Are there any "fool proof" record labels? conductors? performers?

[planetluvver]

I am building a collection by shopping for used CD recordings on the Internet from a charity website.  What this means is I am shopping amongst other people's discards.  I have been looking through an old (2006) Gramophone guide, but  I am not finding very many of the titles with high ratings in my price range.  I have been consulting Amazon's ratings also, but I question the meaningfulness of these ratings, and ratings are not always available.

Are there certain record labels and/or conductors that I can trust to set a high standard?

I fear building a collection only to discover that I have filled it with poor examples, and need to start over again.

I know that I cannot expect that I will like everything.  But I do want to at least be listening to the best examples that I can afford while building a collection quickly by shopping used.

[Gurn Blanston]

I think you would be hard-pressed, especially just starting out, to be able to avoid making a false step here and there. Maybe a lot of them. Just speaking for myself here, I spent 3 or 4 years trying out different things before narrowing down to what I liked. After all, there are such a great variety of different musical styles, and within those, so many different interpretations, that you can only discover for yourself what you will like or dislike. My own method was to find a genre that I liked (violin music for me), and then just start buying concertos and sonatas with no particular attention to era or performer, and simply decide what I liked in the way of composers and styles. It is hard for me to see a practical way to shortcut around some variation of this because you can only go by your own taste, not by what anyone else has liked or disliked. One you have this foundation in place, then you can begin to seriously consider recommendations to see if they are congruent with what you already know that you like.

[liuzerus87]

I agree with Gurn in that it's a matter of discovering your own tastes.

For example, when I first started 8 years ago or so, I went with the really big names: lots of Karajan, and a healthy dose of Ormandy and Bernstein. Not to say that these aren't good conductors, but it took me awhile to discover that they didn't fit my tastes, and by this point I have replaced most of those albums with recordings that I personally enjoy more.

[Opus106]

Hi, and welcome to the forum. May I suggest that as an alternative to buying CDs, about the qualities of which you're unsure, you can stream music via your computer or smartphone (if you're comfortable with those modes) from many, many recordings from different labels using services like the Naxos Music Library (subscription), Spotify (free with limitations and subscription) and Mog. There are others, of course, but the last two has gained popularity of late with the classical music listeners in this board -- a sign that this genre is being served well.

[Que]

I am sorry to say there is no quick fix here...

A record label is definitely not a reliable guide. (Please don't make the mistake I've seen so often, to buy anything and everything on Deutsche Grammophon - the (in)famous "Yellow Label") Though later, much later, when you are already familiar with all the main staples of Classical Music and branch out into less charted territory, certain small connoisseur labels can offer valuable guidance.

My advice: first figure out what music you like by listening to the radio or other free resources. Then investigate the relevant most viable options on line and here on the forum - using the search function or putting a question forward! Then listen to the selected options online and make your choice.

Like others pointed out, it is inevitable that your taste will have to develop over time and it can't be avoided that you make choices now that later won't match your preferences.

Basically, it is an everlasting search for the Holy Grail - something that binds us and keeps us busy around here. But not just the destination that counts, but also the fun and joy of the journey!

Q

[Sergeant Rock]

In the Great Recordings and Reviews section of this forum there is a thread called Recordings That You Are Considering. You can ask for advice there. I mean, when you find a recording at your charity website (the Amazon marketplace is another good place to find cheap used CDs) that looks interesting, ask about it in that thread. You'll get feedback and undoubtedly lots of alternative suggestions that you can hunt for.

Sarge

[71 dB]

I have hardly anything from Deutsche Grammophon. I find it a boring label that records again and again the same repertoire of beaten path...

CPO is perhaps the most interesting label at the moment.

[DavidW]

Hunt for the best performance is not as important as others make it out to be.  Throw your penguin guide in the trash and pick up cds that fit your budget.  If you don't like a cd, only then try a different performance before writing the work off.  This strategy will save you money and allow you to explore quickly and efficiently.  Also you can try a service like mog or spotify.

[Holden]

You are in the best possible place to get great advice right here at CMG. As a previous poster said, just ask about a particular recording. I also like the idea of using Spotify. I have the free version and am happy to put up with the advertising to listen to CDs that I don't own.

[Sammy]

I consider Harmonia Mundi a highly reliable label; check out their website.

[Mirror Image]

I have hardly anything from Deutsche Grammophon. I find it a boring label that records again and again the same repertoire of beaten path...

CPO is perhaps the most interesting label at the moment.

For somebody who's just starting to build a collection, CPO is one of the last to explore for the very reason you stated: they mainly record repertoire that isn't on the beaten track. Only a seasoned classical listener will want to start exploring CPO recordings. I don't think Deutsche Grammophon is a boring label and think you're only digging your own hole if you only own a few of their recordings. They're a fine label. Are they 'the best' label? No, they're not, but I don't think we should discourage a newbie of classical. There's a lot of good recordings on Deutsche Grammophon. The same with EMI (who I'm not happy with most of the time, but will admit they have some outstanding albums), Decca, Philips, and even Naxos have started recording much played repertoire and, in some cases, they have the better price advantage.

