Five Symphony Box Sets on a Desert Island

[springrite]

Perhaps.    There is enough people bringing various Beethoven sets so that he has variety for the weekly Sunday Beethoven's 9th festival. 

Are we all on the same island??? If so I will never bring the usual suspects! Brian! Bax! Tubin! Schnittke! Veinberg!  Or maybe Saygun! HvL! Aho! Milhaud! Chavez!

[Brahmsian]

Are we all on the same island???

Navneeth said we were!    And that's good enough for me! 

[springrite]

Navneeth said we were!    And that's good enough for me! 

In that case many people here may find that island far better environ than where they are right now!

[DavidRoss]

The first one is easy not too hard less difficult than the rest:

Sibelius Blomstedt/SFS Bernstein/NYPO Berglund/Bournemouth no COE Vänskä Segerstam/HPO ... hmmm, guess it comes down to extras. If only one of the great sets included Tapiola, Luonnotar, and the violin concerto....  Aha! The EMI Berglund box with the HPO symphonies plus most of the tone poems with Bournemouth!  Or even better yet, BIS's "Essential Sibelius" boxset with damned near all the orchestral music!

Next, Mahler. No, too tough to choose just one. Let's try Beethoven (not much easier):
Brüggen Abbado/BP (Rome) Brüggen Abbado/BP (Rome) (won the coin toss!)

Now Mahler rounds out my favorite symphonists, but which cycle if I could take only one?
Lenny/DGG? (No, the 4th is unsatisfactory.)
Abbado/BP? (Ditto.) 
Gielen? (No. A poor soloist in the 4th and a disaster in DLVDE.)
Sinopoli? Kubelik? Both fine cycles with no awful weaknesses but their excellent DLVDEs are available only as individual issues and aren't included in DGG's box sets.
That brings me to MTT/SFS and Boulez (and Abbado's Lucerne cycle, if only it were available!). My preference for a mezzo/alto in DLVDE inclines me toward Boulez, but  the SFS plays so beautifully for MTT and Hampson is so good in these songs that it's nearly a toss-up, thus the home team wins this contest for me: MTT/SFS!

So who next? RVW and Prokofiev are the most likely choices, but maybe the desert island would prove just the ticket to finally come to grips with Bax's appealing lush quirkiness.  Seems I'm forgetting someone...hmmm....aha!  Set #4 would be Karajan's Bruckner!

And for the kicker, what? Schønwandt's Nielsen? Or Blomstedt with the home team (is that a box set yet)? Barshai's Shosty? Kubelik's Dvořák? My "new" Harnoncourt Schubert? An oddity like Handley's Bantock?

Or should I go for quantity, like Mackerras's Mozart or...or...that's it! Brüggen's Haydn "Paris, London, and Sturm & Drang" symphony box set!

[Lisztianwagner]

My choices could be:

Beethoven - Karajan '63
Mahler - Bernstein DG
Tchaikovsky - Karajan
Shostakovich - Haitink
Sibelius - Ashkenazy

Rather difficult, I should leave out so many great symphony cycles......Bruckner, Brahms, Mozart, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Nielsen, Dvorak, etc....

[Brahmsian]

Shostakovich - Haitink

I only have Shostakovich's 8th with Haitink.  Incredibly intense!! 

[Lisztianwagner]

I only have Shostakovich's 8th with Haitink.  Incredibly intense!! 

Definitely! It's one of my favourite symphonies of the cycle.

[Conor71]

Bruckner: Chailly
Dvorak: Kertesz
Sibelius: Vanska
Shostakovich: Haitink
Tchaikovsky: Jansons

[madaboutmahler]

That brings me to MTT/SFS and Boulez (and Abbado's Lucerne cycle, if only it were available!). My preference for a mezzo/alto in DLVDE inclines me toward Boulez, but  the SFS plays so beautifully for MTT and Hampson is so good in these songs that it's nearly a toss-up, thus the home team wins this contest for me: MTT/SFS!

Maybe we should organize this visit to the desert island, I may finally be able to hear all the MTT Mahler cycle!!! 

For me.... well....
Mahler Solti
Mahler Tennstedt (haven't yet finished the cycle, but it's so amazing so far!)
Elgar Solti (we have to have some Elgar!)
Beethoven Haitink
erm.....
Schumann Sawalisch

[Sergeant Rock]

Hmm, I'm surprised you like Haydn that much.

I've written elsewhere that of all the composers I knew forty years ago, the only one who's gained in stature over the years is Haydn. Rarely a day goes by that something of his isn't played in the Rock house. His symphonies are miracles. 104 masterpieces.

As far as I am concerned, Fey is the best by far, but I have started to despair of living long enough to see his cycle complete.

I imagine too that once it's complete, no one else can touch him. The only reason I didn't name him is because his cycle is still only a third complete.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

I'm sure at least a few will be bringing their Havergal Brian's along! 

Alas, 10 of the 32 still await a commercial recording    (5, 13, 14, 19, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29)

Sarge

[TheGSMoeller]

Haydn: Adam Fischer/Austro-Hugarian Haydn Orchestra

Beethoven: Roger Norrington/London Classical Players

Elgar: Jeffrey Tate/London Symphony Orchestra

Prokofiev: Dmitri Kitayenko/Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra

Ives: Michael Tilson Thomas/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (not really a set, but I can duct tape the cases together, that would count)

[Sergeant Rock]

Beethoven: Roger Norrington/London Classical Players

For me Norrington's LCP Beethoven and Stuttgart Haydn Londons come very close to dethroning Szell/Cleveland.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Maybe we should organize this visit to the desert island, I may finally be able to hear all the MTT Mahler cycle!!! 

For me.... well....
Mahler Solti
Mahler Tennstedt (haven't yet finished the cycle, but it's so amazing so far!)
Elgar Solti (we have to have some Elgar!)
Beethoven Haitink
erm.....
Schumann Sawalisch

Two Mahler cycles?!?!  You are MAD 

Sarge

[Lisztianwagner]

Tchaikovsky: Jansons

+1

[trung224]

Beethoven: Furtwängler (various live, not the official EMI cycle) or Karajan 1963 (if must in STEREO)
Brahms: Furtwängler
Mahler: Bernstein DG
Shostakovich: Kondrashin
Schubert: Harnoncourt

[DavidRoss]

Maybe we should organize this visit to the desert island, I may finally be able to hear all the MTT Mahler cycle!!! 

I think they're all available in good streaming sound quality (320kbps) via Mog, Daniel. I can't say they're all great, just 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, & DLVDE!

[kishnevi]

My picks:

Mozart:  Hogwood
Beethoven: Chailly
Mahler: MTT
Bach: Hanssler Complete Works box.
Beethoven:  Complete Piano Sonatas/Paul Lewis

Yes, I know,  but I would need Bach and the Beethoven 32 to survive any desert island....The Hanssler because the boy sopranos in the Teldec would get on my nerves very quickly.  The pianist for the Beethoven, however, is subject to negotiation.

second edit:  strike the Mozart, admirable as Hogwood is,  and substitute the Brilliant 100 CD symphonies box, which has Haydn, Mozart, Shostakovich, and a host of others, not to mention alternate Beethoven and Mahler cycles.

[kishnevi]

I think they're all available in good streaming sound quality (320kbps) via Mog, Daniel. I can't say they're all great, just 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, & DLVDE!

That's the answer:  a broadband connection and compatible receiver with subscriptions to Spotify and all the rest!

[jwinter]

Ooh, this is tough...

Beethoven - Chailly
Bruckner - Skrowaczewski
Haydn - Dorati
Mahler - Bernstein DG
Mozart - Bohm