar/dp/B0000013YQ/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297205681&sr=1-3) (Naxos - Anichanov, St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra)
20. Schubert: Symphonies (http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Symphonies-Complete-Box-Set/dp/B000BUEGFY/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297205814&sr=1-8) (Brilliant lic. from EMI - Muti, WP) (BOX SET 3 - 4 CDs)
21. Schumann: Symphony No. 4 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schumann-SYMPHONIES-1-4-SCHERZO/dp/B00000DOIV/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297205913&sr=1-3) (EMI - Sawallisch, SD)
22. Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Legends (http://www.amazon.com/Sibelius-Lemmink%C3%A4inen-Legends-Luonnotar-Bard/dp/B000000A9Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1297207128&sr=1-1) (Chandos - Gibson, Scottish National Orchestra)
23. Sibelius: The Sibelius Edition, Voice & Orchestra (http://www.amazon.com/Sibelius-Vol-Voice-Orchestra-Box/dp/B00102FF8Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1297207032&sr=8-2) (BIS -  Assorted performers) (BOX SET 4 - 6 CDs)
24. Smetana: Má Vlast (http://www.amazon.com/Smetana-M%C3%A1-Vlast-Bedrich/dp/B00000140M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1297206877&sr=8-2) (Naxos - Wit, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra)
25. Wiener Musik (http://www.amazon.com/Wiener-Musik-Box-Joseph-Lanner/dp/B0009U55QK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1297206692&sr=8-4) (RCA - Stolz, BS, WS) (BOX SET 5 - 12 CDs)

Yes, I am biased toward ("good") symphonic or orchestral music...
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: MishaK on February 12, 2011, 11:48:42 AM
This one:

Quote from: Mirror Image on February 11, 2011, 06:33:26 PM
[asin]B000063X5K[/asin]

Has been reissued more cheaply thus:

[asin]B0042U2HLY[/asin]
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Mirror Image on February 12, 2011, 06:20:33 PM
Personal Essentials List (in no particular order):

[asin]B000026258[/asin] [asin]B001795SH8[/asin]

[asin]B002EP8U6K[/asin] [asin]B00004YA0V[/asin]

[asin]B0000042HY[/asin] [asin]B000K2UF1W[/asin]

[asin]B000F3T7RO[/asin] [asin]B001A8HU0O[/asin]

[asin]B003TT733G[/asin] [asin]B000002RU2[/asin]

[asin]B002DZX958[/asin] [asin]B0000B09Z4[/asin]

[asin]B000PTYUQG[/asin] [asin]B0000589BP[/asin]

[asin]B0000041WV[/asin] [asin]B000063X5K[/asin]

[asin]B000G7599Y[/asin] [asin]B0002E49X8[/asin]

[asin]B000GW8AUE[/asin] [asin]B0000041Z5[/asin]

[asin]B00006HM8X[/asin] [asin]B00005Y34N[/asin]

[asin]B000K2VDT0[/asin] [asin]B000I0SGXA[/asin]

[asin]B0001Y4JH0[/asin] [asin]B001HY4TLE[/asin]

[asin]B000093OSH[/asin] [asin]B0013D8JXI[/asin]

[asin]B0000029V2[/asin] [asin]B0000027BJ[/asin]

[asin]B000001GC4[/asin] [asin]B000002RNX[/asin]

[asin]B001DCQI9G[/asin] [asin]B0006PV5VC[/asin]

[asin]B00004YU78[/asin] [asin]B000OPPSWQ[/asin]

[asin]B000024577[/asin] [asin]B000XCTD5S[/asin]

[asin]B002N5KEMO[/asin] [asin]B00000IX80[/asin]
Title: Since this is a beginner's forum,
Post by: Palmetto on March 05, 2011, 05:32:42 PM
it would be more useful to a beginner if y'all would mention WHY you selected these particular pieces.  Obviously it's too late to retrofit the previous comments, and doing so for 25 recordings would result in double-wide posts.  However, perhaps future posters could explain what motivated one or two of their choices?

Thanks.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Scarpia on March 05, 2011, 05:51:24 PM
And I think lists of pieces of music (with or without a few comments) are about 100 times more useful than the stacks of pictures of particular recordings.  The pieces are more important than the recordings, and the cd covers take up too much space to scroll through comfortably.
Title: Re: Since this is a beginner's forum,
Post by: MishaK on March 07, 2011, 02:30:26 PM
Quote from: Palmetto on March 05, 2011, 05:32:42 PM
it would be more useful to a beginner if y'all would mention WHY you selected these particular pieces.  Obviously it's too late to retrofit the previous comments, and doing so for 25 recordings would result in double-wide posts.  However, perhaps future posters could explain what motivated one or two of their choices?

Thanks.

Well, I'll go ahead and retrofit mine...

I selected my "essentials" list basically on the basis of trying to cover a representative spectrum of the classical output, not necessarily, though mostly, canonical works, and most, if not all, major genres, within the limitations imposed by the original poster, with a list of recordings that are readily available and which capture performances that are musically unimpeachable. I have mostly stuck to recordings in modern sound, but have also tried to include a few really important performers and tried to cover different performance styles. Of course, the list reflects my personal biases and preferences. I will replace three recordings from my earlier list on the basis of unavailability and for better balance. At any rate, here is the list with brief explanations (I suppose I could turn this into a list on amazon's listmania):

Un viaggio musicale - Il Giardino Armonico - it is always hard to include renaissance and early baroque music in lists of classical recordings, because the forms and aesthetic of that period is rather outside of what followed and there are a plethora of works, few of them easily categorized as influential on subsequent musical development. But I think this very fine disc provides a very enjoyable survey of the Italian Renaissance, which was so instrumental in moving music from the sacred into secular settings and giving us the birth of opera. Il Giardino Armonico is one of the very finest period instrument ensembles, and they play these works with love, verve and a lot of involvement. It is a disc I return to very often.

Monteverdi - Vespro della beata Vergine - Christie/LAF - This is a seminal work of early baroque writing, exhibiting the peak of the development of sacred music from the Renaissance. Monteverdi of course is most known as the composer of the oldest surviving operas, but in keeping with the OP's limitations on box sets, I decided to include his sacred masterpiece here. William Christie should be considered a living UNESCO world heritage site for his immeasurable contributions in unearthing forgotten baroque and renaissance masterpieces. That he is also a masterful performer and one of the most universally beloved voice teachers makes it almost too good of a package.

Bach Brandenburg Concertos - Il Giardino Armonico - The Brandenburgs, as you Palmetto already have learned, are considered pinnacles of Baroque music. Personal bias here, but I am very partial to the buoyant playing of Il Giardino Armonico, who perform these works in the Italian style that inspired Bach, and who play with such rhythmic drive and passion that you want to leap out of your chair and dance. This recording has a place of honor on my iPod and has gotten me through many a dreary workday.

Bach Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin - Hahn - Trying to cover some music for solo instruments along the way, one could have likewise chosen Bach's Well Tempered Clavier or the Cello Suites, any of these are in a sense a microcosm of compositional possibilities. they would influence composers for centuries to come and into the present. Hilary Hahn recorded these austere pieces for solo violin at the ripe old age of 16, one of the most momentous debuts of any musical artist in the last few decades. Her impeccably clean double stops clarify Bach's polyphony like nobody else can. This is simply one of the greatest solo violin recordings ever made.

Mozart Zauberflöte - Abbado - Mozart is another one of those composers who cannot be avoided.  ;) The Magic Flute is his last opera and an attempt at breaking the boundaries of operatic convention of the time. Despite the disjointed storyline, the opera is musically uniquely tightly structured and forward looking, some aspects pointing all the way to late Wagner. Abbado's recording is important in that it shows the present state of music making with traditional orchestras on modern instruments adopting influences of historically informed period performance. Abbado here uses modern instruments, but a smaller ensemble to create lighter textures, greater transparency and allowing the voices to shine. The cast is first rate and DG captured the electricity of a live performance that must have been a treat to see in person.

Mozart piano concertos - Barenboim/BPO - Trying to cover the concerto genre, Mozart is in a sense the classical model from which all others follow, emphasizing the conversational or struggling aspect of the concerto. To me, his late piano concertos in particular are simply some of the finest music ever composed. Mozart was first and foremost an opera composer, and Barenboim to my ear like no one else manages to make the piano sing. That he leads these performances from the keyboard with the stellar Berlin Philharmonic (in reduced numbers) makes these performances singularly interpretively coherent, I find. The box set is a bargain these days.

Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro - Solti/te Kanawa/von Stade et al. - A seminal opera and a seminal recording. Figaro is in a sense the pinnacle of the Mozart/Da Ponte collaboration and contains so much musically and dramatically that would be a model and inspiration for dramatic and comical operas for centuries to come. Solti's recording is one of the first digital studio recordings made and features a cast that is absolutely top flight. Solti was perhaps one of the very few conductors who really knew how to infuse the start-stop process of studio recording with a dramatic arc that make the final product sound musically seamless. Simply a top recommendation for this work.

Beethoven Sym. No.3 Eroica - Antonini - The Eroica is in a sense the work that straddles the symphonic cusp between classicism and romanticism. I am very much in love with this impactful performance by Giovanni Antonini leading the chamber orchestra of Basel, which again shows informed period performance on modern instruments, this time in symphonic repertoire. The revolutionary character of this work cannot fail to be noticed in a performance as driven and well characterized as this one. Comes coupled with an equally fine performance of the 4th.

Beethoven Sym. No.9 - Solti/CSO/Norman et al. - Here, by contrast, we have Beethoven's final symphony performed in a more traditionally romantic "big orchestra" syle, though with Solti you can always be sure that there is no lack of drive and clarity. A timeless performance, really. Solti not only boast some of the best singers and a virtuoso orchestra, he also manages to make sense of some of the more seemingly serendipitous episodes of the finale and gets his singers to sing the a capella parts perfectly in tune. A rarity.

Beethoven Pathetique Sonata etc. - Moravec - Beethoven's piano sonatas mark the point in the technical development of the instrument where the limitations of the harpsichord give way to the more expressive pianoforte, opening new possibilities for composer and performer alike. Recommendations for recordings of Beethoven sonatas are a dime a dozen. There are numerous I like, but I find that Ivan Moravec's selection is especially rewarding for the listener. Committed playing from a performer who has really thought about this.

Beethoven Hammerklavier Sonata etc. - Gilels - The big sound of Beethoven's immense Hammerklavier sonata requires the big sound of the Russian piano school.  ;D Emil Gilels is a force of nature. Capable of myriad nuances of color and dynamics, he could go from the finest pianissimo to the most devastating fortissimos. Exactly what you want in this essential work.

Chopin Nocturnes - Moravec - Moravec again, yes. But what a performance! All the ambiguity, melancholy and really original innovative writing of Chopin captured by one of the most sensitive interpreters of his music bar none. This recording, taped at Columbia University in the 60's, was once a hard to find, secret recommendation for decades among connoisseurs. It is now more widely available on CD and remains the reference recording.

Wagner Lohengrin - Bychkov/WDR - There is a sad, but vocal minority of hopeless nostalgists in the internet who claim that the 1950's were the "Golden Age" of Wagnerian singing. I would really like everyone to hear Johan Botha's effortless, rock solid, sensitive portrayal of the title character in this new recording (alongside a lead soprano who not only hits every note but makes every word intelligible) and see if they can sustain that statement. Wagnerian singing is alive and well, thank you. This all-around superb performance captured in wonderful, spacious modern sound is top choice for Wagner's first mature opera, and the one which I think is most accessible to newcomers to Wagner, thanks to its straightforward story and density of almost constant stage action.

Berlioz Symphonie fantastique - Jansons/RCO - This work is so unique in the repertoire and so unique in terms of orchestration, no collection is any good without a decent recording of it. It is also interesting to hear in the context of Beethoven's Eroica (see above), which inspired it, if for no other reason than to see how far music managed to develop in such short time in the heady early romantic period. A number of years ago, I became obsessed with the Symphonie fantastique and bought or listened to nearly every available recording of it. I still have over 40 recordings of it. I remain convinced that the true innovation and radicalism of this score is not to be found with conductors who superimpose another form of romantic insanity onto Berlioz's explicitly detailed score (a la Munch), but with those performers who follow the score instructions to the letter while retaining a spontaneity in their performance. Mariss Jansons and the incomparable Concertgebouw Orchestra deliver just that. It is the recording to which I regularly return. The disc is also a real bargain.

Brahms Symphonies - Barenboim/CSO - A very personal choice here. There are a number of superb Brahms cycles - Karajan, Wand, Rattle - that I could have likewise recommended (I still await shipment of the Dohnyani cycle, which I hear is excellent). I absolutely adore, and keep returning to, Barenboim's Chicago cycle, though, for its incomparable wealth of color, an intensely dark 1st, a 2nd with a boundlessly joyous finale, and a 4th that simply has the most gorgeous 2nd movement on disc, with instrumental blends, dynamic nuances and a long line that simply has to be heard to be believed. Whichever set one gets, Brahms is essential and will provide a treasure trove of continued discovery. This is the pinnacle of symphonic writing in the traditional classical format and simply has to be in every collection.

Schubert 9 "the Great" - Furtwängler/BPO - Here is an attempt to include perhaps the most influential conductor of the past century. Nobody else is cited as an influence by so many conductors as Furtwängler. His recording of the 9th is not only in unusually good sound, it also shows him, I think, at his very best. The Schubert 9th in the hands of lesser conductors often devolves into a randomly endless agglomeration of episodes and repeats. Furtwängler manages to make sense of this giant work like nobody else can. He shows that the Schubert of the 9th is the same Schubert of the tuneful Lieder, the same Schubert of the endlessly inventive string quartets, and a precocious late-romanticist/modernist pointing the way ahead to the symphonic über-structures of Bruckner. This intellectual synthesis within a performance of immense spontaneity, inexorably organic development and edge-of-the-seat sweep is really what defines great conducting and why Furtwängler remains an unavoidable influence long after his death.

Dvorak Piano Quintets - Richter/Borodin SQ - I almost forgot to cover the essential genre of chamber music. Where would we be without chamber music, which allowed music to be experienced in more intimate settings when large bands were unavailable? We should also cover some of the national romantics influenced by Beethoven and Brahms, who infused classical/romantic structures with the folk heritage of their home countries. Dvorak is the textbook case. His piano quintets have been personal favorites of mine for a long time, since I heard my parents rehearsing and playing them at home. I have found it impossible to find a better played recording than these timeless live performances by Sviatoslav Richter and the Borodin Quartet.

Bruckner 8 - Kubelik/BRSO - Bruckner to me is an essential composer, because of his telescopic synthesis of the distant past and the inklings of a distant future beyond traditional harmony, but within romantically expanded classical symphonic structures, using counterpoint deeply indebted to Bach. The 8th is his last and most accomplished completed symphony. This newly unearthed live performance gives us grand but dramatically intense, yet straightforward Bruckner, by a woefully underappreciated master-conductor who knew like few others how to merge profound intellectual understanding of the music he conducted with natural, unpretentious musicality in performance.

Mahler 5 - Chailly/RCO - Mahler, again for me, is essential for his attempts at containing the entire universe of human emotion and experience within symphonic structure. Of his symphonies, I find that none so comprehensively contains this totality as well as his virtuoso roller coaster of the 5th. No other orchestra in the world probably has as uninterrupted a Mahler tradition as the Concertgebouw, and few others match them in virtuosity. Chailly leads one of the finest performances on disc, captured in the most resplendently spacious sound you could ever want.

Mahler 9 - Barenboim/Staatskapelle Berlin - More Mahler. Like Beethoven, Mahler was one of few composers who developed radically over the course of his productive life while still staying true to some personal, unmistakeable characteristics, which makes it essential to have a little of his output from different periods in his life. The 9th is such an angst-ridden farewell, with its foreshadowings of musical modernity, it is hard not to include it in a discography of essentials. I had to include a link between romanticism and modernity, and this practically defines it. Barenboim's performance is to me the essential recording of this work, for a number of reasons: firstly, it is played with immense sensitivty and great contrast in the various moods of the work, while providing a clear guiding, overarching dramatic line; secondly this is an important disc in that it captures in superb sound a Central European orchestral culture that survives only in very few places these days, mostly in East Germany and the Czech Republic. If we have a list of essentials that includes modern American orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw, alongside HIP and HIP-influenced ensembles, the dark-hued, rich sound of an orchestra like the Staatskapelle Berlin shouldn't be missing. A nearly equally good alternative that also captures the Central European orchestral tradition would be Ancerl with the Czech Philharmonic. 

Strauss Eine Alpensinfonie, Four Last Songs - Harteros/Dresden/Luisi - Then again, here I go including another East German orchestra unique in sound and rich in tradition. This recording is important to me in a number of ways: Strauss's Alpensinfonie to me represents the height of the form of the symphonic poem, which Strauss didn't invent, but arguably perfected. It tells with almost photographic realism of an ascent to and descent from a mountain in the Swiss Alps, vividly describing in music all the sights along the way. This is again a piece I love dearly, and no other recording comes anywhere close in sweep, quality of playing and recorded sound as Luisi's riveting performance with the Dresdners. Thankfully, it is coupled with a very fine performance of Strauss's Four Last Songs, which themselves in a sense represent the culmination of the German art song, albeit with orchestral accompaniment. Written after the horrors of WWII, these works are in a sense almost a farewell to a musical tradition that had already been nefariously appropriated by the Nazis and abandoned by the modernists. So, two birds with one stone in this recording.

Stravinsky Firebird - Boulez/CSO - Stravinsky's Rite is arguably the more important and revolutionary work, but a) I still haven't found a clear favorite recording of it, and b) I find Stravinsky interesting because despite his modernity, and despite his vehement attestations to the contrary, he is a deeply Russian composer, and his incorporation of Russian folklore is more evident in his Firebird, which remains my favorite Stravinsky work. I have heard Boulez with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra live numerous times, and these performances are deeply ingrained in my memory. So this is again a very personal recommendation, but I find that the combination of Boulez's analytical clarity and the CSO peerless virtuosity and inexhaustible musical reserves yield the most interesting discoveries in the early/mid 20th century repertoire. I could have likewise put Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin with the same forces in this spot in the list - another well-worn recording in my collection.

Debussy Piano Works - Michelangeli - Debussy's Preludes in particular and his other solo piano output are to me essential, both in defining impressionism, paving the way towards modernism and breaking the boundaries of musical expression on the piano. Debussy asked for a non-percussive tone on the piano, a technical near-impossibility. Nobody, but really nobody, ever possessed that sort of total control over sonorities and achieved that non-percussive tone like Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. These are absolutely essential performances for both the repertoire and the mastery of the performer.

Debussy L'apres midi, La Mèr etc. - Rattle/BPO - I know I'm a bit heavy on the symphonists here, but hey, it's a personal list.  :D Nothing defines Impressionism more than Debussy's Prélude a l'après-midi d'un Faun, and his La Mèr showed that there was still life to be found in grand symphonic structures. This recording with Simon Rattle and the Berliners was a recent acquisition for me, but has quickly occupied a special place in my collection. Top flight woodwinds are of the essence for French impressionist music, and there simply isn't a better woodwind section out there at the moment than the Berlin Philharmonic. This recording is simply a marvel of not just technical excellence but sheer joy of playing and idiomatic expression. A cascade of colors captured in top quality sound.