[mahler10th]

You are in the best possible place to get great advice right here at CMG. As a previous poster said, just ask about a particular recording. I also like the idea of using Spotify. I have the free version and am happy to put up with the advertising to listen to CDs that I don't own.

Eh...I thought this was GMG.  Looks like we're in the wrong forum.   

...Only a seasoned classical listener will want to start exploring CPO recordings. I don't think Deutsche Grammophon is a boring label and think you're only digging your own hole if you only own a few of their recordings.

+1

[eyeresist]

I agree with all the above-stated

If you're at the beginning of collecting, you can't anticipate what will match your tastes. Comparing samples can help (but can also be deceptive). Just keep an eye open for recordings widely disparaged for terrible sound or playing; other than that, you really can't be sure that any critic's opinion will agree with your own - and you have to spend money to find out what that opinion is!

[bigshot]

I think a lot of collectors put too much emphasis on "best" recordings. I've found that there is a wide range of interpretations of great works, and sticking to just the accepted "bests" won't give you the full picture,

If you are looking for recommendations on how to appeciate and enjoy classical music on a budget, I can do that. Brilliant Classics, Living Stereo and the Decca Sound all are great box sets at super bargain prices. The MP3 downloads in the Rise of the Masters and Big Box series are all first class performances for pennies.

My advice is to focus on the music, not worry about what people say in Amazon reviews and internet forums. Most of them are full of it...myself included!

[Octo_Russ]

There's no short cut to building up a prized collection of discs, it's basically buy-listen-buy-listen-buy-listen ad infinitum, you have to put the hours and hours of listening in to find out what you really love, there's no book or guide that is somehow the holy grail to buying everything you love, you will inevitably buy stuff you hate, just regularly purge your collection and get rid of the dross, you need to develop your inner ear, and learn to trust your own judgement, i bought lots of duds when i started out, but as you go along, you get better at knowing what you will like, and your buying success rate increases.

As far as labels go, the major labels [DG / Decca / Philips / EMI / Sony] are tried and trusted, they're great recordings, plus some innovative smaller labels [Hyperion & Chandos for example], Naxos is a good budget label, happy collecting.

[DavidRoss]

I endorse the suggestion that you take advantage of streaming online services to learn about music and to hear recordings that might interest you. Mog, Spotify, & Naxos are all great, and there's a surprising amount of stuff on youtube. And don't forget radio. There are still good classical stations on the air and dozens (hundreds?) of them stream via the Web. BBC 3 and Netherlands Radio 4 are two of my favorites.

As far as your specific questions are concerned, Russ and others have given some good advice on labels. The majors have incredible catalogs of great recordings, but they include stuff to appeal to all tastes and thus have significant proportions of dreck. CPO is a terrible choice for a newbie for the reasons already detailed, but many smaller specialty labels are terrific, with very high recording standards and stables of top-notch performers. In addition to hyperion and Chandos and harmonia mundi, mentioned above, I find a number of great discs from Channel Classics, Avie, Zig Zag, Astree, Bridge, Analekta, Signum, Onyx, Oehms, and many more.

Reviewers are good sources of information about new releases and so on, but most are poor guides to quality--at least until you get to know specific reviewers and how their tastes and prejudices accord with your own. That's true for folks here at GMG as well as for the general public writing on Amazon and professionals working for newspapers and magazines, online or in print.

Once your listening experience and tastes have developed, then you will probably gravitate toward particular performers and conductors. Be wary of anyone telling you that "X is the greatest conductor who ever lived and everything he touched turned to gold!" Different conductors and performers, like different listeners, have differing affinities for different kinds of music and composers. Keep listening and you will eventually discover that you really like, say, Abbado in early 20th Century music, or Jacobs in Mozart, or Schiff in Bach, and that you hate certain others in some or all repertoire.

The more individual and unique a performer is (and the more successful!), the more likely that he's a polarizing figure, with some loving him and some hating him.  Glenn Gould, for instance. Thus you might think that for a beginner starting out, performers who are skilled and competent but pretty mainstream would be safe choices--Neville Marriner, for instance. But as your tastes evolve, you will probably find that you never listen to such "safe" choices after you've become familiar with a work, because they have nothing distinctive to "say" about it.

If you peruse the posts on this site and others, it won't take long for you to become familiar with some of the most loved and hated names in the business, from those who can almost do no wrong--like Argerich--to those who do very little that's right--like HJ Lim. I and others here could make lists of our favorite conductors and pianists and fiddlers and flutists and so on (and there are threads here that do that), but such lists would be of very limited use until you begin to know your own tastes and the tastes of others. Just as some folks prefer chocolate ice cream and some prefer fresh strawberries for dessert, so some here think Karajan's the bee's knees and others love Boulez.

