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The GMG essential collection: a desert island briefcaseful
DavidRoss:
On another thread recently I noted a reference to someone's record collection numbering several thousand CDs and still growing rapidly. Among other things, it made me wonder how often one might listen to individual records in a collection so large. Even in my own comparatively meager collection there are dozens or even hundreds of CDs that I've not heard in years.
Running some numbers, I calculated that if I owned 1000 CDs and listened actively for 3 hours every day, it would take about a year to hear each of them once. Yet there are many pieces that I would rather hear two or three times a month than hear certain others once every two or three years. Just what are those most beloved pieces, I wondered...and don't they make up 80% or more of all my listening? Could I be fairly well satisfied with only a hundred or so records? And if I chose only 100 CDs (discs, not sets!), which would they be?
That reminded me of MNDave's tongue-in-cheek "100 Greatest Piccolo Concerti" threads. I know similar things have been done before, here and elsewhere, but still I thought it might be a service to the Classical Newbies who stumble onto our forum to find the current members' ideas about what, for each of us, constitutes the core repertoire for which--if necessary--we would happily forsake all others, keeping ourselves only unto the chosen 100.
And then I thought "Wait just a cotton-pickin' minute! What if each of us were to nominate just one disc, and so build an idiosyncratic recommended list that would truly reflect the tastes of our membership while offering newbies interested in building their own collections a list they're unlikely to find duplicated anywhere else?!"
If the idea intrigues you--or even if it doesn't but you want to participate anyway!--please add your candidate to the list started below. The rules are simple: each of us may add only one CD--or, in the case of single works spanning multiple CDs, such as most operas--then only one work. No box sets of symphony or sonata cycles, for instance. For grey areas, such as Bach's Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin, customarily packaged as a single extended work spanning two CDs, please use your own discretion. If you would like to include a recommended recording, please do so, but feel free to list only the composer and work if you prefer.
The GMG Essential Collection
1. Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde -- Ludwig/Wunderlich/Klemperer/Philharmonia
It took several pages to arrive at the list of 100 reproduced below:
--- Quote from: DavidRoss on September 07, 2010, 06:09:44 AM ---The GMG Essential 100
1 Anonymous Ludus Danielis Estampie-Munich Ensemble
2 Bach Cello Suites Fournier
3 Bach Sonatas & Partitas for Violin Enescu
4 Bach Goldberg Variations Hantai/Mirare
5 Bach St Matthew Passion Fink/Goerne/Harnoncourt (2001)
6 Bach Well-Tempered Clavier Tureck/DG
7 Bartόk Wooden Prince Boulez/CSO
8 Beethoven Symphonies 5 & 7 Kleiber/WP
9 Beethoven Piano Cto #5 Kempff/van Kempen/BP
10 Beethoven Pathetique Sonata Moravec
11 Beethoven String Quartet #14, op 131 Busch Quartet
12 Beethoven Missa Solemnis
13 Beethoven Symphony #9 Furtwängler/London Philharmonia (1954)
14 Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique Davis/LSO
15 Berg Chamber Cto Boulez/Barenboim/Zuckerman
16 Bloch Evocations Sedares/NZSO
17 Brahms Symphony #4 Reiner/RPO
18 Brahms Piano Cto #1 Gilels/Jochum/BP
19 Brahms Piano Trios op 87 & 101/Clarinet Trio Op.114 Beaux Arts Trio /Pieterson
20 Brahms String Sextets Amadeus Quartet et al
21 Brahms German Requiem Kempe/Gruemmer/Fischer-Dieskau
22 Bruckner Symphony #7 Karajan/WP
23 Chopin Études Pollini
24 Chopin Nocturnes Arrau
25 Copland Appalachian Spring Orpheus Chamber orch
26 Debussy Chamber Music for Woodwinds (+ Saint-Saens) Bennett/Gough/et al
27 Debussy Preludes Bks 1 & 2 Michelangeli
28 Debussy Prélude...faune, Jeux, Images, Danses Baudo/Czech Phil
29 Dufay Isorhythmic Motets Huelgas Ensemble
30 Dvořák Symphonies 8 & 9 Mackerras/Prague
31 Dvořák Cello Cto (w/Elgar cello cto) Fournier/Szell/Wallenstein/BP