Ligeti Musica ricercata, Etudes, etc. - P-L Aimard - Of the modernists, some of the works by Ligeti included here are arguably some of the very few modernist masterpieces to really have reached wider audiences thanks to their use by Stanley Kubrick in his films. Pierre-Laurent Aimard is singular among interpreters of the 20th and 21st century repertoire in his sheer technical capabilities, irrepressible curiosity, direct connection to a number of the composers he plays, and his tireless advocacy and inventive programming. This is simply the go-to recording for these works.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on March 07, 2011, 04:16:13 PM
Wow, you are a mensch!  Service above and beyond and very graciously filling Palmetto's request.  More of us may follow suit, now that you've shown the way!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: ibanezmonster on March 07, 2011, 07:19:00 PM
I applaud you, Mensch. Very interesting read and informative. Well done.  8)
Title: Re: Since this is a beginner's forum,
Post by: mc ukrneal on March 09, 2011, 03:31:20 AM
Quote from: Mensch on March 07, 2011, 02:30:26 PM
Well, I'll go ahead and retrofit mine...

That is very informative, even for an experienced listener who may just be looking for different versions. Very well done indeed!! Two thumbs up for sure!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on March 09, 2011, 07:15:43 AM
Per Palmetto's request and Mensch's pioneering example ( ;) ), I offer this annotated list.  My original list offered a solid foundation for building a collection that includes many of my personal favorites among the cornerstones of classical music, focused on some of the most widely appreciated composers representative of the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and early Modern periods in music.  I believe every music lover should know these works and that most will enjoy them for a lifetime.

This list is as much personal as a music history survey, thus is missing some composers others might consider essential (Schubert, Wagner, Schoenberg, for instance) and includes some that others would regard as passe or minor (such as Vivaldi, Rossini, Copland, Pärt).  It's also heavily weighted toward orchestral music.  Revisiting it, I'm not surprised to find that I would probably make several changes today...but then I'd make more changes tomorrow...and the next day...and so on.

1     Bach      Cello Suites      Fournier
The seminal work for solo cello, a masterpiece in every respect, with some of the most soulful, spiritually fulfilling music I know.  Fournier's recording is not only among the most beautiful, but is widely available in a new discounted edition.
      
2          Bach   Goldberg Variations   Schiff ECM
A solo keyboard work that is mesmerizingly lovely, and also "soulful and spiritually fulfilling."  Hmmm, come to think of it, that description applies to almost all of the choices listed here.  Don't think twice about it, just buy it...and Schiff on ECM is about as good as they get, though there are many others equally fine.
      
3          Bach      Violin Concertos        Suwanai/COE
These pieces have been among the most reliable spiritually uplifting pieces I know for nearly all of my life.  Unlike the Brandenburg Concertos, I never tire of them.  Suwanai's recording is among the loveliest "mainstream" (that is, not period) performances I know, but is available in the U.S. only as an import.
      
4          Beethoven   Piano Sonatas         Kovacevich   
One of the greatest achievements of humankind.  32 solo piano sonatas, exploring the gamut of human emotion, perhaps the most personal expression of Beethoven's soul, tracing the development of his intellect, his craft, and his spirit.  I think Kovacevich channels Beethoven's spirit better than anyone else.
   
5          Beethoven   String Quartets   Emerson SQ   
The greatest body of work for chamber ensemble yet devised.  Beethoven took Haydn's format and over the course of a lifetime stretched it to the limits of his powers.  The Emersons aren't everyone's top choice, but they are very, very good and their cycle is also now available at reduced price.
   
6          Beethoven   Symphonies   Abbado/BP (Rome)   
What Beethoven did for the quartet, he also did for the symphony, picking up where Mozart left off and expanding the scale and scope of what, a generation before, had been merely light entertainment for the privileged classes.  The new Abbado/BP cycle applies much learned from the HIP movement to one of the world's greatest full scale orchestras and I fall more in love with it each time I hear something from it.
   
7           Brahms   Piano Concertos 1 & 2     Freire/Chailly/Gewandhaus Leipzig
Some Brahms is necessary.  These piano concertos are high points of the genre and of Brahms's work, perhaps the highest expression of musical romanticism still firmly grounded in classical form.  And I really dig this new recording.
      
8            Copland   Appalachian Spring/Rodeo/Billy the Kid       MTT/SFS
Copland defines the "American" sound, evident in nearly every bar of these beloved ballets.  Appalachian Spring is an especially gorgeous tone poem, rich in color and range of feeling, and no one does Copland as well as MTT.
      
9         Debussy   Prelude...Faun/La Mer/Images/En Bateau   MTT/Giulini/BSO
Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun may be the most beautiful dozen minutes of music ever written, and La Mer may be Debussy's most ambitious and successful large scale orchestral piece--an "impressionist" symphony.  This is a fine recording of both and at bargain price.
      
10     Debussy   Preludes      Planès   
Debussy's Preludes for solo piano are highlights of both the genre and his output.  Contemplative, moody, jaunty, always interesting, moving, and satisfying.  Planès's recording on a period Bechstein is a personal favorite.
   
11      Elgar          Cello Concerto/Enigma Variations    Tortelier/Boult/LPO   
Few pieces are as moving for me as Elgar's cello concerto--perhaps the acme of late romanticism and, for my money, not only the greatest cello concerto ever written, but one of the greatest concertos, period.  Tortelier/Boult are tops, but harder to find than the more celebrated DuPre/Barbirolli, also great.
   
12      Haydn   String Quartets op 33   Quatuor Mosaiques      
Haydn must be represented as one of the absolute greats, extremely original, prolific, and influential, he practically defines the Classical era and is credited with inventing the string quartet as a genre.  This disc by the great period performance ensemble is about as good as they come.  Uplifting and lovely.

13   Mahler   Symphonies    Sinopoli/Philharmonia   
To me one of the three extraordinarily great symphonists whose work puts all others in the shade. Big, personal, individual, powerful, witty, operatic symphonies written by a master of orchestration.  The Sinopoli/Philharmonia cycle is among the most distinctive, beautifully played, and consistently good--Bertini's is more mainstream and a great value.
   
14   Mozart   Symphonies 40 & 41   Minkowski/Musiciens du Louvre
Beethoven didn't just spring from nothing.  These two symphonies--each of very different character, one introspective and the other the opposite--are among my very favorite and this period instrument    recording gets them right!  (Though I'm surprised that I did not include late piano concertos--Mozart's are simply great!)
   
15   Mozart   Cosi fan tutte    Jacobs
Opera must be included and none did it better than Mozart, especially in the three with librettos by da Ponte.  Cosi is the last of the three, less celebrated than its siblings but musically even   more astonishing, with amazing multi-part pieces throughout.  Jacobs's period instrument recording beats out even the fabulous vocal performances of the celebrated Böhm/Legge recording.
   
16   Pärt     Tabula Rasa/Fratres/Cantus   Jarrett/Kremer   
The only contemporary composer on my list for newbies.  This is extraordinary music with a contemporary spiritual focus, spare but deep.  It will change your life.
   
17   Prokofiev   Piano Concerto 3 (+ Ravel Piano Concerto)   Argerich/Abbado/BP   
Prokofiev's 3rd piano concerto is one of the most fiery pieces of the early 20th Century, and this recording simply dazzles.
   
18   Rachmaninov   Piano Concertos 2 & 3   Ashkenazy/Kondrashin
In a crowded field, the landmark recording of two of the loveliest and most beloved modern piano concertos--sweeping, lush, and as romantic as they come.
      
19   Rossini   Il Barbiere di Siviglia      Prey/Berganza/Abbado/LSO
Perhaps the greatest comic opera ever written and packed with memorable tunes, Abbado's recording is as good as any and better than most.
      
20   Sibelius   Symphonies   Blomstedt/SFS   
The third supremely great symphonist, still underappreciated, with a modernist aesthetic all his own and far from the trendiness of Paris or Vienna.  The path from his first symphony to his last (and the later tone poem, Tapiola, included) is the most profound spiritual biography in music, and achingly beautiful.  In a crowded field, Blomstedt with San Francisco gets everything right, bringing out more of the distinctively Sibelian in the early symphonies than most.
   
21   Sibelius   Tone Poems   Vänskä/Lahti
Sibelius also excelled at the symphonic poem   and this excellent disc includes most of the best.
   
22   Strauss, R.   Four Last Songs/Metamorphosen/Oboe Cto   Janowitz/Karajan/BP
Strauss was another of the extraordinary composers of his generation, deserving representation.  The Four Last Songs is very late Strauss, melodic and perhaps the most beautiful vocal music with orchestra I know... and Janowitz sings it better than anyone.  And the oboe concerto is nearly as good.
      
23   Stravinsky   Pétrouchka/ Le Sacre du Printemps      Boulez/CO   
Stravinsky may be the Beethoven of his time, and Le Sacre (The Rite of Spring) is probably the most famous and influential work of 20th Century music--and it's damned good!  Pétrouchka shows another side of this multi-faceted composer, and Boulez gets under his skin better than anyone.
   
24   Vaughan Williams   Symphony 5/The Lark Ascending   Davis/Thomson/LSO   
On another day I might have left RVW off the list altogether, or included a cycle of his symphonies.  The 5th Symphony is a personal favorite, and if there is anything more beautiful to me than Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, it is RVW's The Lark Ascending.  Thomson gets the 5th right.
   
25   Vivaldi   Four Seasons/3 Violin Concertos   Carmignola/Marcon/Venice Baroque Orch
One of the all-time perennial classical top hits, Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" violin concertos should be high on every newbie's list of acquisitions.  They damn near define the concerto genre, they're exiting and lovely, and this period instrument performance is terrific.    
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: karlhenning on March 09, 2011, 07:19:08 AM
Quote from: Apollon on September 07, 2010, 08:59:20 AM
Taking title to include multi-disc issues makes this a bit easier.

Off the top of my head, 25 titles which, even if I somehow had to liquidate my library, I should refuse to let go:

Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky
Stravinsky, Threni, Les noces, Symphony of Psalms / Robt Craft conductor
Shostakovich, Complete Symphonies / Maksim Shostakovich, conductor
Shostakovich, Symphony № 10, Songs & Dances of Death / Jansons, Phila, Robt Lloyd
Shostakovich, Preludes & Fugues, Opus 87 / Nikolayeva

Shostakovich, Suite on Words of Michelangelo, Six Romances on Verses by Relaigh, Burns & Shakespeare, &c. / Abdrazakov, Noseda, BBC Phil
Shostakovich, Violin Concertos / Khatchatryan, Masur, Orchestre National de France

Hindemith, Complete Kammermusiken / Abbado, members of the Berlin Philharmonic
Hindemith, Das Marienleben (new version) / Isokoski, Viitasalo
Prokofiev, Violin Sonatas / Kremer, Argerich

Prokofiev, Romeo & Juliet / Ozawa, BSO
Prokofiev, L’enfant prodigue, Le pas d’acier / Jurowski, conductor
Boulez conducts Schoenberg I
Boulez conducts Schoenberg II
Feldman, Crippled Symmetries / California EAR Unit

Sibelius, Symphonies / Blomstedt, SFSO
Doráti conducts Bartók
Berlioz Box / Munch, BSO
Rakhmaninov, Symphony № 1, Isle of the Dead / Noseda, BBC Phil
Rakhmaninov, Complete Songs

Wuorinen, String Sextet & other works / Group for Contemporary Music, &al.
Markevich, Arrangement of JS Bach The Musical Offering / Lyndon-Gee, Arnhem Phil
Tallis, Complete Works
Cage, Cheap Imitation &c. / Schleiermacher
My 40-disc JS Bach box


Revisited this post this morning . . . pleased to find that I feel no Poster's Remorse : )
Title: Mensch and SP,
Post by: Palmetto on March 09, 2011, 10:15:19 AM
Thanks.  Your comments help me know why you think these are worthwhile works far better than a simple 'laundry list'.  What's really interesting are those items that are on both your lists (Debussy, Mozart, Mahler, etc.).
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DieNacht on October 18, 2011, 10:43:04 PM
Selecting only from those hitherto mentioned, mine would be:

Stravinsky conducts Stravinsky
Bach Mass in b /Harnoncourt
Tchaikovsky 4-6/Mravinsky
Liszt box /Bolet
Sibelius Collection /Vänskä etc.

Chopin Piano works /Ashkenazy
Ravel/Debussy Orchestral Works / Martinon
Beethoven Quartets /Vegh
Rachmaninov Vespers
Beethoven Sonatas/Fischer (or perhaps Kovacevich)

Bach WTC /Feinberg
Bach Cello Suites/Wispelway
Shostakovich Quartets/Borodin
Bach St.Matthew /Richter
Beethoven 1-9/Wand

Schumann Piano Works /Kempff
Ravel Piano Works /Collard
Rach Cti /Hough
Wagner Ring/Boulez
Haydn Symphonies Fischer

Bruckner Symphonies/Wand
Shostakovich Symphonies/Haitink
Mahler symphonies/Bernstein
Bartok Edition/Boulez
Myaskovsky Symphonies/Svetlanov
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: madaboutmahler on October 21, 2011, 07:49:43 AM
Will have to stretch it to 30 choices....

Right, for today, it would probably be: (in alphabetical order)
Beethoven
Symphonies 1-9 (LSO/Haitink)

Brahms
Symphonies 1-4 (BPO/Rattle)

Bruckner
Symphonies 1-9 (BPO/Barenboim)

Dvorak
Symphonies 1-9/other orchestral music (RLPO/Pesek)
Slavonic Dances (RCO/Harnoncourt)

Elgar
Symphonies 1+2 (LPO/Solti)
Enigma Variations etc (BBCSO/Bernstein)
Cello Concerto/Falstaff (Halle/Elder)

Glazunov
Symphonies 4+5 (USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra/Rozhdestvesnky)
The Seasons/Concert Waltzes/Stenka Razin (L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Ansermet)

Mahler
Complete Symphonies (CSO/Solti)
Symphony no.5 (RCO/Chailly)
Symphony no.8 (Philharmonia/Sinopoli)
Symphony no.9 (BPO/Rattle)

Martinu
Symphonies (Bamberg Symphony O/Jarvi)

Nielsen
Symphonies (Danish Radio SO/Blomstedt)

Prokofiev
Romeo and Juliet selections (BPO/Abbado)

Rachmaninov
Symphonies/Symphonic Dances/Isle of the Dead (RCO/Ashkenazy)
Piano Concertos (LSO/Previn/Ashkenazy)

Ravel
Orchestral Works (LSO/Abbado)
Daphnis et Chloe (BPO/Boulez)

Respighi
Roman Trilogy (RPO/Batiz)

Rimsky Korsakov
Sheherezade/Capriccio Espagnol (Boston Symphony Orchestra/Ozawa – Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra/Jarvi)

Schoenberg
Pelleas und Melisande, Verklarkte Nacht (BPO/Karajan)

Schubert
Symphony no.9 (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Mackerras)

Scriabin
Symphonies etc (Philadelphia/Muti)

Shostakovich
Symphony no.10 (RLPO/Petrenko)

R.Strauss
Ein Heldenleben (BPO/Rattle)
Eine Alpensinfonie (Staatskapelle Weimar/Wit)
Tod und Verklarung/Metamorphosen/Vier Letzte Lieder (BPO/Janowitz/Karajan)

Tchaikovsky
The Nutcracker (BPO/Rattle)
Symphonies 4-6 (BPO/Karajan)

There are still quite a few cds in my collection that I am still yet to listen to, and of course my collection is still growing! So shall return in a few months and the list may be a little different! Had to miss out quite a few other favourites ranging from Roussel to Novak, and Karlowicz to more Mahler cds.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Lisztianwagner on October 21, 2011, 09:25:58 AM
My personal list would be:

Beethoven: Symphonies 1-9 (Karajan/BPO)

Brahms: Symphonies 1-4 (Karajan/BPO)

Bruckner: Symphonies 1-9 (Karajan/BPO)

Chopin: Piano works (Ashkenazy), Piano Concertos (Rubinstein)

Dvorak: Symphonies 1-7 (Pesek/RLPO), Symphnoies 8-9 (Karajan/BPO)

Elgar: Symphonies 1-2 (Solti/LPO), Enigma Variations (Bernstein/NYP)

Holst: The Planets (Karajan/BPO)

Liszt: Transcendental Etudes (Ovchinnikov), Hungarian Rhapsodies (Michele Campanella), Les Preludes (Barenboim/CSO), Mazeppa (Karajan/BPO)

Mahler: Symphonies 1-9 (Bernstein on DG)

Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (Kleiber/VPO)

Nielsen: Symphonies 1-6 (Blomstedt/San Francisco Symphony)

Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet (Abbado/BPO)

Rachmaninov: Symphonies/Symphonic Dances (Ashkenazy/RCO), Piano Concertos/Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Ashkenazy, Previn/LSO)

Ravel: Daphis and Chloe (Boulez/BPO)

Respighi: Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome (Karajan/BPO), Roman Festivals (Maazel/CO)

Shostakovich: Complete Symphonies (Haitink/CO-LPO)

Johann Strauss Sohn: An der schönen blauen Donau, Kaiser-Walzer and Perpetuum Mobile

Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, Ein Heldenleben, Tod und Verklärung (Karajan/BPO)

Sibelius: Symphonies 4-7 (Karajan/BPO), Violin Concerto (Hahn, Salonen/SRSO)

Scriabin: Complete Symphonies (Ashkenazy/DSO Berlin)

Schönberg: Pelleas und Melisande, Verklarkte Nacht (BPO/Karajan)

Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien, 1812 Ouverture, Symphonies 4-6 (Karajan/BPO)

Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (Karajan/BPO)


Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: madaboutmahler on October 21, 2011, 09:47:23 AM
Quote from: Lisztianwagner on October 21, 2011, 09:25:58 AM
My personal list would be:

Beethoven: Symphonies 1-9 (Karajan/BPO)

Brahms: Symphonies 1-4 (Karajan/BPO)

Bruckner: Symphonies 1-9 (Karajan/BPO)

Chopin: Piano works (Ashkenazy), Nocturnes (Barenboim)

Dvorak: Symphonies 1-7 (Pesek/RLPO), Symphnoies 8-9 (Karajan/BPO)

Elgar: Symphonies 1-2 (Solti/LPO), Enigma Variations (Bernstein/NYP)

Holst: The Planets (Karajan/BPO)

Liszt: Transcendental Etudes (Ovchinnikov), Hungarian Rhapsodies (Michele Campanella), Les Preludes (Barenboim/CSO), Mazeppa (Karajan/BPO)

Mahler: Symphonies 1-9 (Bernstein on DG)

Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (Kleiber/VPO)

Nielsen: Symphonies 1-6 (Blomstedt/San Francisco Symphony)

Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet (Abbado/BPO)

Rachmaninov: Symphonies/Symphonic Dances (Ashkenazy/RCO), Piano Concertos/Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Ashkenazy, Previn/LSO)

Ravel: Daphis and Chloe (Boulez/BPO)

Respighi: Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome (Karajan/BPO), Roman Festivals (Maazel/CO)

Shostakovich: Complete Symphonies (Haitink/CO-LPO)

Johann Strauss Sohn: An der schönen blauen Donau, Kaiser-Walzer and Perpetuum Mobile

Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, Ein Heldenleben, Tod und Verklärung (Karajan/BPO)

Sibelius: Symphonies 4-7 (Karajan/BPO), Violin Concerto (Hahn, Pekka-Salonen/SRSO)

Scriabin: Complete Symphonies (Ashkenazy/DSO Berlin)

Schönberg: Pelleas und Melisande, Verklarkte Nacht (BPO/Karajan)

Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien, 1812 Ouverture, Symphonies 4-6 (Karajan/BPO)

Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (Karajan/BPO)

Wonderful list Ilaria, how could I guess there would be so much Karajan?! ;)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: karlhenning on October 21, 2011, 09:54:47 AM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on September 07, 2010, 08:59:20 AM
Taking title to include multi-disc issues makes this a bit easier.