Keep listening and keep visiting and keep letting us know how you're getting along!

P.S. For a "foolproof" conductor, you might look into Haitink.

[Que]

I do hope our new member will return to read your nice post...

I particularly liked this:

Once your listening experience and tastes have developed, then you will probably gravitate toward particular performers and conductors. Be wary of anyone telling you that "X is the greatest conductor who ever lived and everything he touched turned to gold!" Different conductors and performers, like different listeners, have differing affinities for different kinds of music and composers. Keep listening and you will eventually discover that you really like, say, Abbado in early 20th Century music, or Jacobs in Mozart, or Schiff in Bach, and that you hate certain others in some or all repertoire.

And as a matter of national pride , I liked the honorable mention of Radio 4 and Haitink.

Q

[DavidRoss]

I do hope our new member will return to read your nice post...

I particularly liked this:

And as a matter of national pride , I liked the honorable mention of Radio 4 and Haitink.

And Channel Classics, I hope! Thanks, Que. You've much to be proud of. (And Haitink is not just a Dutch treasure, but a treasure for the whole world.)

[Johnll]

I endorse the suggestion that you take advantage of streaming online services to learn about music and to hear recordings that might interest you. Mog, Spotify, & Naxos are all great, and there's a surprising amount of stuff on youtube. And don't forget radio. There are still good classical stations on the air and dozens (hundreds?) of them stream via the Web. BBC 3 and Netherlands Radio 4 are two of my favorites.

As far as your specific questions are concerned, Russ and others have given some good advice on labels. The majors have incredible catalogs of great recordings, but they include stuff to appeal to all tastes and thus have significant proportions of dreck. CPO is a terrible choice for a newbie for the reasons already detailed, but many smaller specialty labels are terrific, with very high recording standards and stables of top-notch performers. In addition to hyperion and Chandos and harmonia mundi, mentioned above, I find a number of great discs from Channel Classics, Avie, Zig Zag, Astree, Bridge, Analekta, Signum, Onyx, Oehms, and many more.

Reviewers are good sources of information about new releases and so on, but most are poor guides to quality--at least until you get to know specific reviewers and how their tastes and prejudices accord with your own. That's true for folks here at GMG as well as for the general public writing on Amazon and professionals working for newspapers and magazines, online or in print.

Once your listening experience and tastes have developed, then you will probably gravitate toward particular performers and conductors. Be wary of anyone telling you that "X is the greatest conductor who ever lived and everything he touched turned to gold!" Different conductors and performers, like different listeners, have differing affinities for different kinds of music and composers. Keep listening and you will eventually discover that you really like, say, Abbado in early 20th Century music, or Jacobs in Mozart, or Schiff in Bach, and that you hate certain others in some or all repertoire.

The more individual and unique a performer is (and the more successful!), the more likely that he's a polarizing figure, with some loving him and some hating him.  Glenn Gould, for instance. Thus you might think that for a beginner starting out, performers who are skilled and competent but pretty mainstream would be safe choices--Neville Marriner, for instance. But as your tastes evolve, you will probably find that you never listen to such "safe" choices after you've become familiar with a work, because they have nothing distinctive to "say" about it.

If you peruse the posts on this site and others, it won't take long for you to become familiar with some of the most loved and hated names in the business, from those who can almost do no wrong--like Argerich--to those who do very little that's right--like HJ Lim. I and others here could make lists of our favorite conductors and pianists and fiddlers and flutists and so on (and there are threads here that do that), but such lists would be of very limited use until you begin to know your own tastes and the tastes of others. Just as some folks prefer chocolate ice cream and some prefer fresh strawberries for dessert, so some here think Karajan's the bee's knees and others love Boulez.

Keep listening and keep visiting and keep letting us know how you're getting along!

P.S. For a "foolproof" conductor, you might look into Haitink.

A big plus 1!!! With that said individual conductors and performers will always be, to a degree, a matter of taste.

[Xenophanes]

No record company is foolproof.  However, I have found Decca, London, Philips, and Mercury to be very reliably good.  Every Chesky reissue I have had hs been quite good to excellent.  That's one thing about major label classical reissues, that they are reissued because somebody likes them and thinks they will sell. That does not mean that every one of their recordings will end up being a favorite, but I can't really think of any bad recorded performances on those labels.

In recent years, most of my CD purchases have actually been Naxos CDs. That is because I have long had the basic repertoire on other labels, and Naxos offers some less well known repertoire. Their recordings since the early '90s seem to have very good sound. I generally check the reviews before buying and have so far had very pretty good luck. 

Checking the reviews, trying out CDs from the library, listening to FM or internet FM stations can be helpful.