32 Dvořák Symphony 7 / The Water Goblin Belohlavek/Czech Phil
33 Durufle Requiem (w/Faure Requiem) Barley/Bar/Murray/Cleobury/ECO
34 Gluck Orfeo & Euridice Jacobs
35 Godowsky Studies on the Etudes of Chopin Hamelin
36 Grainger Country Gardens (+ works by Coates) Fennell/Eastman-Rochester Pops
37 Handel Messiah Christie
38 Handel Heroic Arias Bowman/King
39 Haydn 11 Keyboard Sonatas Brendel
40 Haydn String Quartets op 76 Quatuor Mosaïques
41 Hildegard A Feather on the Breath of God-Sequences and Hymns Kirkby, et al
42 Janáček Cunning Little Vixen Mackerras/WP
43 Ligeti Etudes, bks 1-3 Aimard
44 Liszt Favourite Piano Works Bolet
45 Mahler Das Lied von der Erde Ludwig/Wunderlich/Klemperer
46 Mahler Symphony #5 Dohnanyi/CO
47 Mahler Symphony #9 Bernstein/RCO
48 Martin Der Cornet/Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Lipovsek/ORFSO/Zagrosek
49 Martinu Symphony #4/Piano Cto #4/Tre ricercari Turnovsky
50 Massenet Mélodies Kruysen/Lee
51 Medtner Sonata op. 25/2, "Night Wind"
52 Mendelssohn Violin Cto (w/Shostakovich Violin Cto #1) Hahn/Wolff/Oslo Philharmonic
53 Monteverdi L'Orfeo Pickett
54 Monteverdi Vespers Bernius
55 Mozart Don Giovanni Jacobs
56 Mozart Cosi fan tutte Böhm (1953)
57 Mozart Late Symphonies Harnoncourt/RCO
58 Mozart Great Mass in C minor Leppard (EMI)
59 Mozart Requiem Böhm/WP
60 Mozart Clarinet Concerto and Clarinet Quintet Frost/Oundjian/Amsterdam Sinf
61 Mussorgsky Boris Gudunov Abbado/BP
62 Pärt Tabula Rasa/Fratres/Cantus Kremer/Jarrett/Sondeckis
63 Pärt Kanon Pokajanen
64 Pergolesi Stabat Mater Alessandrini/Concerto Italiano
65 Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Maazel/CO
66 Prokofiev War Sonatas Richter
67 Puccini Turandot Pavarotti/Sutherland/Mehta
68 Rachmaninov Piano Cto #2 (w/Tchaikovsky Piano Cto #1) Richter
69 Rachmaninov Vespers Svechnikov/USSR Nat'l Choir
70 Rameau Keyboard Works Tharaud
71 Ravel Piano Trio Rouvier/Kantorow/Muller
72 Ravel Daphnis et Chloe Dutoit/Montreal
73 Satie Selected piano compositions Aldo
74 Schoenberg 5 pieces op 16 (w/ Webern & Berg) Levine/BP
75 Schubert String Quintet in C major Emerson or Melos SQ w/Rostropovich
76 Schubert Sonata in G, D.894 Richter
77 Schubert Schwanengesang Munteanu
78 Schumann Kinderszenen/Kreisleriana/Carnaval Cortot
79 Schumann Symphony #4 Furtwängler/BP
80 Schumann Dichterliebe Wächter/Brendel
81 Shostakovich String Quartet #8 Emerson or Borodin SQ
82 Shostakovich Symphony #7 "Leningrad" Ančerl/Czech Phil
83 Sibelius Symphony #5/Violin Cto Haendel/Berglund/Bournemouth
84 Sibelius Symphony #4 & #7/Tapiola Maazel/WP
85 Strauss Four Last Songs Janowitz/Karajan/BP
86 Stravinsky Rite of Spring Bernstein/NYPO (1958)
87 Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms (w/Poulenc & Bernstein) Bernstein/LSO/NYPO
88 Stravinsky L'oiseu de feu (complete) Rattle/CBSO
89 Suppe Overtures (w/ Auber Overtures) Paray/DSO
90 Tallis Spem In Alium/Salve Intermerata Summerly/Oxford Camerata
91 Tchaikovsky Violin Cto (w/Brahms Violin Cto) Heifetz/Reiner/CSO
92 Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Svetlanov
93 Tchaikovsky Piano Trio op 50 (+ Shostakovich Piano Trio #2 op 67) Argerich/Kremer/Maisky
94 Vaughan Wms Symphony #5 Previn/RPO
95 Verdi Requiem Toscanini/NBC (1951)
96 Victoria Requiem 1605 Christophers/The Sixteen
97 Vivaldi Vespri per l'Assunzione di Maria Vergine Alessandrini
98 Wagner Tristan und Isolde Böhm (1966)
99 Wagner Der Ring des Nibelungen Solti/WP
100 Weber Der Freischütz Keilberth
--- End quote ---
Philoctetes:
The GMG Essential Collection
1. Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde -- Ludwig/Wunderlich/Klemperer/Philharmonia
2. Bach's Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas -- Enescu
MN Dave:
Brahms Symphony No. 4 - Reiner/Royal Philharmonic
drogulus:
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring -- Bernstein NYPO ('58)
DavidRoss:
So far, so good--thanks, guys!
The GMG Essential Collection
1. Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde -- Ludwig/Wunderlich/Klemperer/Philharmonia
2. Bach's Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas -- Enescu
3. Brahms Symphony No. 4 - Reiner/Royal Philharmonic
4. Stravinsky The Rite of Spring -- Bernstein NYPO ('58)
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