Off the top of my head, 25 titles which, even if I somehow had to liquidate my library, I should refuse to let go:

Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky
Stravinsky, Threni, Les noces, Symphony of Psalms / Robt Craft conductor
Shostakovich, Complete Symphonies / Maksim Shostakovich, conductor
Shostakovich, Symphony № 10, Songs & Dances of Death / Jansons, Phila, Robt Lloyd
Shostakovich, Preludes & Fugues, Opus 87 / Nikolayeva

Shostakovich, Suite on Words of Michelangelo, Six Romances on Verses by Relaigh, Burns & Shakespeare, &c. / Abdrazakov, Noseda, BBC Phil
Shostakovich, Violin Concertos / Khatchatryan, Masur, Orchestre National de France

Hindemith, Complete Kammermusiken / Abbado, members of the Berlin Philharmonic
Hindemith, Das Marienleben (new version) / Isokoski, Viitasalo
Prokofiev, Violin Sonatas / Kremer, Argerich

Prokofiev, Romeo & Juliet / Ozawa, BSO
Prokofiev, L’enfant prodigue, Le pas d’acier / Jurowski, conductor
Boulez conducts Schoenberg I
Boulez conducts Schoenberg II
Feldman, Crippled Symmetries / California EAR Unit

Sibelius, Symphonies / Blomstedt, SFSO
Doráti conducts Bartók
Berlioz Box / Munch, BSO
Rakhmaninov, Symphony № 1, Isle of the Dead / Noseda, BBC Phil
Rakhmaninov, Complete Songs

Wuorinen, String Sextet & other works / Group for Contemporary Music, &al.
Markevich, Arrangement of JS Bach The Musical Offering / Lyndon-Gee, Arnhem Phil
Tallis, Complete Works
Cage, Cheap Imitation &c. / Schleiermacher
My 40-disc JS Bach box


Hmmm, I might need to update this . . . .
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on October 21, 2011, 01:24:34 PM
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 21, 2011, 09:54:47 AM
Hmmm, I might need to update this . . . .
I could update mine almost every day, but though several might change with each passing breeze, these are likely to stand fast as personal essentials as long as I'm still sucking air:

1 Bach      Cello Suites
2   Bach   Goldberg Variations   
3   Bach      Violin Concertos
4   Beethoven   Piano Sonatas   
5   Beethoven   String Quartets   
6   Beethoven   Symphonies
9   Debussy   Prelude...Faun/La Mer/Images   
10 Debussy   Preludes   
11 Elgar   Cello Concerto   
13 Mahler   Symphonies
15 Mozart   Cosi fan tutte
16 Pärt     Tabula Rasa/Fratres/Cantus         
20 Sibelius   Symphonies
21 Sibelius   Tone Poems
22 Strauss, R.   Four Last Songs
      

   

Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Lisztianwagner on October 24, 2011, 10:45:03 AM
Quote from: madaboutmahler on October 21, 2011, 09:47:23 AM
Wonderful list Ilaria, how could I guess there would be so much Karajan?! ;)

Hahaha  ;)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Jared on November 14, 2011, 05:49:01 AM
Having found this thread, it has given me much food for thought....

As near impossible as this is going to be, I will write down a list of the basic essentials I wish has been given to me, when I first stared collecting and listening, a mere 4 years ago. I am going to try to avoid boxsets where possible, and highlight individual pieces...

1) Tallis: Spem in Alium & Salve intemerata: Tallis Scholars/ Gimell
2) Monteverdi: Vespers (1610): Gardiner/ Archiv
3) Bach: Cello Suites: Fournier/ Archiv
4) Bach: Brandenburg Concertos: Pinnock/ Archiv
5) Bach: Mass in B: Gardiner/ Archiv
6) Haydn: Cello Concertos: du Pre & Barenboim; Barbirolli/ EMI
7) Haydn: The Creation: McCreesh/ Archiv
8 ) Mozart: Symphs 38-41: MacKerras/ Linn
9) Mozart: Piano Concertos 20,23,24,26 & 27: Curzon/ Decca
10) Mozart: Requiem: Marriner/ Philips
11) Beethoven: Symphs 5&7: Kleiber/ DGG
12) Beethoven: Violin Concerto & Romances: Grumiaux/ Philips
13) Beethoven: Piano Sonatas 8,14,21 &23: Barenboim/ EMI
14) Beethoven: Missa Solemnis: Klemperer/ EMI
15) Schubert: Symphs 8&9: Sinopoli/DG
16) Schubert: String & Trout Quintets: Alban Berg/ EMI
17) Schubert: Last Four String Quartets: Quartetto Italiano/ Philips
18) Brahms: Symphs 1-4: Mackerras/ Telarc
19) Brahms: Violin Concerto: Sharam & Abbado/ DG
20) Brahms: Piano Quintet: Berlin Octet/ Philips
21) Schumann: Piano Quintet & Quartet: Michelangelo/ Chandos
22) Bruckner: Symph No 9: Jochum/ EMI
23) Mahler: Symph No 9: Karajan/ DG
24) Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde: Ferrier & Walter/ Decca
25) R. Strauss: Four Last Songs: Janowitz & Karajan/ DG

Right, I'll let you start ripping it to pieces, now...  ;D

Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on November 14, 2011, 07:32:32 AM
Hi, Jared--nice to see you over here!  I have welcomed you to the site, haven't I?  If not, please forgive the oversight and accept my apologies and my belated welcome!

Thanks for offering the list.  This is exactly the sort of thing we had in mind with this thread and I imagine the selections of a relative newcomer to classical music, but with enough experience now to have some perspective, will be particularly valuable to others new to this important pillar of Western Civilization.

Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Jared on November 14, 2011, 07:41:37 AM
Quote from: DavidRoss on November 14, 2011, 07:32:32 AM
Hi, Jared--nice to see you over here!  I have welcomed you to the site, haven't I?  If not, please forgive the oversight and accept my apologies and my belated welcome!

Thanks for offering the list.  This is exactly the sort of thing we had in mind with this thread and I imagine the selections of a relative newcomer to classical music, but with enough experience now to have some perspective, will be particularly valuable to others new to this important pillar of Western Civilization.

thanks for the welcome David... always good to read your posts...  :)

yes, but even for a relative newcomer with a fairly small library... that was one HELL of a task! I'm cursing myself for no Palestrina, Victoria, Biber, Pergolesi, Purcell, Handel, Hummel, Liszt, Chopin, Sibelius, Nielsen, Dvorak, Smetana, Janacek, Berlioz, Grieg, RVW, Mendelssohn, Britten, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov or Rimsky that got left out... and don't even start on the Beethoven omissions!  :-[
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: coffee on November 15, 2011, 07:41:12 PM
I'd like to call this a first draft!

Chant Byzantin - Marie Keyrouz
Perotin - the Hilliard Ensemble
Officium - Jan Garbarek & the Hilliard Ensemble
Monteverdi: L'Orfeo - Gardiner
Rebel: Les Elemens; Gluck: Alessandro; Telemann: Sonata - Goebel

Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcell; Allegri: Miserere; etc. - Preston 
Purcell: King Arthur - Pinnock
Scarlatti: Sonatas - Scott Ross
Bach: Goldberg Variations - Gould
Bach: Mass in B minor - Richter 1962

Beethoven: Late Piano Sonatas - Pollini
Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 - Kleiber
Chopin: Nocturnes - Rubinstein
Brahms: Symphonies, etc. - Abbado - Box Set #1
Dvorak: Symphonies 8 & 9 - Kertesz

John Williams: Albeniz - Echoes of Spain
Rachmaninoff: Elegiac Piano Trios - Beaux Arts Trio
Syzmanowski: Stabat Mater, etc. - Stryja
Elgar: Cello Concerto, Sea Pictures, Cockaigne Oveture - Barbirolli, Du Pre, Baker
Reich: Music for 18 Musicians (ECM)

Takemitsu: From Me Flows What You Call Time, Twill by Twilight, Requiem
Black Angels - Kronos Quartet
Piazzolla: Tango Zero Hour
Glass: Aguas da Amazonia - Uakti
Penderecki: St. Luke Passion - Wit

Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on November 16, 2011, 06:12:18 AM
Welcome, coffee!  Some of your choices are way cool, in my estimation, and tempt me to give others in your list that I don't know a go (Like Pendercki's Luke's Passion)!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: coffee on November 16, 2011, 08:43:13 PM
Thanks man. I think Penderecki's Luke Passion is the only work by him that I really, really like. It won't be for everyone, but I find myself really liking 20th century choral music, such as Ligeti's Lux Aeterna - which P's SLP sometimes sounds a bit like. If you've heard the soundtrack to Bram Stoker's Dracula, by Wojciech Kilar, it also sounds a bit similar, though even darker and of course more pounding.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: coffee on December 15, 2011, 05:07:04 PM
I changed Scarlatti sonatas from Pogorelich to Scott Ross.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: TheGSMoeller on December 15, 2011, 09:07:21 PM
Quote from: coffee on November 15, 2011, 07:41:12 PM
Black Angels - Kronos Quartet
Piazzolla: Tango Zero Hour
Glass: Aguas da Amazonia - Uakti


Three special "one of a kind" albums right there, the Glass/Uakti collaboration is heavenly.
Great list, Coffee.  ;D
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Jared on December 22, 2011, 07:49:09 AM
Quote from: coffee on November 15, 2011, 07:41:12 PM
I'd like to call this a first draft!

Chant Byzantin - Marie Keyrouz
Perotin - the Hilliard Ensemble
Officium - Jan Garbarek & the Hilliard Ensemble
Monteverdi: L'Orfeo - Gardiner
Rebel: Les Elemens; Gluck: Alessandro; Telemann: Sonata - Goebel

Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcell; Allegri: Miserere; etc. - Preston 
Purcell: King Arthur - Pinnock
Scarlatti: Sonatas - Scott Ross
Bach: Goldberg Variations - Gould
Bach: Mass in B minor - Richter 1962

Beethoven: Late Piano Sonatas - Pollini
Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 - Kleiber
Chopin: Nocturnes - Rubinstein
Brahms: Symphonies, etc. - Abbado - Box Set #1
Dvorak: Symphonies 8 & 9 - Kertesz

John Williams: Albeniz - Echoes of Spain
Rachmaninoff: Elegiac Piano Trios - Beaux Arts Trio
Syzmanowski: Stabat Mater, etc. - Stryja
Elgar: Cello Concerto, Sea Pictures, Cockaigne Oveture - Barbirolli, Du Pre, Baker
Reich: Music for 18 Musicians (ECM)

Takemitsu: From Me Flows What You Call Time, Twill by Twilight, Requiem
Black Angels - Kronos Quartet
Piazzolla: Tango Zero Hour
Glass: Aguas da Amazonia - Uakti
Penderecki: St. Luke Passion - Wit

that's a cracking list, Coffee... many thanks for posting it!  8)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: chasmaniac on December 22, 2011, 09:41:39 AM
I'll allow a metric to substitute for qualitative judgement here. My personal essentials are those pieces of which I possess at least 3 recordings.

Machaut - Messe de Notre Dame

Bach - Cello Suites
Goldbergs
Brandenburgs
Orchestral Suites
Bm Mass
Motets
Cantatas 4, 6, 12, 18, 36, 56, 61, 82, 85, 106, 131, 132, 172, 180, 182, 196, 199

Handel - Messiah

Haydn - Seven Last Words
SQs opp. 20, 33, 42, 64, 71, 74, 76, 77, 103
Paris Symphonies
Symphonies 90-92
London Symphonies
the 6 late masses

Mozart - Symphonies 40 & 41

And that's it! Not very catholic, am I?
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Karl Henning on December 22, 2011, 10:40:05 AM
You have three recordings of the Haydn masses?
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Jared on December 22, 2011, 10:49:53 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 22, 2011, 10:40:05 AM
You have three recordings of the Haydn masses?

and what pray, would be wrong with that???? 

some people have more than three versions of The Ring Cycle...  ;)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: chasmaniac on December 22, 2011, 10:52:44 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on December 22, 2011, 10:40:05 AM
You have three recordings of the Haydn masses?

Aye. Willcocks, Guest and company on Decca (spread over several packages), Gardiner on Philips and the Naxos box.

Does that seem odd? Strikes me as odd, I must say. (Not wrong, but odd, given the sort of chap I am.) But that's the neat thing about a metric. It can reveal things one wouldn't otherwise be aware of.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Karl Henning on December 22, 2011, 11:51:14 AM
No, indeed — naught wrong with that. That was not the significance of my surprise : )
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: PaulSC on December 22, 2011, 11:58:33 AM
Of course, the downside of that metric is that it absolutely excludes music that has been recorded fewer than three times, including virtually all contemporary music.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Xenophanes on February 17, 2012, 12:38:04 PM
1.   Bach, Brandenburg Concertos¸ PinnockHandel, Messiah, Robert Shaw
2.   Haydn, Paris Symphonies, Marriner
3.   Mozart, Symphonies, Pinnock
4.   Mozart, Brahms, Clarinet Quintets, Reginald Kell, Fine Arts Quartet
5.   Beethoven, Complete Symphonies, Leibowitz
6.   Beethoven Violin Concerto, Francescatti, Walter
7.   Beethoven, Complete String Quartets, Quartetto Italiano
8.   Beethoven, 3 Sonatas (Moonlight, Appassionata, Pathetique), Horowitz
9.   Chopin, Ballades, Scherzos, Earl Wild
10.   Chopin, Nocturnes, Rubinstein
11.   Brahms, Symphonies, Walter
12.   Brahms, Symphony No. 4, Reiner
13.   Brahms, Violin Concerto, Francescatti, Bernstein
14.   Wagner, Ring Cycle, Solti
15.   Debussy, La mer, Reiner
16.   Mussorgsky-Ravel, Pictures at an Exhibition; Prokofiev, Classical Symphony, Lt. Kije, Ansermet
17.   Ravel, Rapsodie espagnole,
18.   Rachmaninoff, Symphonies, Ormandy
19.   Rachmaninoff, Symphonic Dances, Isle of the Dead, Previn, LSO
20.   Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3, Earl Wild, Horenstein
21.   Sibelius, Symphonies, Maazel, VPO
22.   Sibelius, Violin Concerto, Ricci, Fjelstad
23.   Mayuzumi, Samsara, Essai, Pieces for Prepared Piano and Strings, Robert Whitney, Akira Endo
24.   Prokofiev, Alexander Nevsky Cantata, Lt. Kije, Dutoit
25.   Puccini, La Boheme, Beecham
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: nico1616 on March 12, 2012, 11:41:08 AM
1.  Beethoven, violin concerto - Perlman, Giulini EMI
2.  Brahms, violin concerto - Perlman, Giulini EMI
3.  Bruckner, symphony 9 - WP, Giulini DG
4.  Mozart, Don Giovanni - Waechter, Taddei, Schwarzkopf, Sutherland, Giulini EMI
5.  Handel, Ariodante - Minkowski Archiv
6.  Handel & Scarlatti, suites and sonatas - Perahia Sony
7.  Janacek, Jenufa - Mackerras Decca
8.  Mozart, complete piano concertos - Perahia, Sony
9.  Schubert, Piano sonata D784 - Pires DG
10. Tchaikovsky, symphony 6 - Jansons Chandos

11. Offenbach, les contes d'Hofmann - Domingo, Sutherland, Bonynge Decca
12. Brahms, complete symphonies - BP, Von Karajan DG
13. Haydn, London symphonies - Minkowski Naïve
14. Rameau, Platée - Minkowski Erato
15. Wagner, die Walküre - Von Karajan DG
16. Verdi, Aida - Price, Vickers, Gorr Decca
17. Schumann, symphony 2 - Thielemann DG
18. Handel, Semele - Battle, Aler, Horne, Nelson DG
19. Mussorgsky, Boris Godunov - Kotcherga, Ramey, Abbado Sony
20. Strauss, Elektra - Nilsson, Solti Decca

21. Sibelius, complete symphonies - Ashkenazy Decca
22. Dvorak, Cello concerto - Rostropovich, Von Karajan DG
23. Puccini, La fanciulla del west - Tebaldi, Del Monaco, Capuana Decca
24. Puccini, Il trittico - Pappano EMI
25. Puccini, Madame Butterfly - Scotto, Bergonzi, Barbirolli EMI

Nico
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: TheGSMoeller on March 12, 2012, 12:14:29 PM
Quote from: nico1616 on March 12, 2012, 11:41:08 AM

14. Rameau, Platée - Minkowski Erato

Nico


Such a great recording of Platée, Nico, nice list.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: nico1616 on March 12, 2012, 01:20:50 PM
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on March 12, 2012, 12:14:29 PM

Such a great recording of Platée, Nico, nice list.

Thanks! It is difficult to choose among Minkowski opera recordings. I also love his Handel Amadigi on Erato or Giulio Cesare and Hercules on Archiv. And Rameaus Hippolyte et Aricie, but Platée is just so funny and irresistible  ;)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: TheGSMoeller on March 12, 2012, 01:24:03 PM
Quote from: nico1616 on March 12, 2012, 01:20:50 PM
Thanks! It is difficult to choose among Minkowski opera recordings. I also love his Handel Amadigi on Erato or Giulio Cesare and Hercules on Archiv. And Rameaus Hippolyte et Aricie, but Platée is just so funny and irresistible  ;)

Nailed it!  ;D
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Octave on December 22, 2012, 11:00:15 PM
I'd just like to thank everyone for sharing their lists; it's a wonderful education!  These lists also tend to have so much more character than those I've seen generated by the sanctioned tastemaking organs.  Maybe it's more fair to say that I'm enthused to find such a wide array of names, approaches, labels, and epochs represented.  I wish I could make my own list, but I'm still too new to these music, and I'm making several big discoveries a week...it's just too hard to whittle down a list, making me all the more grateful for the lists shared here.

Also thanks to all contributors to that lovely "Desert Island Briefcaseful" thread/list, which is also super useful to me (I think I'd heard only about half the items on that lists, maybe less).  Any newcomers to the forum would probably enjoy that list as much as I did:
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,17151.0.html
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: StLukesguildOhio on January 02, 2013, 09:34:29 PM
I couldn't begin to limit myself to 25... but I will offer a visual of the discs I absolutely couldn't go without (although given more time, I don't doubt I'd come up with nearly as many again):

(http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg581/StlukesguildOhio/Essentials1.jpg)

(http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg581/StlukesguildOhio/Essentials2.jpg)

(http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg581/StlukesguildOhio/Essentials3.jpg)

(http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg581/StlukesguildOhio/Essentials4.jpg)

(http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg581/StlukesguildOhio/Essentials5.jpg)

(http://i1245.photobucket.com/albums/gg581/StlukesguildOhio/Essentials6.jpg)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Mirror Image on January 03, 2013, 10:45:39 AM
I deleted my list from 2010. Apparently, I can live without many of these recordings. :P A new list would look something like this (in no particular order):

1. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8, Haitink, RCO, Decca
2. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, Bernstein, NY Phil., Sony (1979 Live in Japan)
3. Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1, Lisa Batiashvili, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Bavarian RSO, DG
4. Prokofiev: Le Pas d'Acier; L'enfant prodigue, Michail Jurowski, Cologne Radio SO, CPO
5. Elgar: Enigma Variations, In the South, Serenade for Strings, Sir Andrew Davis, Philharmonia Orch., Signum Classics
6. Elgar: Symphonies 1 & 2, Sir Andrew Davis, Philharmonia Orch., Signum Classics
7. Debussy: Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune, Nocturnes, Pelleas et Melisande Suite, Claudio Abbado, BPO, DG
8. Debussy/Ravel: Orchestral Works, various orchestras, Jean Martinon, EMI
9. Debussy/Ravel: Chamber Works, Nash Ensemble, Virgin Classics
10. Vaughan Williams: Job - A Masque for Dancing, Richard Hickox, Bournemouth SO, EMI
11. Vaughan Williams: Complete Symphonies, Bryden Thomson, LSO, Chandos
12. Berg: DG Collection
13. Bartok: The Wooden Prince, Cantata Profana, Pierre Boulez, CSO, DG
14. Bartok: Concertos, Kyung-Wha Chung, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Solti, CSO, Decca
15. The Essential Sibelius, BIS
16. Stravinsky: Robert Craft Edition, Naxos
17. Part: Summa, Cantus in Memoriam of Benjamin Britten, etc., Paavo Jarvi, Estonian NSO, Virgin Classics
18. Villa-Lobos: Complete Choros and Bachianas Brasileiras, Neschling, BIS
19. Honegger: Symphonies 2 & 5, Pacific 231, Neeme Jarvi, Danish NRSO, Chandos
20. Roussel: Orchestral Works, Stephane Deneve, RSNO, Naxos
21. Janacek: Glagolitic Mass, Sinfonietta, Tilson Thomas, various soloists, LSO & Chorus, Sony
22. Tippett: Symphonies, Concerti, etc, Howard Shelley, Richard Hickox, Bournemouth SO, Chandos
23. Tippett: A Child of Our Time, various soloists, Richard Hickox, LSO & Chorus, Chandos
24. Koechlin: The Jungle Book, David Zinman, Berlin RSO, RCA
25. Koechlin: Orchestral/Vocal Works, Heinz Holliger, Stuttgart RSO, Hanssler Classics
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Karl Henning on January 03, 2013, 11:29:44 AM
Quote from: canninator on September 08, 2010, 06:40:44 AM

[...]

15. Faure-Requiem (Willcocks-Cambridge College Choir)
16. Durufle-Complete Organ Works (Friedhlem Flamme, cpo)
17. Debussy-Orchestral Music (Haitink)

[...]

20. Nielsen-Symphony 4; Sibelius-Symphony 5 (Simon Rattle, CBSO)
21. Shostakovich-VC1 and 2 (Vengerov, Rostropovich, LSO)

Interesting selections, recordings-wise.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: TheGSMoeller on January 03, 2013, 01:37:06 PM
Quote from: StLukesguildOhio on January 02, 2013, 09:34:29 PM
I couldn't begin to limit myself to 25... but I will offer a visual of the discs I absolutely couldn't go without (although given more time, I don't doubt I'd come up with nearly as many again):

The Gesualdo, Monteverdi and Biber are great choices, StLuke, both in music and recordings.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: TheGSMoeller on January 03, 2013, 03:24:28 PM
Quote from: canninator on September 08, 2010, 06:40:44 AM
15. Faure-Requiem (Willcocks-Cambridge College Choir)

Quote from: karlhenning on January 03, 2013, 11:29:44 AM
Interesting selections, recordings-wise.

Karl, this recording of Faure's Requiem uses a male treble, it's so innocent and natural, puts many of those other diva's to shame.  ;)
The whole performance is quite good.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Karl Henning on January 04, 2013, 04:20:52 AM
Makes sense, Greg. In the score for the Symphony of Psalms, Stravinsky inscribes a preference for boy trebles in the chorus; as you note, it's quite a different tone-color. What I had in mind (as only a general caution on my own part) is that many English choral recordings of a certain era strike me as a bit frowsty of sound . . . .
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Octave on January 04, 2013, 05:21:05 PM
Re: MI's updated essentials list:
I love the idea of revised lists, since I think that's the way taste works (and it's a good thing, too!); but I'd really like to see "old/outdated" lists left up on the thread.  In this case, it's for selfish reasons, since I was too lazy to copy-paste all the lists into a portable txt; but it might also be interesting for newcomers like me to see a couple different snapshots of a GMG veteran's tastes and priorities over a span of time.  Just 2 cents!
Title: Re: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Karl Henning on January 04, 2013, 06:01:27 PM
Quote from: Octave on January 04, 2013, 05:21:05 PM
Re: MI's updated essentials list:
I love the idea of revised lists, since I think that's the way taste works (and it's a good thing, too!); but I'd really like to see "old/outdated" lists left up on the thread.  In this case, it's for selfish reasons, since I was too lazy to copy-paste all the lists into a portable txt; but it might also be interesting for newcomers like me to see a couple different snapshots of a GMG veteran's tastes and priorities over a span of time.  Just 2 cents!

I agree, so call it 4¢
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Mirror Image on January 06, 2013, 06:26:28 PM
Quote from: Octave on January 04, 2013, 05:21:05 PM
Re: MI's updated essentials list:
I love the idea of revised lists, since I think that's the way taste works (and it's a good thing, too!); but I'd really like to see "old/outdated" lists left up on the thread.  In this case, it's for selfish reasons, since I was too lazy to copy-paste all the lists into a portable txt; but it might also be interesting for newcomers like me to see a couple different snapshots of a GMG veteran's tastes and priorities over a span of time.  Just 2 cents!

Now, I feel bad for deleting my old list! :( I should've kept it up, but once I hit the "remove post" button it's bye-bye old post unless there's a way to revive a post, which I don't think there is.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Octave on January 06, 2013, 06:56:03 PM
No problem, of course; a lot of those original desert island items of yours are floating around in my Amazon cart/wishlists.  The main reason I thought "old" lists might still be super useful for beginners like me, is that even items tossed off the desert island might be quite a bit more interesting than the alternatives that I'd otherwise come up with reading recent issues of GRAMOPHONE.  <brat emoticon>
Seriously, all the trouble, time, and expense that veteran listeners have gone to...honestly, I think lists of ~100+ items are as welcome as they are necessary!  Says the guy who couldn't come up with a list. :-X
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Mirror Image on January 06, 2013, 07:32:00 PM
Quote from: Octave on January 06, 2013, 06:56:03 PM
No problem, of course; a lot of those original desert island items of yours are floating around in my Amazon cart/wishlists.  The main reason I thought "old" lists might still be super useful for beginners like me, is that even items tossed off the desert island might be quite a bit more interesting than the alternatives that I'd otherwise come up with reading recent issues of GRAMOPHONE.  <brat emoticon>
Seriously, all the trouble, time, and expense that veteran listeners have gone to...honestly, I think lists of ~100+ items are as welcome as they are necessary!  Says the guy who couldn't come up with a list. :-X

All of the composers I love are essential to me. Selecting a recording is what is difficult, but I'm quite happy, for the most part, with my recent selections. Of course, this could be updated to something completely different next week. :)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: DavidRoss on January 07, 2013, 09:15:04 AM
Quote from: Octave on January 04, 2013, 05:21:05 PM
Re: MI's updated essentials list:
I love the idea of revised lists, since I think that's the way taste works (and it's a good thing, too!); but I'd really like to see "old/outdated" lists left up on the thread.  In this case, it's for selfish reasons, since I was too lazy to copy-paste all the lists into a portable txt; but it might also be interesting for newcomers like me to see a couple different snapshots of a GMG veteran's tastes and priorities over a span of time.  Just 2 cents!
Thank you, Octave. As I recall, the original purpose of this thread was not just to introduce music that might interest classical music newbies, but also to introduce forum newcomers to the tastes of other participants, helping them to distinguish contributors likely to prove useful guides for them from those less likely to be helpful.

I agree that there's merit in seeing how others' tastes change as the result of more exposure and experience. And witnessing the paths taken by other newcomers like Mirror Image might prove very helpful in finding kindred spirits whose journeys of discovery might inform your own.

Sharing your enthusiasms along the way can be contagious -- not just for other newbies but for old farts as well, sometimes enticing us to revisit works and composers we might have neglected for decades. If we have continued growing and not just marked time, then our life experiences in the interim might have prepared us to hear things in a completely different way than we heard them years ago. (Thus, for instance, in the past decade or so I've learned to love Brahms, Sibelius, Schubert, and Vaughan Williams, none of whom I was able to appreciate in my youth.)

And, finally, newcomers' posts about the joys of discovering "new" music often prove much more engaging and exciting and fun than the bickering over interpretative nuances that characterizes the posts of some old-timers who haven't challenged their own entrenched musical tastes in decades.  ;)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Brian on January 07, 2013, 11:50:30 AM
Hmmmmmm.

J.S. Bach - Brandenburg concertos, overtures, and more (Cafe Zimmermann, Alpha) 6 CD BOX
J.S. Bach - Cello suites (Pierre Fournier, Archiv)
Beethoven - Most of the piano sonatas (Emil Gilels, DG) 9 CD BOX
Beethoven - Piano sonatas Nos 30-32 (Penelope Crawford, Musica Omnia)
Beethoven - "Razumovsky" string quartets (Vermeer Qt, Warner)
Beethoven - Symphony No 3 (Swedish CO, Dausgaard, Simax)
Beethoven - Symphonies 5, 7 (Vienna PO, Kleiber, DG)
Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique (New York PO, Bernstein, Sony)
Brahms - Symphony No 4 (Vienna PO, Kleiber, DG)
Chopin - All but two nocturnes (Ivan Moravec, Nonesuch/Supraphon)
Dvorak - Cello concerto, Dumky trio (Queyras & friends, Harmonia Mundi)
Dvorak - String quartets (Pavel Haas Qt, Supraphon)
Dvorak - Symphony No 7; Smetana - Moldau (New York PO, Bernstein, Sony)
Handel - Water Music, Fireworks Music (Le Concert, Savall, Alia Vox)
Haydn - Twenty-one symphonies (Tafelmusik, Weil, Vivarte) 7 CD BOX
Janacek - Glagolitic Mass, Taras Bulba (Czech PO, Ancerl, Supraphon)
Martinu - Symphonies (BBC SO, Belohlavek, Onyx) 3 CD BOX
Mozart - Symphonies 35, 36, 38-41 (Scottish CO, Mackerras, Linn)
Prokofiev, Ravel - Piano concertos (Argerich, Berlin PO, Abbado, DG)
Schubert - String quintet D956 (Raphael Ensemble, Helios)
Shostakovich - Symphony No 10 (Royal Liverpool PO, Petrenko, Naxos)
Shostakovich - 24 Preludes & Fugues (Alexander Melnikov, Harmonia Mundi)
Sibelius - Symphonies (San Francisco SO, Blomstedt, Decca) 4 CD BOX
Vaughan Williams - Symphony No 5, Tallis Fantasia (Royal PO, Previn, Telarc)
Vivaldi - Four Seasons etc. (Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi, Virgin)

Wow, that was hard.

I shall now proceed to edit in explanations.

Some of these albums are here because they had to be. I play them too much. For instance, my log for 2012 indicates I listened to Bruno Weil's Haydn symphonies box set 56 times, or roughly twice per symphony. The Cafe Zimmermann Bach is getting close to that number of plays, since it conveniently assembles so many great works in great performances. Emil Gilels' Beethoven received one hundred listens, mostly on commutes to and from my previous job.

Many of my choices are classic recordings, like Carlos Kleiber's universally-admired Beethoven and Brahms, or Ivan Moravec's peerless Chopin, but some are newcomers to the stage. Penelope Crawford furnishes my go-to readings of the last three Beethoven sonatas, and Thomas Dausgaard enlivens the Eroica Symphony with the energy of a third rail on a train-track. Intensive comparison listening left Vasily Petrenko at the top of my list for Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony, followed closely by Jansons and Sanderling. The Pavel Haas Quartet CD is my favorite - for every piece the Pavel Haas Quartet has recorded! And, to be fully honest, Mackerras' Scottish Mozart is so joy-giving, so life-affirming, that if I had to give up all the rest of my Mozart I'd be okay.

There are some gaps. Tchaikovsky, for one. Opera, for another. Scarlatti, for another other. Many things by Ravel. Strauss' Four Last Songs. Beethoven's Ninth, incredibly. Some more solo piano music by Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms. But hey - this is hard.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: North Star on January 07, 2013, 12:41:55 PM
I'll make it somewhat easier and limit myself to one recording per composer.
(I would have liked to include the complete Ravel & Debussy editions, and the Decca box of Janacek's piano, chamber, orchestral and choral works, but I'll not bend the rules)

1. Alkan: 12 Etudes in the minor keys etc., Gibbons
2. Bach: Art of the Fugue, Fretwork
3. Bartók: String Quartets, Belcea Quartet
4. Beethoven: Late Sonatas, Pollini
5. Berlioz: Colin Davis & LSO box, LSO
6. Brahms: Chamber music, Hyperion
7. Chopin: Mazurkas, Luisada (RCA)
8. Debussy: Orchestral works, Martinon
9. Dvorak: Symphonies, Tone Poems & Overtures, Neumann & CzPO
10. Elgar: Cello Concerto & Sea Pictures, du Pré, Baker & Barbirolli
11. Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 76, Quatuor Mosaïques
12. Janacek: House of the Dead, Neumann
13. Mahler: EMI 150th anniversary
14. Martinu: Chamber music, Dartington Ensemble
15. Mozart: Piano Concertos, Barenboim & ECO
16. Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas & solo piano pieces, Raekallio
17. Rachmaninoff: All-night Vigil, Paul Hillier & Estonian Chamber Choir
18. Ravel: Piano Trio & Sonatas, Capucons & Braley
19. Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder, Craft
20. Schubert: String Quintet, String Quartets nos 14 & 15, Belcea Quartet
21. Shostakovich: Symphonies, Jansons
22. Sibelius: Symphonies, Maazel & WP
23. Stravinsky: Boulez's DG box
24. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 & Serenade for Strings, Gatti, HM
25. Tippett: Concertos & Fantasia Concertante, Barshaï, Tippett, Ogdon
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Mirror Image on January 07, 2013, 02:54:09 PM
Quote from: North Star on January 07, 2013, 12:41:55 PM
14. Martinu: Chamber music, Dartington Ensemble

I was looking through my Martinu collection and realized I didn't own this 2-CD set. I remedied that very quickly. :)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Rhymenoceros on January 16, 2013, 10:37:56 AM
This is going to be hard.  From Bach to Sibelius:

1. Bach's WTC Book 1 by Till Fellner
2. Bach's Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould
3. Bach's Violin Concertos by Hilary Hahn
4. Bach's Art of the Fugue by the Emerson String Quartet
5. Bach's Toccata in C Minor, Partita No. 2, and English Suite No. 2 by Martha Argerich
6. Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Henryk Szeryng
7. Beethoven's 9 Symphonies by Harnoncourt (HIP)
8. Beethoven's Piano Sonatas by Emil Gilels
9. Beethoven's Spring and Kreutzer Violin Sonatas by Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy
10. Brahms' Piano Concertos by Emil Gilels
11. Brahms' 4 Symphonies by Otto Klemperer
12. Brahm's Violin Sonatas by Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy
13. Brahms' Cello Sonatas by Mstislav Rostropovich and Rudolph Serkin
14. Chopin's Ballades by Krystian Zimerman
15. Chopin's Etudes by Maruzio Pollini
16. Handel's Keyboard Suites by Sviatoslav Richter and Andrei Gavrilov
17. Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 by Hilary Hahn
18. Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, Ravel's Piano Concerto, and Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit by Martha Argerich
19. Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos by Vladimir Ashkenazy
20. Ravel, Debussy, and Faure's String Quartets by Quatuor Ebène
21. Schubert's String Quintet by Mstislav Rostropovich and the Emerson String Quartet
22. Schubert's Last Four String Quartets by the Quartetto Italiano
23. Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues by Keith Jarrett
24. Sibelius' Violin Concerto by Anne-Sophie Mutter
25. Sibelius' Symphonies by the Sir Colin Davis and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Vol. 1 + 2)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Karl Henning on January 16, 2013, 11:12:30 AM
Quote from: Rhymenoceros on January 16, 2013, 10:37:56 AM
This is going to be hard.  From Bach to Sibelius:

[...]
2. Bach's Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould
[...]

But . . . which?

(j/k)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Rhymenoceros on January 17, 2013, 07:41:01 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on January 16, 2013, 11:12:30 AM
But . . . which?

(j/k)


Luckily, we don't have to choose since the 1955 and 1981 recordings come in the same set!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: flyffdzd on January 17, 2013, 06:21:44 PM
Sounds,very good!
Rameau Pieces de Clavecin Ross (Still)
Delalande Grands Motets Christie (HM)
Lully Armide Laurens/Herreweghe II (HM)
Gluck Orfeo ed Euridice Jacobs (HM)
Mozart Piano Concerto No.24 Haskil/Markevitch (Philips)
Beethoven Sonatas 30-32 Richter (Parnassus)
Schubert Impromptus Zimerman (DG)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Dancing Divertimentian on February 08, 2013, 05:33:21 PM
Here goes...for a friend.... :)


Martinů - 3rd Symphony (Bělohlávek/Czech PO)
Brahms - 3rd Piano Quartet (Menuhin Festival Quartet)
Schumann - Symphonic Etudes (Richter)
Bartók - Piano Concertos (Kocsis/Fischer)
Schubert - Piano Sonatas (Lupu)

Debussy - Images for orchestra/Nocturnes (Monteux/LSO)
Janáček - Male Choruses (Veselka)
Handel - Agrippina (Gardiner)
Schoenberg - Die Jakobsleiter (Nagano)
Chopin - 3rd Piano Sonata/Impromptus (Momo Kodama)

Prokofiev - Piano Sonatas (Raekallio)
Liszt - 3rd book of Années de Pèlerinage (Kocsis)
Rachmaninoff - Études-Tableaux for piano (Ovchinnikov)
Bruckner - 9th Symphony (Kubelik)
Stravinsky - Petrushka (Rosbaud)

Bach - Cantatas (Herreweghe)
Berg - Lyric Suite (Arditti Quartet)
Mozart - Così Fan Tutte (Solti II)
Wagner - Meistersinger (Jochum)
Shostakovich - String Quartets (Danel Quartet)

Saint-Saëns - 2nd Piano Concerto (El Bacha/Verrot)
Sibelius - 5th Symphony (Barbirolli)
Ravel - Gaspard de la Nuit (Thibaudet)
Berlioz - Requiem (Davis/LSO)
Britten - Canticles (Britten)


EDIT: Okay, looking back, I see lists stretching it to thirty. So...


Scriabin - 2nd Piano Sonata (Kocyan)
Lutosławski - String Quartet (Arditti Quartet)
Beethoven - Cello Sonatas (Gastinel/Guy)
Schnittke - 1st Violin Sonata (Kagan/Lobanov)
Mahler - 2nd Symphony (Fischer)



Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Octave on February 09, 2013, 06:56:31 AM
Man, can we get an admin to add the :::RockOn::: emoticon yet?

I know that is a true labor of sacrifice to pare down one's loves and traveling companions to ~30 or less, DD.  I only exempt myself from the stress of all this because I am learning too much too fast, even just about what I like.  I love these lists!  Thanks to everyone for them.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Dancing Divertimentian on February 09, 2013, 04:17:57 PM
Quote from: Octave on February 09, 2013, 06:56:31 AM
Man, can we get an admin to add the :::RockOn::: emoticon yet?

I know that is a true labor of sacrifice to pare down one's loves and traveling companions to ~30 or less, DD.  I only exempt myself from the stress of all this because I am learning too much too fast, even just about what I like.  I love these lists!  Thanks to everyone for them.

Yep, definitely tip of the iceberg. :)


Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Karl Henning on February 11, 2013, 08:16:25 AM
Quote from: Brian on January 07, 2013, 11:50:30 AM
Shostakovich - 24 Preludes & Fugues (Alexander Melnikov, Harmonia Mundi)

Brian!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: xochitl on February 14, 2013, 04:27:14 AM
after much deliberation these are the ones i could not possibly part with

bach: goldberg variations - rodarmer
bach: cello suites - mork
bach: art of the fugue - goebel/koln
bach: violin sonatas & partitas - mullova [onyx]
mozart: piano concertos - schiff/vegh
beethoven: symphonies - bruggen I
beethoven: piano concertos 4&5 - schoondenwoerd
beethoven: string quartets - emerson quartet
beethoven: piano sonatas - brautigam
brahms: symphonies - abbado
brahms: piano concertos - brendel/abbado
brahms: trios -  eroica trio
bruckner: symphonies - wand/koln
mahler: symphony #1 - abbado/bpo
mahler: symphony #5 - barshai
mahler: symphony #6 - abbado/bpo
mahler: symphony #9 - bernstein/israel
tchaikovsky: symphonies 4-6 - karajan/bpo '70s [dg]
bartok: works for piano solo 1 - kocsis
bartok: violin concerto #2 - shaham/boulez
janacek: sinfonietta, glalolitic mass - mtt/sfso
nielsen: symphonies - blomstedt
sibelius: symphonies - blomstedt
stravinsky: le sacre [+bartok & mussorgsky] - salonen/lapo
villa-lobos: solo guitar - kraft [naxos]
reich: music for 18 musicians
adams: dharma at big sur
arnold: symphonies 7&8 - handley/rpo
piazzolla: la camorra
partch: delusion of the fury
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Daverz on February 14, 2013, 01:08:04 PM
I tried making a list, but I can't even get it under 50.   
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Brahmsian on September 24, 2013, 10:31:44 AM
To take Octave's suggestion, and in light of the BBC Top 50 recordings, perhaps GMG members would like to list their Top 50 favourite recordings in their own collection?  Just a thought, and I will put some thought into coming up with mine.  ;D
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Pat B on September 24, 2013, 09:36:08 PM
Quote from: ChamberNut on September 24, 2013, 10:31:44 AM
To take Octave's suggestion, and in light of the BBC Top 50 recordings, perhaps GMG members would like to list their Top 50 favourite recordings in their own collection?  Just a thought, and I will put some thought into coming up with mine.  ;D
I'm starting to think about mine.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Octave on September 24, 2013, 10:55:06 PM
Is it bad form to allow for excess of 50 items?  I realize a limit like that means making tough choices, which can be useful; but since any number will be arbitrary, I don't see why more leeway might not be granted.  I'd just hate to see someone pitch in the towel because 50 is too low a number and cannot be worked with.  Even ~150 is barely a "Noah's Ark" allowance, even for conservative "core"/canon type repertoire.

I still think the value of said lists includes 1.) antidote/riposte to Official Organs and their Lists (a constructive retort to authority, with pluralism the upshot); 2.) super useful to novices like me with limited time and coin; 3.) an opportunity for stocktaking and maybe even re-evaluation on the part of listmakers.  #2 is the most important, the others are bonus.

A little rule-bending might not be such a bad thing here; I have really benefited from these lists, not least because I can hunt down the recordings in question---just on GMG---and usually find spirited debates about their value compared to other performances.  It almost doesn't matter which recordings I end up getting, because I learn so much about the pieces in question.  Some I *gasp* even end up looking at scores.  Pretty, pretty dots...
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: North Star on September 24, 2013, 11:33:12 PM
Quote from: Octave on September 24, 2013, 10:55:06 PM
Is it bad form to allow for excess of 50 items?  I realize a limit like that means making tough choices, which can be useful; but since any number will be arbitrary, I don't see why more leeway might not be granted.  I'd just hate to see someone pitch in the towel because 50 is too low a number and cannot be worked with.  Even ~150 is barely a "Noah's Ark" allowance, even for conservative "core"/canon type repertoire.

I still think the value of said lists includes 1.) antidote/riposte to Official Organs and their Lists (a constructive retort to authority, with pluralism the upshot); 2.) super useful to novices like me with limited time and coin; 3.) an opportunity for stocktaking and maybe even re-evaluation on the part of listmakers.  #2 is the most important, the others are bonus.

A little rule-bending might not be such a bad thing here; I have really benefited from these lists, not least because I can hunt down the recordings in question---just on GMG---and usually find spirited debates about their value compared to other performances.  It almost doesn't matter which recordings I end up getting, because I learn so much about the pieces in question.  Some I *gasp* even end up looking at scores.  Pretty, pretty dots...
It was originally 25 items, so I think 50 is more than reasonable. The no box sets rule I sort of understand - nobody is going to listen to Berglund & Haendel's recording of the Britten VC just because I list the 37 CD EMI Collector's Edition here - but since a great deal of my favourites are in these boxes, I really don't like making a list that leaves those out.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Karl Henning on September 25, 2013, 03:52:17 AM
Quote from: Octave on September 24, 2013, 10:55:06 PM
Is it bad form to allow for excess of 50 items?

Heck, this thread started out with a limit of 25; some will point out that 50 is already excess  8)

Quote from: North Star on September 24, 2013, 11:33:12 PM
It was originally 25 items, so I think 50 is more than reasonable.

I should have counted on you to hit this first, Karlo!  :)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: North Star on September 25, 2013, 04:01:03 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on September 25, 2013, 03:52:17 AM
Heck, this thread started out with a limit of 25; some will point out that 50 is already excess  8)

I should have counted on you to hit this first, Karlo!  :)
And of course I can't manage to trim it down to 50 now :D
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: aquablob on September 25, 2013, 01:18:35 PM
My list ended up being less about my favorites and more about a wide variety of selections that might get a beginner off to a good start. Some are my favorites, some are "essentials," some I chose largely for pairings, some I chose for accessibility (good for toe-dipping).

Nothing's older than Baroque—oh well.

I tried to represent several different broad genres (symphonic, chamber, piano, vocal) with strategic picks. Also, there are almost no box sets here. The Bach is 3 CDs, the Brahms is 4 CDs, the Ravel is 3. [Edit: Obviously the Ring Cycle is a box set.] I'm feeling pretty good about this overall.



1. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos & Orchestral Suites (Pinnock: English Concert)
2. Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra & Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta (Karajan: Berlin Philharmonic)
3. Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 (Kleiber: Vienna Philharmonic)
4. Beethoven: "Waldstein," "Les Adieux," & "Appassionata" Piano Sonatas (Gilels)
5. Berlioz: Harold en Italie & Les Nuits d'Été (Tamestit, von Otter, Minkowski: Les Musiciens du Louvre - Grenoble)

6. Brahms: Piano Concertos, Ballades Op. 10, Waltzes Op. 39, Piano Pieces Opp. 116-119 (Kovacevich; Davis: London Symphony Orchestra)
7. Bruckner/Sibelius: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic"; Ritt und Sonnenaufgang (Jochum: Berlin Philharmonic)
8. Chopin: Nocturnes (Moravec)
9. Debussy: Préludes (Michelangeli)
10. Dvořák/Franck: Piano Quintets (Curzon, Vienna Philharmonic Quartet)

11. Glass: Glassworks
12. Handel: Messiah (Butt: Dunedin Consort & Players)
13. Haydn: String Quartets Op. 76 (Kodály Quartet)
14. Mahler: Symphony No. 1 & Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Kubelik: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Fischer-Dieskau)
15. Mendelssohn/Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos (Stern; Ormandy: Philadelphia Orchestra)

16. Mozart: Don Giovanni (Giulini: Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra)
17. Ravel: Complete Orchestral Works (Abbado: London Symphony Orchestra)
18. Saint-Saëns/Dukas: "Organ" Symphony, Sorcerer's Apprentice (Levine: Berlin Philharmonic)
19. Schubert: Winterreise (Fischer-Dieskau, Demus)
20. Schumann: Carnaval, Fantasiestücke, etc. (Artur Rubinstein: Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 51)

21. Shostakovich/Tchaikovsky: Piano Trios (Argerich/Kremer/Maisky)
22. Stravinsky/Prokofiev/Webern/Boulez: Piano Works (Pollini)
23. Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves, The Lark Ascending, Tallis Fantasia, etc. (Marriner, Boult, Wordsworth)
24. Verdi: Requiem, 4 Sacred Pieces (Gardiner: ORR & Monteverdi Choir)
25. Wagner: Ring Cycle (Solti: Vienna Philharmonic)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Daverz on September 25, 2013, 03:25:38 PM
Quote from: aquariuswb on September 25, 2013, 01:18:35 PM
My list ended up being less about my favorites and more about a wide variety of selections that might get a beginner off to a good start.

In that spirit, here's an old listmania list of mine:

http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Entry-Points/lm/R30BGC6G3KITN2/ref=cm_lm_byauthor_title_full

I need to update that to reflect more available recordings.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: George on October 05, 2013, 04:19:26 AM
Update

Bach - WTC - Samuel Feinberg - Russian Compact Disc - Talents of Russia
Bach - Cello Suites  -Wispelwey - Channel Classics
Bach - Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord - Carmignola/Marcon
Haydn - Piano Sonatas - Brendel/Philips, Richter/Decca
Haydn - String Quartets - Tatrai - Hungaroton
Mozart - Symphonies 21-41 - Krips/Concertgebouw - Decca
Mozart - Piano Concertos - Serkin, Casadesus, Haskil
Mozart - Violin Sonatas - Grumiaux/Haskil - Philips
Schubert - Symphonies - Harnoncourt/Concertgebouw - Teldec
Schubert - Piano Sonatas - Richter (various labels)
Schubert - Impromptus - Pires - DG
Beethoven - 9 Symphonies - Wand/RCA, Barenboim/Warner
Beethoven - Piano Concertos - Serkin/Kubelik - Orfeo
Beethoven - 32 Piano Sonatas - Annie Fischer/Hungaroton, Gulda (Amadeo/Brilliant)
Beethoven - String Quartets - Vegh stereo - Naive
Chopin - Nocturnes - Arrau - Philips
Chopin - Preludes - Sokolov/Naive, Moravec (Supraphon)
Chopin - Ballades - Tipo/live/Ermitage, Moravec/Supraphon
Brahms - Late solo works - Gould/Sony, Lupu/Decca
Brahms - Piano Concertos - Barenboim/Barbirolli - EMI
Rachmaninoff - PC 1 - Janis/Kondrashin - Mercury
Rachmaninoff - PC 2 - Richter/Wislocki - DG (original mastering, paired with Prokofiev PC 5)
Rachmaninoff - PC 3 - Janis/Dorati - Mercury
Rachmaninoff - PC 4 - Wild/Horenstein - Chesky
Rachmaninoff - Paganini Rhapsody - Rudy/Jansons - EMI
Rachmaninoff - Preludes - Ashkenazy - Decca
Scriabin - Sonatas - Ashkenazy - Decca
Debussy - Preludes - Michelangeli/DG or Arrau/Philips
Satie - Piano Works - Thibaudet/Decca
Poulenc - Piano Works - Tacchino/EMI
Poulenc - Chamber Works - Tharaud - Naxos
Faure - Piano Music - Collard - Brilliant
Sibelius - Symphonies - Ashkenazy - Decca
Bartok - Hungarian QT - DG
Bruckner - Celibidache EMI set
Prokofiev - Symphony 3 - Muti - Philips
Shostakovich - Symphonies - Kondrashin/Melodiya, Rohdestvensky/Melodiya, Mravinsky (various labels)
Shostakovich - String Quartets - Borodin Chandos
Schoenberg - String Quartets - Arditti - Sony
Shoenberg, Berg, Webern - Orchestral Works - Karajan - DG
Ligeti - String Quartets - Arditti -Sony

Josef Hofmann - The Complete Josef Hofmann Vol. 6, The Casimir Recital - Marston Records
Moritz Rosenthal - The Complete Recordings - APR
Cortot - The Anniversary Edition Box - EMI
Moiseiwitsch - Volumes 1-13 in Naxos Historical's Great Pianist series

Richter - Rachmaninoff Preludes and Etudes - Olympia/Regis
Natan Brand - Schumann and Chopin - Studio Recordings on BNL

Bruno Walter - The Edition -Sony
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: RebLem on December 16, 2013, 11:08:59 PM
Here's a partial list and some background on my reasons:

My neice and her husband announced last Christmas that they had become interested in classical music and were now regularly attending concerts of the Buffalo Philharmonic (they live in suburban Amherst).  I immediately gave them a sizable number of duplicates I already had, including my complete Toscanini collection, since I had just purchased the RCA complete Toscanini box.  This Christmas, I decided that they are getting a good education in orchestral music from those and from the concerts, so I decided to give them only chamber music, to help them round out a little.  Here's what I gave them:

Haydn:Complete String Quartets--Angeles Quartet
Dvorak: Complete String Quartets--Panocha Quartet
Shostokovich: Complete String Quartets, Piano Trio, and Piano Quintet--St. Petersburg String Quartet

Another thing I would suggest is that early on in one's collecting experience, one should learn that different conductors interpret things in different ways.  To help drive this point home, I suggest five complete sets of the Beethoven symphonies.  In order of original release, my five favorites are Furtwangler, Toscanini, Szell, Solti, and Gardiner.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Brahmsian on December 17, 2013, 04:39:04 AM
Quote from: RebLem on December 16, 2013, 11:08:59 PM
Dvorak: Complete String Quartets--Panocha Quartet

That would be on mine also.  A great set.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: aquablob on December 17, 2013, 05:55:59 AM
Quote from: RebLem on December 16, 2013, 11:08:59 PM
Another thing I would suggest is that early on in one's collecting experience, one should learn that different conductors interpret things in different ways.  To help drive this point home, I suggest five complete sets of the Beethoven symphonies.  In order of original release, my five favorites are Furtwangler, Toscanini, Szell, Solti, and Gardiner.

Which Solti set—'70s or '90s?
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: North Star on February 07, 2014, 05:35:20 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on September 24, 2013, 10:31:44 AM
To take Octave's suggestion, and in light of the BBC Top 50 recordings, perhaps GMG members would like to list their Top 50 favourite recordings in their own collection?  Just a thought, and I will put some thought into coming up with mine.  ;D

With 50 items, this list could obviously look somewhat different tomorrow, but I'd be happy with these - as happy as I could be with such a measly number of discs, anyway.

Alkan - Etudes in the minor keys (Gibbons)
Argerich & Pletnev - Ravel Ma mère l'oye & Prokofiev Cinderella suite
Bach - Bach: Famous Cantatas Vol. 1 (Herreweghe & Collegium Vocale Gent, HM)
Bartók - complete solo piano music (Kocsis)
Bartók - Boulez DGG box

Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 (Herreweghe, HM)
Beethoven - Late Sonatas (Penelope Crawford, Musica Omnia)
Berg Collection (DGG)
Berlioz - Colin Davis (LSO Live)
Brahms - Symphonies (Rattle & BPO)

Britten - Serenade, Nocturne, Les Illuminations - Bostridge & Rattle
Bruckner - Symphonies no. 7 (Chailly & Berlin RSO)
Chopin - Mazurkas (Luisada, RCA)
Debussy - Solo Piano Works (Crossley)
Debussy - Orchestral works - Martinon (EMI/Brilliant)

Dowland - Lachrimae (The Parley of Instruments, Hyperion)
Elgar - Symphonies nos. 1 & 2, Falstaff, The Music Makers, etc (Andrew Davis & BBCSO)
Hartmann  - Symphonies (Wergo)
Haydn - String Quartets, Op. 76 - Quatuor Mosaïques
Ives - New England Holidays (MTT & CSO)

Ives - An American Journey (MTT)
Janacek - Cunning Little Vixen (Neumann, Supraphon)
Janacek - Sinfonietta, Violin Concerto, Taras Bulba
Mahler Symphony No. 2, Kurtág Stele, Schönberg Kol Nidre (Gielen & SWR)
Mahler Symphony No. 5 - Chailly & RCO

Mahler DLvdE - Ludwig, Wunderlich & Klemperer (EMI)
Martinu - Chamber Music (Dartington Ensemble)
Monteverdi - Vespro della Beata Vergine (Concerto Italiano)
Mompou - Musica Callada (Perianes, HM)
Mozart - The Last Concertos (Freiburger Barockorchester, HM)

Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro (Jacobs, HM)
Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures / Tchaikovsky 4th (Sokhiev & Toulouse, naïve)
Nielsen - Symphonies & Orchestral Music (Schønwandt, Dausgaard, Dacapo)
Pärt - Tabula Rasa (ECM)
Prokofiev - Solo piano works (Raekallio, Ondine)

Prokofiev - Piano Concertos (Béroff, Masur)   
Rakhmaninov - All-Night Vigil (Hillier, HM)
Ravel - Decca Complete Edition
Satie - Socrate, melodies (Music Projects/London)
Schnittke - Choir Concerto, Requiem (Hymnia Chamber Choir)

Schubert - String Quintet, String Quartets nos. 14 & 15 (Belcea SQ, EMI)
Schubert - Late Piano Works (Pollini)
Schumann - Complete Solo Piano Music (Le Sage, alpha)
Shostakovich - Symphonies (Jansons, EMI)
Shostakovich - String Quartets (Emerson)

Sibelius - Symphonies & Tone Poems (Järvi & Gothenburg)
Stravinsky - Boulez DGG box
Szymanowski - Rattle EMI box
Varèse - Boulez (Sony)
Villa-Lobos - Choros, Bachianas & Solo guitar (BIS)§
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Ken B on February 27, 2014, 08:21:05 AM
We're talking recordings here not pieces, so ... None. There's always a better recording yet to be made or found.

But the last 2 to go would Karajan Sibelius 7 on DG and Virgil Thomson's 1947 Four Saints in Three Acts.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Karl Henning on February 27, 2014, 09:38:47 AM
Quote from: Ken B on February 27, 2014, 08:21:05 AM
We're talking recordings here not pieces, so ... None.

Oh . . . I think it took it largely as pieces, but you may well be right.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Philo on February 27, 2014, 10:11:29 AM
Lin - Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues
Lortie - Chopin and Mozart
Enescu - Bach's Violin Sonatas
Berezovsky - Liszt's Transcendental Etudes
Gould - Berg and Beethoven/Liszt
Kuerti - Scriabin
Maazel/WP - Mahler Symphony No. 1
Khittuk - Saint Lubin
Cortot - Can't go wrong
Kocsis - Bach's The Art of Fugue
Jarrett - Handel's Keyboard Sonatas
Chausson - Can't go wrong
Dalberto - Schumann

Etc.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Ken B on February 27, 2014, 10:15:43 AM
Quote from: Philo on February 27, 2014, 10:11:29 AM
Lin - Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues
Lortie - Chopin and Mozart
Enescu - Bach's Violin Sonatas
Berezovsky - Liszt's Transcendental Etudes
Gould - Berg and Beethoven/Liszt
Kuerti - Scriabin
Maazel/WP - Mahler Symphony No. 1
Khittuk - Saint Lubin
Cortot - Can't go wrong
Kocsis - Bach's The Art of Fugue
Jarrett - Handel's Keyboard Sonatas
Chausson - Can't go wrong
Dalberto - Schumann

Etc.
3 Canuck pianists
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: George on February 27, 2014, 05:02:57 PM
Quote from: Philo on February 27, 2014, 10:11:29 AM
Cortot - Can't go wrong

...and that's the double truth, Ruth!!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: coffee on July 16, 2014, 06:18:35 AM
25 titles
5 box sets

Let me take a stab at the official list - I do not claim to have appreciated any these recordings, let alone all of them - these are just my first-draft sense is of the approximately official (democratically averaging out the opinions of the cognoscenti) top 25: 


- Bach: Brandenburg Concertos - Richter
- Bach: Goldberg Variations - Gould 1981
- Bach: Mass in B minor - Richter 1962
- Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra, etc. - Reiner 1955, 1958
- Beethoven: Piano Sonatas - Kempff (stereo)

- Beethoven: String Quartets - Alban Berg Quartet 
- Beethoven: Symphonies - Karajan '63
- Beethoven: Symphonies 5 & 7 - Kleiber
- Brahms: A German Requiem - Klemperer
- Britten: War Requiem - Britten

- Elgar: Cello Concerto, Sea Pictures - Du Pre, Baker, Barbirolli
- Handel: Messiah - Beecham
- Haydn: String Quartets - Quatuor Mosaiques
- Mahler: Symphony #1 - Kubelik 1967
- Mozart: Don Giovanni - Giulini

- Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro - Solti
- Mozart: Piano Concertos - Brendel, Marriner
- Puccini: Tosca - Callas, Sabata 1953 
- Puccini: Turandot - Sutherland, Mehta
- Schubert: Trout Quintet, String Quartet #13 - Gilels & Amadeus Quartet

- Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos - Van Cliburn
- Tchaikovsky: Symphonies 4-6 - Mravinsky
- Verdi: La Traviata - Callas, Giulini 1955
- Wagner: The Ring of the Nibelungs - Solti
- Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Bohm

Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: NikF on February 28, 2015, 04:28:17 AM
Only a couple of notes, due to me being relatively uninformed about the music. So...

Prokofiev: Romeo And Juliet - Previn/LSO

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 - Karajan/BPO

Stravinsky: Apollo/Agon/Orpheus - Craft/LSO/Orchestra of St. Luke's - I've a real fondness for ballet and within that it's usually more Balanchine than Bolshoi. So these are right up my street.

Bartók: 6 String Quartets - Hungarian String Quartet - there was a time when I felt intimidated by these. However patience (and listening to different performances) eventually helped me hear this music, so much so that I find it difficult to describe what I find within it. But experiencing it is so fulfilling.

Brahms: String Sextet 1 - Casals/Stern/Schneider/Katims/Foley/Thomas - glorious mono! But when the music, players, and performance are all as wonderful as this, who cares? That's one of those rhetorical questions, BTW...

Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1 - Perahia/Members of the Amadeus Quartet. - I don't enjoy Brahms so much when it sounds like there's been an attempt to make him presentable and charming, but this performance seems (to me) the opposite of that.

Brahms: PC 1 - Gilels/Jochum/BPO - second choice for this is the Curzon/Szell.

Brahms: PC 2 - Richter/Maazel/Orchestre de Paris

Debussy: Preludes - Michelangeli - I'd listened to various recordings from different eras, and then this one just 'clicked'.

Debussy: SQ - Parrenin Quartet

Dvorak: SQ 12 - Lindsay String Quartet

Enescu: SQ 1 - Ad Libitum Quartet

Enescu: Cello Sonata No. 1 - Radutiu/Rundberg

Franck: Violin Sonata - Ashkenazy/Perlman

Franck: Piano Quintet In F Minor - Medici String Quartet

Ravel: SQ - Emerson Quartet

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G - Michelangeli/Gracis/Philharmonia Orchestra - previously my favourite was the Haas/Paray.

Ravel: Trio For Piano, Violin and Cello - Kantorow/Muller/Rouvier - the first time she heard this a beautiful girl turned to me with a raised eyebrow and faux shocked expression and said "This sounds like it's about sex". Oh yeah?

Janacek: SQ 2 - Wihan Quartet - desire and lust and torment and frustration-resignation via a very vital, very human performance.

Medtner: Piano Quintet - Bourova/Ewald/Podhoransky/Scherbakov/Tedla

Saint-Saens: Symphony 3 - Munch/BSO - my music for when I feel I'm winning at life.

Shostakovich: Complete Quartets - Borodin (Melodiya)  - before buying this I'd only ever heard 3 and 8. Then when I finally bought the set and started to listen I was so moved that I made sure to ration myself. It's obvious that discovering such music for the first time is to be savoured.

Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 - Ashkenazy/RPO

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 - Mravinsky/Leningrad Philharmonic

Strauss: Four Last Songs - Sylvia Sass/Lukacs/Hungarian State Orchestra - yet again I listened to a few different performances before deciding which to buy. And although I settled for this one I think it might be one of those "...of course buying three (or more?) versions is perfectly valid..." pieces.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Sean on February 28, 2015, 08:26:32 AM
Great list; I know a few of these recordings including the Prokofiev Karajan 5, Brahms Casals sextet and Gilels PC1, Ravel concerto Michelangeli, and Shostak Mravinsky 10. The best Brahms PC2 in existence however is probably the Barbirolli/ Ogden.

(http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Oct06/Ogdon_bbcl41832.jpg)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: NikF on February 28, 2015, 11:43:20 AM
The Barbirolli/ Ogden is one of many I've still to hear, although that's something to look forward to and the type of problem it's always nice to have!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Sean on February 28, 2015, 12:13:52 PM
Looks like you're good listener. I'm familiar with all the works you mention except the Medtner Piano quintet, which I'm now listening to, and the Enescu chamber works but which I'll probably leave for the moment.

What your friend said about the Ravel Trio is likely true, and can be said about his Bolero and Daphis and Chloe, and probably several other works.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: NikF on February 28, 2015, 12:32:24 PM
The Medtner is a good example of why I enjoy having Naxos (along with the likes of YouTube) as an option, because it affords the opportunity to live with music that's new to me at frankly a relatively cheap price.

I think it was not long after her comment about the Ravel Trio that we sat down and watched 'Un cœur en hiver' (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Heart_in_Winter) which we felt fairly successfully illustrated that viewpoint.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the Medtner. It's hardly the most demanding piece, but I dont believe that's necessarily a bad thing.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: North Star on January 24, 2016, 10:26:16 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 07, 2013, 12:41:55 PM
1. Alkan: 12 Etudes in the minor keys etc., Gibbons
2. Bach: Art of the Fugue, Fretwork
3. Bartók: String Quartets, Belcea Quartet
4. Beethoven: Late Sonatas, Pollini
5. Berlioz: Colin Davis & LSO box, LSO
6. Brahms: Chamber music, Hyperion
7. Chopin: Mazurkas, Luisada (RCA)
8. Debussy: Orchestral works, Martinon
9. Dvorak: Symphonies, Tone Poems & Overtures, Neumann & CzPO
10. Elgar: Cello Concerto & Sea Pictures, du Pré, Baker & Barbirolli
11. Haydn: String Quartets, Op. 76, Quatuor Mosaïques
12. Janacek: House of the Dead, Neumann
13. Mahler: EMI 150th anniversary
14. Martinu: Chamber music, Dartington Ensemble
15. Mozart: Piano Concertos, Barenboim & ECO
16. Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas & solo piano pieces, Raekallio
17. Rachmaninoff: All-night Vigil, Paul Hillier & Estonian Chamber Choir
18. Ravel: Piano Trio & Sonatas, Capucons & Braley
19. Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder, Craft
20. Schubert: String Quintet, String Quartets nos 14 & 15, Belcea Quartet
21. Shostakovich: Symphonies, Jansons
22. Sibelius: Symphonies, Maazel & WP
23. Stravinsky: Boulez's DG box
24. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 & Serenade for Strings, Gatti, HM
25. Tippett: Concertos & Fantasia Concertante, Barshaï, Tippett, Ogdon

I think this will need to be updated, and with as little cheating as possible.

Bach - Musical Offering (Savall)
Bartók - Divertimento & Dance Suite (Boulez DG)
Beethoven - Piano Sonatas opp. 109, 110 & 111 (Penelope Crawford)
Brahms - Trios (Florestan Trio, HM)
Britten - Serenade / Nocturne / Les illuminations (Bostridge/Rattle)

Chopin - Mazurkas (Luisada RCA)
Copland - Appalachian Spring, Billy The Kid, Lincoln Portrait
Debussy - Complete Piano Music (Béroff)
Elgar - The Music Makers, etc. (Andrew Davis)
Ives - American Journey (MTT)

Janáček - Chamber Music (Decca)
Ligeti - Etudes, Musica ricercata (Aimard)
Liszt - Années de pèlerinage (Grimwood)
Martinů - Chamber Music (Dartington Ensemble, Hyperion)
Mozart - Keyboard Music, Vol. 2 (Bezuidenhout, HM) or Piano Concertos K. 453 & 482 (Bezuidenhout, HM)

Nielsen - Concertos (Naxos)
Prokofiev - Violin Sonatas (Argerich & Kremer)
Pärt - Arbos (ECM)
Rakhmaninov - All-Night Vigil (Hillier)
Ravel - The Complete Edition (Decca Universal)

Richafort - Requiem (Cinquecento)
Schubert - Abendbilder (Gerhaher)
Schumann - Eschenbach & Barto's 'Ghost Concerto' on Ondine.
Sibelius - Symphonies nos. 6 & 7 and Tapiola (Vänskä & Lahti)
Stravinsky - Symphony of Psalms, Mass, Canticum Sacrum (O'Donnell, Hyperion)

And the new - or returned - faces ought to post as well ;)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: George on January 24, 2016, 03:00:25 PM
Quote from: North Star on January 24, 2016, 10:26:16 AM

Chopin - Mazurkas (Luisada RCA)


Have you heard his DG recording? I haven't heard the RCA, but Jed Distler on Classics Today likes the DG (8/9) more than the RCA (6/8.)

RCA - http://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-15492/
DG - http://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-14796/
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: North Star on January 25, 2016, 08:19:18 AM
Quote from: George on January 24, 2016, 03:00:25 PM
Have you heard his DG recording? I haven't heard the RCA, but Jed Distler on Classics Today likes the DG (8/9) more than the RCA (6/8.)

RCA - http://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-15492/
DG - http://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-14796/
I have not (or might have, on YT, but don't recall). I think I like the RCA better than Ashkenazy, my only other Chopin Mazurka set. But I was thinking more about the works than of the recordings on the list. I have some of Luisada's DGG waltzes, I can imagine that the earlier Mazurka set being very good too.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Spineur on January 30, 2016, 10:17:37 AM
OK, this is probably my list.  I say probably, because many great composers have been bumped out of the list, and I am not too happy about this.  Furthermore, there is no post WW2 music, which does not quite reflect what I usually listen to.  But 25 aint much !!!


Johann-Sebastian Bach; Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould
Johann-Sebastian Bach; Suites pour violoncelle seul, Paul Tortelier
Georg Friedrich Haendel; Ariodante Minkowski
Georg Friedrich Haendel; Giulio Cesare
Joseph Haydn; Les dernières paroles du Christ
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Sonates, Fantasies; Maria Juao Pires
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Don Giovanni
Wolgang Amadeus Mozart; La flute enchantée
Ludwig van Beethoven, les quatuors a cordes Alban Berg et Prazak
Franz Schubert, WinterReise, Dietrich Fisher-Diskau Gerald Moore
Franz Schubert, Quintette, quatuor la jeune fille et la mort
Giuseppe Verdi; La Traviata
Giuseppe Verdi; Requiem
Franz Liszt; Les années de  pelerinage, 3ieme année
Franz Liszt; Via Crucis
Gustav Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde, Fritz Reiner
Richard Strauss; Derniers lieders, Elisabeth Schwartzkopf
Richard Strauss; Metamorphosen
Giacomo Puccini; Madame Butterfly
Charles Gounod; Faust
Sergei Rachmaninov; Variations sur un thème de, Paganini, Corelli, Chopin
Sergei Rachmaninov; Vepres, vigiles nocturnes, Estonian choir, Paul Hillier
Maurice Ravel; oeuvres pour piano, incluant le concerto pour la main gauche
Edward Elgar; Concerto pour Violoncelle, Enigma variations; Jacqueline du Pré, Daniel Barenboim
An American Anthem-Samuel Barber; Ying Quartet
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Spineur on January 30, 2016, 10:46:22 AM
Actually it is almost as interesting to see which of the greatest works has been dumped.  It is amazing to see that Bach St Matthew Passion is only on Bogey's list.  Everybody else dumped it.  Why ?  Why did I choose Haydn Seven last words of Christ over St Matthew's Passion ?  I cant answer this ....
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: knight66 on January 30, 2016, 10:54:14 AM
I could not get such a list into manageable proportions; St Matthew Passion would certainly be on it, McCreesh.

Mike
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Monsieur Croche on January 30, 2016, 11:27:25 PM
Quote from: Spineur on January 30, 2016, 10:46:22 AM
Actually it is almost as interesting to see which of the greatest works has been dumped.  It is amazing to see that Bach St Matthew Passion is only on Bogey's list.  Everybody else dumped it.  Why ?  Why did I choose Haydn Seven last words of Christ over St Matthew's Passion ?  I cant answer this ....

The OP asks for lists of essentials for noobies.

In making up a list for the classical music neophyte or beginner and in order to do that with any integrity toward its purpose, the person writing that list will think of the listeners first, and that means leaving out the terribly long, the very dense, except perhaps in extracts of the briefest nature.

It is a fine line between not condescending, but thinking of what and which, most optimally, is going to draw in the people for whom the list is written, and choosing the pieces best thought to appeal to them, ergo, stimulate them to come back for more.

The expectation to have anything at all like that on a list recommending music to beginners is like recommending Milton's Paradise Lost or Joyce's Ulysses to those who have expressed an interest in art literature having just come from a place of motivation because they discovered they enjoyed reading a Harry Potter novel.

Your surprise and not without a little outrage at the fact your favorite hours-long, dense, baroque cantata on a religious subject -- replete with, uh-oh, classical style singers -- is not on the list?

Priceless.


P.s. The reason I have not made a list to contribute towards a very fine and necessary service -- to do it properly and for it to serve its purpose takes a lot of thought, work, and time, most of what is best set on that list having nothing or next to nothing to do with 'what I think is the greatest music,' or 'my personal favorites.'
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: knight66 on January 30, 2016, 11:43:25 PM
Over the years on here I have been very taken aback with the pieces that members have put forward as the one that prompted them into classical music. So often it was items I assumed would certainly put them off. I would not shove the St Matthew at anyone first thing; but at some point as they start to move along, suggest then listen to a bit and see what they think. I am happy to accept the opinion of musicologists that it is one of the cornerstones of music. That is how it has felt to me in my musical journey. Newbies deserve to be introduced to the best as well as the best of the easily assimilated.

Mike
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: North Star on January 30, 2016, 11:44:04 PM
Quote from: Monsieur Croche on January 30, 2016, 11:27:25 PM
The OP asks for lists of essentials for noobies.
Not exactly, the long-departed OP did leave room for interpretation, and I have a feeling that, in harmony with the thread title, most have chosen to make a list of their personal essentials.

Quote from: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 08:06:33 AMYou can approach this however you like, as a broad overview intended for a rank newcomer, as a narrower but deeper exploration of a particular era or genre that excites you and you think will excite others, or as a personal "desert island faves" list that you would not want to be without...or by throwing darts at your CD collection, if that's what floats your boat!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Monsieur Croche on January 31, 2016, 12:13:14 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 30, 2016, 11:44:04 PM
Not exactly, the long-departed OP did leave room for interpretation, and I have a feeling that, in harmony with the thread title, most have chosen to make a list of their personal essentials.

An OP which is completely non-committal to any one purpose then makes it essentially a free-for-all set of lists, including the aleatory, 'toss darts at your CD collection and list the ones you hit,' is utterly non-functional and self-indulgent.

At best, so many music internet foras' member-made lists are wonky replications of lists of those highly accessible ones already in circulation from magazines or more learned publications, those already more than adequate to their purpose.

Recommend and vote on to the heart's content, then  :blank:
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: North Star on January 31, 2016, 12:26:55 AM
Quote from: Monsieur Croche on January 31, 2016, 12:13:14 AM
An OP which is completely non-committal to any one purpose then makes it essentially a free-for-all set of lists, including the aleatory, 'toss darts at your CD collection and list the ones you hit,' is utterly non-functional and self-indulgent.
Non-functional? The whole purpose is to see what are the membership's personal essential discs. The thread has worked well so far.

QuoteAt best, so many music internet foras' member-made lists are wonky replications of lists of those highly accessible ones already in circulation from magazines or more learned publications, those already more than adequate to their purpose.
Right, and since there are already more than enough of those beginner's guides, including the collective GMG list linked to in the OP, there's no earthly reason to think that this thread should be like that.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Monsieur Croche on January 31, 2016, 12:48:32 AM
Quote from: North Star on January 31, 2016, 12:26:55 AM
Non-functional? The whole purpose is to see what are the membership's personal essential discs. The thread has worked well so far.
Right, and since there are already more than enough of those beginner's guides, including the collective GMG list linked to in the OP, there's no earthly reason to think that this thread should be like that.

I know, I know, ''making lists is fun.  -- of a sorts, I suppose. Knock yourself out, then.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists for Newbies
Post by: knight66 on January 31, 2016, 12:52:24 AM
It strikes me that the thread had its own organic life and in essence, it is a thread for folk to say what pieces they like; a bit of fun with some ideas new people might dip into. I see no need to stricture a thread that has been going along for a long time. The idea is enjoyment and learning. At least it is not a thread of one word posts.

I am not a great lover of straight forward lists; it would interest me to know why something is on a member's vital list.

If there is a consensus to move the thread away from the beginners' area, I will do that. But no new person has protested puzzlement as far as I know.

Cheers,

Mike
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on January 31, 2016, 03:36:15 AM
Quote from: Monsieur Croche on January 30, 2016, 11:27:25 PM
The OP asks for lists of essentials for noobies.

No, Croche. The OP points out that there have already been several threads of that type. Here we are asked for "our own essentials list. You can approach this however you like, as a broad overview intended for a rank newcomer, as a narrower but deeper exploration of a particular era or genre that excites you and you think will excite others, or as a personal "desert island faves" list that you would not want to be without...or by throwing darts at your CD collection, if that's what floats your boat!"

So what's Croche's list?
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: (poco) Sforzando on January 31, 2016, 06:00:04 AM
Quote from: knight66 on January 30, 2016, 11:43:25 PM
Over the years on here I have been very taken aback with the pieces that members have put forward as the one that prompted them into classical music.

Ha. For me it was the Verdi Requiem.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: knight66 on January 31, 2016, 06:19:32 AM
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on January 31, 2016, 06:00:04 AM
Ha. For me it was the Verdi Requiem.

That's a good one. The first live performance of music I was taken to was Rossini's William Tell. I have no idea how that did not put me off. I don't recall clamouring for more of the same, I was probably nine or 10; but it must have set something off.

Mike
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Monsieur Croche on January 31, 2016, 07:18:28 AM
Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on January 31, 2016, 03:36:15 AMSo what's Croche's list?

I do 'do' recommends to Q's of 'more like,' or 'if I like this/these then what else...' etc. In those I try to tailor the choice to the person who asks [may be music I don't care for, or even 'don't believe in,' but if it will suit the question so I think that party will continue and explore, then....] For the more 'tabula rasa' asker wanting recommends, I tend toward dropping in some modern/contemporary and chamber music -- you never know when it is such a blank slate what will take, and others predictably list standards from the Romantic, Classical and Baroque. [It seems a logical step if someone is coming from a listening habit of lead, rhythm, and bass guitar w percussion that a chamber ensemble is one kind of next step.]

The only list I ever wrote was after someone had asked me about a four-letter crossword slot, the answer to which was ''Lalo,'' and that triggered me to sit down and write off the top of my head 'composer names I knew.' After not many minutes, ten or eleven maybe, I stopped after there were a few over two hundred. Mental calisthenic, if you will. Useful, for one, for crossword puzzles  :)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Jay F on January 31, 2016, 12:21:19 PM
Quote from: knight66 on January 30, 2016, 11:43:25 PM
Over the years on here I have been very taken aback with the pieces that members have put forward as the one that prompted them into classical music. So often it was items I assumed would certainly put them off. I would not shove the St Matthew at anyone first thing; but at some point as they start to move along, suggest then listen to a bit and see what they think. I am happy to accept the opinion of musicologists that it is one of the cornerstones of music. That is how it has felt to me in my musical journey. Newbies deserve to be introduced to the best as well as the best of the easily assimilated.

Mike

The St. Matthew Passion happened to be one of the first pieces I listened to when I was starting to buy classical music back in the 1980s. I fell in love with it instantly, and it would be in the top 10 of any list of essentials I might make. It was this version, Herreweghe's first recording, one I have liked so much, I gave up trying to find one to better it after listening to three more recordings. I do not need to like anything more than I like this version.

[asin]B00158UFGA[/asin]

This is the currently available version. $12.82 + 3.99 as I write this.:

[asin]B00YT9IWEE[/asin]
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Jo498 on January 31, 2016, 12:52:02 PM
This is not the thread for this, but René Jacobs as Altus in the Herreweghe 1984 is an acquired taste, to put it mildly... It's been years that I heard it but Crook is also no way in the top evangelists to be had. So I would not recommend this one as a first St. Matthew (but do not ask me which one I'd recommend...)
But some recording of the St. Matthew would probably also be among my essentials shortlist.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: knight66 on January 31, 2016, 01:26:48 PM
Very encouraging guys. It has virtually been ever present in my life for so long that I cannot imagine any significant time without it.

Mike
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Monsieur Croche on January 31, 2016, 05:26:14 PM
Quote from: Jay F on January 31, 2016, 12:21:19 PM
The St. Matthew Passion happened to be one of the first pieces I listened to when I was starting to buy classical music back in the 1980s. I fell in love with it instantly, and it would be in the top 10 of any list of essentials I might make.

There you have it, lol. There truly is no telling, whether a completely naive tabula rasa noob or some already decided fan who is branching out, just what will strike an individual's fancy.

Maybe I'll drop the curmudgeon act [well, it is only partially an act, at least] and make up a list...

[I don't suppose there is anything like a handy collated list of all the previous recommends here to which to refer so one does not have to read the entire thread in anticipation they might be making redundant duplications, eh....]
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Jay F on January 31, 2016, 08:35:17 PM
My list of essentials. I know these are essential (to me), because I did a major cull in 2000, and these are among the ones I kept. Most are the versions I bought when I started collecting in 1987, which I read about in Gramophone or the 1986-1993 Penguin Guides to Classical Music. I also had four friends who knew a lot about classical, including a piano professor at a university and a music critic whose name most of you would recognize. They all loved taking me shopping. However, after a personal tragedy, by which time I'd gotten up to around 2500 CDs, I cut back to around 500. Here are my favorites from the 500.

N.B.: Most of my recommendations are from what was available in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I imagine many will have been superseded by later, better recordings, or at least better sounding recordings. So, I suggest you explore other versions in addition to the ones I am recommending. Some, I'm not recommending anyone's version. The pieces of music themselves are definite, unqualified recommendations, however.

Also, buying box sets seems to be the only way to get a lot of music these days, and it's available at such a better price than what I paid thirty years ago. So buy box sets when you can.

Mahler - The Symphonies - Bernstein, Sony
Mahler - Symphony No. 4 - Karajan
Mahler - Symphony No. 5 - Bernstein, DG
Beethoven - Symphonies - Harnoncourt, HvK's 1977 and 1963 recordings on DG
Beethoven String Quartets - Takacs or Emerson Quartet
Beethoven Piano Sonatas - Paul Lewis or Andras Schiff
Bach - St. Matthew Passion - Herreweghe 1984
Bach - Well Tempered Clavier I – Schiff
Bach - Well Tempered Clavier II – Schiff
Bach - Goldberg Variations – Schiff
Bach – Brandenburg Concertos – Pinnock, Akademie Fur Alte Musik Berlin
Brahms - Symphonies - Abbado or Honeck
Mozart Piano Concertos – Brendel, Perahia, Uchida: modern piano; Bilson, Levin: HIP
Mozart  - Symphonies 25-41
Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro
Mozart - Die Zauberflote
Puccini - La Boheme
Schubert - String Quartets and Quintet
Schubert - Piano Trios
Schubert - Piano Sonatas
Shostakovich - String Quartets
Sibelius - The symphonies - Ashkenazy
Verdi - La Traviata
Vivaldi – The Four Seasons – Pinnock
Vivaldi – Alla Rustica – Pinnock
Vivaldi – Lute and Mandolin Concerti – Paul O'Dette

Also, do check out the chamber music of Brahms, Beethoven, and Schubert that I have not specified on this list.

ETA: I checked out how much it would cost to buy all of this new on Amazon, and I got 22 items in my cart, costing between $500-600. When I started collecting classical, a single box set of, say, Mozart Piano Concertos cost between $160-200. I remember paying $212 for Inbal's Mahler box set. Good time to be buying classical.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Spineur on February 04, 2016, 09:45:34 AM
Quote from: Jay F on January 31, 2016, 08:35:17 PM
My list of essentials. I know these are essential (to me), because I did a major cull in 2000, and these are among the ones I kept. Most are the versions I bought when I started collecting in 1987, which I read about in Gramophone or the 1986-1993 Penguin Guides to Classical Music. I also had four friends who knew a lot about classical, including a piano professor at a university and a music critic whose name most of you would recognize. They all loved taking me shopping. However, after a personal tragedy, by which time I'd gotten up to around 2500 CDs, I cut back to around 500. Here are my favorites from the 500.

Very nice list.  Except for the Vivaldi which I like but do not consider essential, I can adhere to everything else !!!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Jay F on February 04, 2016, 01:17:40 PM
Quote from: Spineur on February 04, 2016, 09:45:34 AM
Very nice list.  Except for the Vivaldi which I like but do not consider essential, I can adhere to everything else !!!
If I had never heard Trevor Pinnock's Four Seasons, I might agree with you. But I cannot live without RV 425, the Mandolin Concerto in C.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPIZbBH-FNY
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Irons on October 07, 2018, 03:28:52 AM
Quote from: George on October 05, 2013, 04:19:26 AM
Update

Bach - WTC - Samuel Feinberg - Russian Compact Disc - Talents of Russia
Bach - Cello Suites  -Wispelwey - Channel Classics
Bach - Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord - Carmignola/Marcon
Haydn - Piano Sonatas - Brendel/Philips, Richter/Decca
Haydn - String Quartets - Tatrai - Hungaroton
Mozart - Symphonies 21-41 - Krips/Concertgebouw - Decca
Mozart - Piano Concertos - Serkin, Casadesus, Haskil
Mozart - Violin Sonatas - Grumiaux/Haskil - Philips
Schubert - Symphonies - Harnoncourt/Concertgebouw - Teldec
Schubert - Piano Sonatas - Richter (various labels)
Schubert - Impromptus - Pires - DG
Beethoven - 9 Symphonies - Wand/RCA, Barenboim/Warner
Beethoven - Piano Concertos - Serkin/Kubelik - Orfeo
Beethoven - 32 Piano Sonatas - Annie Fischer/Hungaroton, Gulda (Amadeo/Brilliant)
Beethoven - String Quartets - Vegh stereo - Naive
Chopin - Nocturnes - Arrau - Philips
Chopin - Preludes - Sokolov/Naive, Moravec (Supraphon)
Chopin - Ballades - Tipo/live/Ermitage, Moravec/Supraphon
Brahms - Late solo works - Gould/Sony, Lupu/Decca
Brahms - Piano Concertos - Barenboim/Barbirolli - EMI
Rachmaninoff - PC 1 - Janis/Kondrashin - Mercury
Rachmaninoff - PC 2 - Richter/Wislocki - DG (original mastering, paired with Prokofiev PC 5)
Rachmaninoff - PC 3 - Janis/Dorati - Mercury
Rachmaninoff - PC 4 - Wild/Horenstein - Chesky
Rachmaninoff - Paganini Rhapsody - Rudy/Jansons - EMI
Rachmaninoff - Preludes - Ashkenazy - Decca
Scriabin - Sonatas - Ashkenazy - Decca
Debussy - Preludes - Michelangeli/DG or Arrau/Philips
Satie - Piano Works - Thibaudet/Decca
Poulenc - Piano Works - Tacchino/EMI
Poulenc - Chamber Works - Tharaud - Naxos
Faure - Piano Music - Collard - Brilliant
Sibelius - Symphonies - Ashkenazy - Decca
Bartok - Hungarian QT - DG
Bruckner - Celibidache EMI set
Prokofiev - Symphony 3 - Muti - Philips
Shostakovich - Symphonies - Kondrashin/Melodiya, Rohdestvensky/Melodiya, Mravinsky (various labels)
Shostakovich - String Quartets - Borodin Chandos
Schoenberg - String Quartets - Arditti - Sony
Shoenberg, Berg, Webern - Orchestral Works - Karajan - DG
Ligeti - String Quartets - Arditti -Sony

Josef Hofmann - The Complete Josef Hofmann Vol. 6, The Casimir Recital - Marston Records
Moritz Rosenthal - The Complete Recordings - APR
Cortot - The Anniversary Edition Box - EMI
Moiseiwitsch - Volumes 1-13 in Naxos Historical's Great Pianist series

Richter - Rachmaninoff Preludes and Etudes - Olympia/Regis
Natan Brand - Schumann and Chopin - Studio Recordings on BNL

Bruno Walter - The Edition -Sony

Looking through George's list there is so much that appeals. Most is available on LP which is an added attraction as vinyl is my sole music carrier. All are excellent choices but some stand out, for instance: Feinberg's two sets of WTC on Melodiya. The complete Haydn string quartets on Hungaroton/Qualiton are a mainstay on my shelves. If I was limited in only listening to one area of music it would be the Haydn string quartets and the Tatrai SQ playing them. For the Mozart violin sonatas I would probably not choose Grumiaux/Haskil. Superb playing but on vinyl the sound is poor. I love the piano music of Fauré and the Bartok set of string quartets by the Hungarian SQ is the first I reach for. The Russian recordings of Shostakovich symphonies cannot be ignored. I could go on and on, as this a list of music very much up my street. The only thing missing is English music, but you can't have everything!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: amw on October 07, 2018, 05:27:27 AM
64 ~albums, which I guess—in an emergency—would form a repertoire "core" until I got a chance to rebuild my collection.

If I had to take it down to 25, I'd pick the starred ones.

*Bach Sonatas & Partitas BWV 1001-1006 - Mullova 2009
Bach St Matthew Passion BWV 244 - Harnoncourt 2001
*Barrett Dark Matter - ELISION/Cikada 2012
*Bartók String Quartets 1-6 - Juilliard Quartet 1963
Bartók Piano Concertos 1-3 - Kocsis 1995
*Beethoven String Quartets 1-16 - Artemis Quartet 2011 [provisionally]
*Beethoven Piano Sonatas 1-32 - Badura-Skoda 1990
Beethoven Cello Sonatas 1-5 - Maisky & Argerich 1994
Berlioz Roméo et Juliette op.17 - Ticciati 2014
*Brahms Sextets 1-2 - Hausmusik London 1999
Brahms Symphonies & Serenades - Kertész 1973
Brahms Violin Sonatas 1-3 - Frank & Serkin 1998
*Cage Complete Piano Music - Schleiermacher 2002
*Tchaikovsky Serenade Op.48 & Suite Op.55 - Kondrashin 1966
Chopin Sonatas 2 & 3 - Hamelin 2009
Debussy Preludes, Etudes, Images, etc - Rev 1980
Dvořák Slavonic Dances - Šejna 1960
*Dvořák Symphonies & Concertos - Bělohlávek 2014
*Fauré Horizons - Fouchenneret, Zaoui, Merlin & Lefort 2016
Ferneyhough Quartets & Trios - Arditti Quartet 2014
*Ferrari L'œuvre électronique 2009
Gombert Motets - Rice 2007
Grisey Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil - Dubosc 2001
*Haydn String Quartets (complete) - Festetics Quartet 2005
*Holliger String Quartet 1, Die Jahreszeiten, Chaconne - Berner Streichquartett etc 1979
*Hosokawa Deep Silence - Miyata & Hussong 2004
Hummel Piano Sonatas 3, 5 & 6 - Hough 2003
Janáček & Nielsen Piano Music - Andsnes 2006
*Janáček String Quartets 1-2 - Panocha Quartet 1996
Kirchner & Schumann Davidsbündlertänze - Maruko 1994
Kondo Gardenia - Ensemble Nomad 1998
Kurtág Kafka-Fragmente Op.24 - Banse 2006
Kurtág Works for Soprano - Csengery 1998
Lachenmann Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern - Zagrosek 2001
Lutosławski Symphonies 1-4 - Salonen 2013
*Machaut Motets - Ensemble Musica Nova 2002
*Martinů Symphonies 1-6 - Bělohlávek 2011
Medtner Piano Sonatas - Hamelin 1998
Mendelssohn Octet, String Quintets, Quartet 2 - Hausmusik 2000
Mendelssohn Songs without words, etc - Perianes 2014
*Mozart String Quintets 1-6 - Kuijken Quartet & Terakado 1999
Mozart Violin Sonatas K58, 304 & 481 - Kuijken & Leonhardt 1979
*Mozart Piano Concertos 5-27 - Bilson & Gardiner 1989
Nielsen Symphonies 1-6 - Schmidt 1974
Ockeghem Missa prolationum - Hillier 1989
Prokofiev Sonatas 6-8 - Giltburg 2012
Rădulescu String Quartet 4 - Arditti Quartet 2001
Ruders Symphony 2 & Piano Concerto - Stenz & Schønwandt 2002
Saunders Stirrings Still - musikFabrik 2008
Scarlatti 33 Keyboard Sonatas - Zacharias 2003
*Schubert Sonatas 17, 20, 21 - Schnabel 1939
*Schubert String Quintet - Taneyev Quartet & Rostropovich 1963
Schubert Die schöne Müllerin - Prégardien 2008
*Schubert Winterreise - Schäfer 2006
Schumann Humoreske, Gesänge der Fruhe - Anderszewski 2010
*Schumann Kreisleriana, Carnaval & Sinfonische Etüden - Anda 1955
*Schumann Dichterliebe & Liederkreis Op. 24 - Bostridge 1998
Schumann Liederkreis Op. 39 & Liederreihe Op. 35 - Goerne 1999
Sciarrino String Quartets 1-8 - Quartetto Prometeo 2013
*Sciarrino Orchestral Works - Ceccherini 2008
Shostakovich Piano Trios - Florestan Trio & Gritton 2011
Stockhausen Klavierstücke I-XI, Mikrophonie I & II - Kontarsky 1965
Ustvolskaya Piano Sonatas & Preludes - Liebner 2009
Xenakis Chamber Music 1955-1990 - Arditti Quartet & Helffer 1991
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: ChopinBroccoli on August 02, 2019, 04:36:11 PM
Interesting idea...  I tend to restrict my outright purchasing to only favorites as I'm not made of money (listen to a bunch of different recordings of the same work, pick the one I like best ... make an exception for an exceptional "other" interpretation at times)

I'll just stick with really famous composers assuming a new listener is reading this

BACH:
Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 (modern instruments and harpsichord)
(Tafelmusik)

Brandenburg Concertos 1-6
(Period instruments)
(Orch. Of The Age of Enlightenment)

WTK Book 1 & 2 (harpsichord with period pitch)
(Gilbert)

Goldberg Variations (piano)
(Gould, 1955)


BARTOK:
Concerto for Orchestra
(Reiner/Chicago)

Piano Concertos 1 & 2
(Pollini with Abbado/Chicago/London)

BEETHOVEN:
Piano Concertos 3,4,5
(Fleisher with Szell/Cleveland)

Symphony 3
(Bernstein/NYPO... 1966)

Symphony 5 and 7
(Kleiber, Vienna Philharmonic)

BRAHMS:
Symphonies 1-4, Haydn Variations
(Szell/Cleveland)

Piano Concertos 1 & 2
(Moravec with Belohlavek/Czech Phil)

CHOPIN:
Etudes
(Ashkenazy)

Preludes
(Tharaud)

Nocturnes
(Pires)

For anything else including the Preludes and Nocturnes, you can never really go wrong with Rubinstein so I have a ton of his Chopin

DEBUSSY:
Preludes (Plano)
(Lubimov)

All major orchestral music
(Haitink/Royal CGBO)

DVORAK:
Symphony 8 & 9
(Kubelik/Berlin Phil)


GERSHWIN:
Rhapsody in Blue/American in Paris
(Bernstein/NYPO/"Columbia" SO... 1958)

GRIEG:
Piano Concerto in A Minor
(Fleisher with Szell/Cleveland)

LISZT:
Hungarian Rhapsodies
(Szidon)

Piano Concertos 1 & 2, Piano Sonata in B Minor
(Richter with Kondrashin/LSO)

MENDELSSOHN:
Symphony no. 4 "Italian"
(Szell/Cleveland)

A Midsummer Night's Dream
(Szell/Cleveland)

Piano Concerto 1 & 2
(Shelley/London Mozart Players)


MOZART:

Symphonies 40 & 41
(Bernstein/Vienna PO)

Piano Concerto 20
(Andsnes/Norway Chamber Orchestra)

Piano Concerto 21-27
(R. Casadesus with Szell/Cleveland/"Columbia" SO)


MUSSORGSKY:
Pictures at an Exhibition (Piano)
(Richter 1958)

Pictures at an Exhibition (Ravel Orchestration)
(Reiner/Chicago)

A Night on Bare (Bald) Mountain (Rimsky-Korsakov arrangement)
(Rostropovich/Orch. de Paris)


PROKOFIEV:

Symphonies 1 & 5
(Karajan/Berlin Phil)

Piano Concerto 2 & 3
(Gutierrez with Jarvi/Berlin Phil)

Piano Concerto 3 (alternate choice)
(Argerich with Abbado/Berlin Phil)

Piano Concerto 5
(Richter with Rowicki/Warsaw Nat.)

Piano Sonata 8, Toccata
(Richter)

RACHMANINOFF:

Piano Concerto 2
(Cliburn with Reiner/Chicago)

Piano Concerto 2 (alternate)
(Richter with Wislocki/Warsaw Nat.)

Piano Concerto 1 and 4
(Ashkenazy with Previn/LSO)

Piano Concerto 3 (Ossia cadenza)
(Ashkenazy with Previn/LSO)

Piano Concerto 3 (Toccata cadenza)
(Argerich with Chailly/Berlin RSO)

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
(Trifonov with Nezet-Seguin/Philadelphia)

Variations Chopin and Corelli
(Trifonov)

Piano Sonata 2/assorted preludes and etude-tableau
(Kocsis)

Symphonic Dances/Isle of The Dead
(Batiz/Royal PO)

RAVEL:

Piano Concerto in G/Concerto for Left Hand
(Zimmerman with Boulez/Cleveland/LSO)

Solo piano compilation (numerous pieces)
(Osborne)

Gaspard de la nuit/Jeux D'eau
(Argerich)

Daphnis et Chloe (complete) plus numerous other complete orchestral works
(Dutoit/Montreal)


RIMSKY-KORSAKOV:

Scheherazade
(Reiner/Chicago)

Symphony no. 3
(Svetlanov/Russian State Sym)


ROSSINI:

Overtures
(Reiner/Chicago)


SAINT-SAËNS:

Symphony no. 3
(Munch/Boston)


SCHUBERT:

Symphony no 5 and no 8 ("Unfinished")
(Walter/"Columbia" SO)

Symphony no 9 (Great C Major)
(Szell/Cleveland... 1957 version; vintage album cover calls it no. 7 in accordance with the old Schubert numbering system)

Piano Sonata, D. 850
(Gilels)

Piano Sonatas, D. 959 and D. 960
(Zimmerman)

Impromptus plus other complete solo piano pieces
(Brendel)


SCHUMANN:

Carnaval and Papillions
(Hamelin)

Fantasiestücke (1-3, 5, 7-8)
(Richter)

Waldszenen
(Richter)

Piano Concerto
(Fleisher with Szell/Cleveland)


SCRIABIN:

Prometheus
(Ashkenazy with Maazel/LPO)

Poem of Ecstasy
(Gergiev/Marlinsky Orch)

Piano Sonata no. 5
(Richter)


SHOSTAKOVICH:

Symphony no. 1
(Ormandy/Philadelphia)

Symphony no. 5
(Bernstein/NYPO)

Symphony no. 8
(Rostropovich/National SO)

Symphony no. 10
(Haitink/LPO)

Piano Concerto no. 1
(Previn with Bernstein/NYPO)

Piano Concerto no. 2
(Bernstein-piano with NYPO)


SIBELIUS:

Symphony no. 2 and Finlandia
(Ashkenazy/Boston)


SMETANA:

Ma Vlast (complete)
(Wit/Polish Nat. RSO)


R. STRAUSS:

Alpensymphonie
(Karajan/Berlin Phil)

Also Sprach Zarathustra and Ein Heldenleben
(Reiner/Chicago)

Till Eulenspiegel/Don Juan/Death and Transfiguration
(Szell/Cleveland)


STRAVINSKY:

The Rite of Spring
(Gergiev/Marlinsky Orch.)

The Firebird (1919)
(Szell/Cleveland)

The Firebird (complete)
(Dorati/LSO)


TCHAIKOVSKY:

Suites: Nutcracker/Sleeping Beauty/Swan Lake
(Rostropovich/Berlin Phil)

Piano Concerto no. 1
(Cliburn with Kondrashin/"RCA" SO)

Piano Concerto no. 2 (complete uncut) and no. 3 (as was, without later posthumous editions)
(Donohoe/Bournemouth SO)

Romeo and Juliet
(Karajan/Berlin Phil)

Symphony no. 4
(Jansons/Oslo PO)

Symphony no. 5
(Szell/Cleveland) - surprisingly enough, since this is not at all material one associates with Szell

Symphony no. 6
(Mravinsky/Leningrad PO)

Symphony no. 6 (alternate)
(Ormandy/Philadelphia) - Ormandy has never been a favorite with critics and connoisseurs but his style and the great playing of the Philadelphia Orchestra and its famous lush strings are ideal for this symphony


WAGNER:

Orchestral Highlights from "The Ring" (plus additional selections)
(Szell/Cleveland... 1960s recordings)

I'm not a fan of opera or vocal music of the classical realm in general, hence the lack of either with regard to Wagner and Rossini, to say nothing of the complete absence of figures like Verdi and Bizet)



Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Sergeant Rock on August 03, 2019, 05:33:13 AM
Quote from: ChopinBroccoli on August 02, 2019, 04:36:11 PM
Interesting idea...  I tend to restrict my outright purchasing to only favorites as I'm not made of money (listen to a bunch of different recordings of the same work, pick the one I like best ... make an exception for an exceptional "other" interpretation at times)


(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/asheville/Sarges%20Seal%20of%20Approval_400.jpg)


Especially good to see so much Szell among your choices.

Sarge
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: ChopinBroccoli on August 03, 2019, 07:14:44 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on August 03, 2019, 05:33:13 AM

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/asheville/Sarges%20Seal%20of%20Approval_400.jpg)


Especially good to see so much Szell among your choices.

Sarge

I noted the same when I read another list here with a good deal of Szell

Szell and the Clevelanders were incredible... I've yet to hear a dud
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: USMC1960s on November 26, 2022, 10:46:19 AM
My 15 favorite composers.
Mozart-Beethoven-Bach-Tchaikovsky-Corelli-Vivaldi-Telemann-Handel-Boccherini-Dvorak-Holst-Rachmaninoff-Vaughn Williams-Berlioz-Schubert.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Karl Henning on November 26, 2022, 10:58:44 AM
Quote from: Dave B on November 26, 2022, 10:46:19 AMMy 15 favorite composers.
Mozart-Beethoven-Bach-Tchaikovsky-Corelli-Vivaldi-Telemann-Handel-Boccherini-Dvorak-Holst-Rachmaninoff-Vaughn Williams-Berlioz-Schubert.
Nice list!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: George on November 26, 2022, 11:04:04 AM
Quote from: Dave B on November 26, 2022, 10:46:19 AMMy 15 favorite composers.
Mozart-Beethoven-Bach-Tchaikovsky-Corelli-Vivaldi-Telemann-Handel-Boccherini-Dvorak-Holst-Rachmaninoff-Vaughn Williams-Berlioz-Schubert.

Mine:

Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: USMC1960s on November 26, 2022, 11:08:02 AM
Excellent list!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Karl Henning on November 26, 2022, 12:39:07 PM
Agreed!
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Scion7 on November 27, 2022, 06:43:12 AM
Quote from: Dave B on November 26, 2022, 10:46:19 AMMy 15 favorite composers.
...Boccherini...

that was a bit jarring in context!  :blank:
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: USMC1960s on November 27, 2022, 09:04:56 AM
I guess it does sound odd. A bit like listing Washington, Lincoln, FDR, JFK----then, Millard Fillmore?
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: j winter on November 29, 2022, 12:08:56 PM
A bit late joining the fun, but I thought I'd give this a crack.  I stared at a blank sheet of paper, asked myself what my absolute favorite classical recordings were, and this is what I wrote on first pass.  I took it as the classic, "you're being chased out of a burning house on your way to a desert island conveniently equipped with a working stereo and a well-stocked bar, what do you grab?" scenario.  The real answer of course is that I'd grab my laptop and my portable hard drive, and take everything.  But that's no fun, so... 

·        Bach Well-Tempered Clavier – Jill Crossland.  I might have gone with several folks here on piano, particularly Aldwell and Gulda, but I'll cite a relative newcomer. 
·        Bach Cello Suites – Rostropovich, or Fournier depending on my mood.  Certainly could have gone with Casals, but if I can only have one, I'd prefer modern sound.
·        Bach B Minor Mass – Eugen Jochum, EMI
·        Bach orchestral transcriptions – Leopold Stokowski.  Call me a heathen if you like, but Stokie's Passacaglia is probably my all-time fave Bach recording
·        Beethoven Symphonies 1-9 – Franz Konwitschny, Gewandhaus Leipzig.  There are oodles of great choices for sets, going for one that might not be on everyone's radar.  I can't start listing favorites for the individual symphonies, that way madness lies.
·        Beethoven Piano Concertos 4 & 5 – Emil Gilels/Leopold Ludwig EMI.  I would hate to be without the others though, so perhaps I'll sneak a Fleisher/Szell or Serkin/Ormandy cycle in amongst the luggage.
·        Beethoven Piano sonatas – Emil Gilels.  The first Beethoven recording I ever heard was Gilels' Moonlight sonata.  Still my fave after many years.
·        Beethoven string quartets – Budapest Qt.  Or possibly Vegh.  How close are the flames to my CD case at this point?
·        Beethoven & Brahms Violin Concertos – Milstein EMI
·        Brahms symphonies 1-4 – Bruno Walter, Columbia Symphony Orch.  I could listen to Walter's Brahms for a month.  (Seriously a better choice might be to just grab the big Bruno Walter box set under one arm, and the Szell box under the other – I'd honestly be pretty darned content.  But I'm trying to stay with the spirit of the thing.)
·        Brahms Piano Concerto 1 – Curzon/Szell.  Man, that opening gets me every time, it hits like 50,000 volts.
·        Brahms Requiem – Otto Klemperer.  Some people dig air guitar, I prefer to air conduct.
·        Bruckner Symphonies 1-9 – Eugen Jochum SD.  Many good choices here as well... I know the original post suggested avoiding boxes, and part of me considered selecting choices for several individual symphonies, but if part of this is provide guidance for newer listeners coming to Bruckner, I'd honestly recommend starting with a box set, particularly given bargain prices these days... you can get them all for the same price as a couple of used singles.  Same with Mahler below.
·        Chopin Preludes – lordy, how to pick just one?  I'll go with Arrau live on APR as my absolute fave, supplemented by someone else in better sound that's actually available – I'll say Moravec.
·        Chopin Nocturnes – I'll switch it and go with Moravec, with Arrau as a backup.  Or maybe Freire... man this is hard...
·        Chopin Mazurkas – Rubinstein stereo.  Love this recording!
·        Debussy piano music – I'm torn between the classic Gieseking and something with better sound.  Maybe Michelangeli's Preludes...
·        Dvorak Symphonies 1-9 – Kertesz LSO.  If not a set, Szell for 7 & 8, Bernstein or Ancerl for 9
·        Haydn Paris symphonies – Harnoncourt, or Thomas Fey
·        Haydn London symphonies – Eugen Jochum
·        Haydn Piano Trios – Beaux Arts Trio.  Though I quite like Trio 1790.
·        Haydn String Quartets – Aeolian Qt.  I know I'm in the minority here.
·        Mahler symphonies 1-9 – Bernstein Sony.  There are WAY too many great recordings to choose from, but again I think a box is the way to go for a relative newcomer.  Though I would hate to be without some old favorites like Barbirolli...
·        Mozart symphonies 28-41 – Colin Davis SD.  Lots of great options for the late symphonies... I adore Walter and Szell here, but Davis is more complete and in gorgeous sound (and has Dresden).
·        Mozart piano concertos – Rudolf Buchbinder.  Almost impossible to pick just one set, though... over the past couple of years I find that I listen to Mozart's piano concertos more than any other works, particularly when I'm stressed.  They just take me to a happy place 😊
·        Mozart serenades and divertimenti - Sandor Vegh
·        Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky, Lt Kije – Andre Previn Teldec.  Turn it up and rattle the windows!
·        Purcell Dido & Aeneas – Emmanuelle Haim 
·        Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 2 – Richter DG, or Ashkenazy/Previn for all four
·        Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade – Stokowski, the crazy Phase 4 one.  Life is short, why not indulge?  Reiner or Kondrashin for a straighter version.
·        Schubert symphonies 1-9 – Herbert Blomstedt SD.  How did Charles Munch's 8 & 9 get squeezed in that box too?
·        Sibelius symphonies 1-7 – Paavo Berglund Bournemouth.  I would deeply regret leaving Szell's #2 behind.
·        Strauss Death & Transfiguration – Szell Cleveland
·        Tchaikovsky symphonies 4-6 – Mravinsky Leningrad.  Realistically I'd like to supplement this with Ormandy or another recording that's a bit more beautiful and calmer than Mravinsky (i.e. anybody else on Earth)
·        Vivaldi Four Seasons – Giuliano Carmignola/Andrea Marcon
·        Vivaldi various concertos - Claudio Scimone, I Solisti Veneti
·        Wagner Overtures & Ring Excerpts – Szell Cleveland  'nuff said

So that's what I came up with literally off the top of my head.  I would say that there are too many box sets here, but with the way CDs are marketed and sold these days, it just makes sense.  I should include more chamber music, and more modern music, and the list largely lacks vocal music which I've struggled to appreciate over the years.  I'd also point out that my collection is a lot more diverse than the above list indicates; for instance I LOVE Prokofiev, I listen to lots of it, but I don't really have specific discs that I keep returning to – I jump around a lot.  I enjoy everything from Saint-Saens to Shostakovich to CPE Bach, but these are my top picks, warhorses though most of them be. 

Sorry to ramble, hopefully some newer listeners can continue to glean some recommendations from this thread...
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: USMC1960s on November 29, 2022, 12:13:57 PM
That's a great list.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: The new erato on November 30, 2022, 12:02:40 AM
Quote from: Dave B on November 29, 2022, 12:13:57 PMThat's a great list.
And really well argued.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Todd on November 30, 2022, 01:47:13 PM
Quote from: Dave Bruce on November 27, 2022, 09:04:56 AMthen, Millard Fillmore?

Hey now, he was instrumental in passing the nation's first modern bankruptcy laws in New York and signed into law the statutes comprising the Compromise of 1850, so a case could be made for inclusion.  Maybe.  Possibly.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: USMC1960s on November 30, 2022, 02:18:27 PM
Possibly. Ok. Let's include him. But Mount Rushmore material? No.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Todd on November 30, 2022, 02:25:02 PM
Quote from: Dave Bruce on November 30, 2022, 02:18:27 PMBut Mount Rushmore material? No.

We could start a petition to have his face carved into Ocheyedan Mound.
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: USMC1960s on November 30, 2022, 02:39:41 PM
Agreed
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: pianoforever on July 17, 2023, 02:43:00 PM
I find this a personally useful exercise (a bit of healthy soul searching..). I focus on works rather than on performers, as there is hardly ever insostituibile performances. Klemperer's St. Matthew's Passion is for me a rare exception. So here goes, in order of top of mind:
1. Bach, Goldberg Variations (Schiff and others)
2. Bach, Violin sonatas and partitas (Mullova, Milstein and others)
3. Bach, Cello suites (Fournier, Arnau and others)
4. Bach, St. Matthew Passion (Klemperer)
5. Beethoven, piano sonatas (Annie Fischer, Gulda, Heidsieck, Lucchesini and others)
6. Beethoven, string quartets (Prazak, Vegh, Ebene, Italiano and others)
7. Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro (Jacobs, Giulini, Gui)
8. Scarlatti, Sonatas (the Pletnev collection, but Horowitz and many others would be more than worthy)
9. Chopin, Nocturnes (Moravec and others)
10.Stravinsky, Petrushka (Abbado, Chailly and others)
11.Bartok, Concerto for Orchestra (Kubelik, Reiner and others)
12.Mahler, symphonies (Bernstein, Chailly, Bertini, Klemperer, Walter and others)
13.Mahler, Das Lied von Der Erde (Klemperer, Walter and others)
14.Ravel and Debussy string quartets (Hagen, Italiano and others)
15.Debussy, preludes (Michelangeli and others)
16.Debussy, Pelleas (Kubelik, Abbado, Karajan)
17.Wagner, Tristan (Kleiber, Bohm and others)
18.Wagner, Parsifal (Kubelik, Barenboim and others)
19. Brahms and Mozart, clarinet quintets (De Peyer and others)
20. Haydn symphonies (Dorati, Fischer, Bruggen, Bernstein and others)
21. Haydn, piano sonatas (Richter, Brendel, Schiff and others)
22. Schumann, Fantasie, Kinderszenen, Etudes Symphoniques (Moravec, Pollini, Collard and others)
23. Zelenka, a bunch of Supraphon, Niribu and Carus recordings of Masses and other pieces
24. Janacek, String Quartes (Prazak and Panocha)
25. Mozart, Don Giovanni (Jacobs, Gardiner, Klemperer and others)

   
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Spotted Horses on July 21, 2023, 07:40:21 AM
I couldn't even begin to put together my "essentials" list, but this thread is so interesting historically. You go to the the original post and it is by David Ross, who was once quite active here, but stopped participating in 2014. (I think he was a celebrity of sorts, head of a big museum.) The second post is by Karl Henning (guest). That's right Karl Henning once deleted his account here. Yes, Karl's impressive 68,000+ posts don't include posts made before he deleted and re-registered! :)
Title: Re: GMG Members' Personal Essentials Lists
Post by: Papy Oli on July 21, 2023, 08:01:13 AM
Quote from: Papy Oli on September 08, 2010, 12:02:42 PM25 recordings I couldn't live without, with the ones in bold being among the very first records I bought when I started to explore classical music 3 to 4 years ago and that are still among my very favourites.

Obviously, Lots more works and genres to discover and get familiar within my own collection or to purchase later, but it will take something special to knock some off that list. 

Mahler Symphony No.1 – Maazel / VPO
Mahler Symphony No.2 – Boulez / VPO (live)
Mahler Symphony No.3 – Haitink / Concertgebouw / Forrester
Mahler Symphony No.4 – Reiner / Chicago
Mahler symphony No.5 – Tennstedt / LPO (Live)
Mahler Symphony No.6 – Fischer / Budapest
Mahler Symphony No.6 – Barbirolli

Beethoven – Symphony No.9 – Karajan '63
Bruckner – Symphonies 3-9 – Celibidache / Munich
Bruckner – Symphony No.8 – Giulini / VPO
Gorecki – Symphony No.3 (Swoboda / Kilanowicz / Polish State PO)

Arvo Part – Kanon Pokajanen (ECM)
Tallis – Spem in Alium / Salve Intemerata – Summerly / Oxford Camerata
Pergolesi – Stabat Mater – Alessandrini / Concerto Italiano
Arvo Part – Berliner Messe (Naxos)
Byrd – Mass for 4 & 5 voices - Summerly / Oxford Camerata

Chopin – Nocturnes - Moravec
Rameau – Suite en Mi Mineur – Marcelle Meyer
Satie – Piano Works – Klara Kormendi (Naxos)
Schumann – Piano Works (Kempff)
Schubert – D.940 (Lupu / Perahia)
Schubert – Arpeggione sonata (Queyras / Tharaud)
Schubert – Impromptus (MJ Pires)
Beethoven Op.7 / Brahms 4 Ballads / Schubert D.537 – Michelangeli

Beethoven – String Quartets – Gewandhaus Qt.



As to my bold text: younger Oli, you are an idiot. :laugh:

I never envisaged for my tastes to changes that radically in the last 5 years though. I could happily just keep Celi's Bruckner from the above list and replace all the others with a mix of Baroque, French & English composers and a couple of operas thrown in :o