Most Played Recording?

[TheGSMoeller]

I just looked at the "Top 25 Most Played" playlist in my iTunes. I realize that between my iPad, iPhone, CD player and Spotify that it's not completely accurate, but it's still fun to observe.
I was half surprised, and half not of the result for number 1 considering it's a composer and recording I speak highly of....

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6, Op. 111
Ozawa/Berlin P.O.
(the third movement Vivace was the track listed as no.1)




The original cover that I own as well...




I wish I kept a better log of my full listens, would be interesting to see where my number 1 from my iTunes library ranks with the rest.

[Brian]

At this point, only about half of my music is in my iTunes library, but my iTunes library contains the albums I've owned for several years, whereas CDs that aren't on my computer tend to be newer acquisitions. This means the iTunes top listens probably really are my most-played recordings.

Tied for first with 20 listens each:

"Summertime" from this CD

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and "Suite in F" from this one

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Tied for second, at 13 listens, are all the OTHER tracks on "Gershwin by Grofe," and this:

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...followed by Atterberg's Eighth Symphony on CPO.

The requirements for reaching the top of my most-played list are pretty tough. It has to be music I love dearly, obviously. But it also has to be music for which I either only have one recording, or have a recording which satisfies me far, far more than any other. I don't have another Atterberg #8 or Roussel Suite in F; I have several other Gershwin CDs but none of them compare to the jazzy vivacity of the Mayorga CD. Obviously, I listen to Beethoven a lot more than Roussel, but I also have far more to choose from with Beethoven. Vermeer or Endellion Quartet? Abbado or Harnoncourt?

Oddly, I haven't played any of my top 20 most-listened-to tracks since May 2012.

A final note: if we're including box sets as single entities, I listened to Emil Gilels' incomplete Beethoven sonatas on DG one hundred nine times in 2012, and the Tafelmusik/Bruno Weil Haydn box set 56 times. But those average out to only about three listens per sonata/symphony.

[TheGSMoeller]

Nice post, Brian. Thanks.

[some guy]

Thanks for the heads up, GS. I've liked that Ozawa set ever since it first came out. I think I may even have a review of it up on the Amazon site, one of the handful of reviews I've submitted there.

Anyway, even though that is still my favorite set, the performance of didn't satisfy me enough to stop my quest for the "perfect" Prokofiev 6th, my favorite Prokofiev symphony in spite of not being completely happy with any performance of it. (At the time I'm writing this, Leinsdorf's is my favorite.)

But now you remind me of this recording. And now I want to revisit it, see what I think. Maybe I've just been wrong all those years!

Otherwise, I suppose that my most played recording is probably the one I most recently acquired. So most played changes as I get new things. And since new, for me, means new (rather than merely recent or even "new to me"), it also means "unfamiliar." And I tend to listen to things I don't know more than to things I know. (And yes, I am well aware of the irony. )

[TheGSMoeller]

(At the time I'm writing this, Leinsdorf's is my favorite.)

A good one, indeed.

[Todd]

Over the last ten years or so, definitely this one.  (My style of listening to classical recordings doesn't really lend itself to dozens or hundreds of listens to each disc.)

[Brahmsian]

Well Greg, no surprise here, I'm sure! 

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[TheGSMoeller]

Well Greg, no surprise here, I'm sure! 

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Let me guess, uuuuuuuhhhh...No.4? 

[Mirror Image]

This recording is definitely a contender for me:

[Brahmsian]

Let me guess, uuuuuuuhhhh...No.4? 

Well, it has become all of them.  Especially love the 3rd, and 6th, on top of the 4th.  And of course, the 8th and 9th workhorses.

[TheGSMoeller]

Well, it has become all of them.  Especially love the 3rd, and 6th, on top of the 4th.  And of course, the 8th and 9th workhorses.

I've been checking this Kertesz on Spotify, good stuff, no doubt. 

[North Star]

I can't see listings for whole recordings, but Raekallio's Prokofiev, Collard's Ravel (solo piano), and Argerich & Pletnev's Prokofiev & Ravel disc are certainly among the top.
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So... Prokofiev for solo piano, Ravel for solo piano, and Prokofiev & Ravel for piano duo... 

[TheGSMoeller]

This recording is definitely a contender for me:

I think we both agree with this being a tops for both pieces.

[Mirror Image]

I think we both agree with this being a tops for both pieces.

Absolutely, surprised that this recording doesn't get much press around here. It's outstanding!

[North Star]

Absolutely, surprised that this recording doesn't get much press around here. It's outstanding!

Oh come on, it gets plenty of press in relation to the music in there, John. Seems to OOP, though. 

[Sammy]

I don't have any documented play-list, but I'm confident the recording I've listened to the most in the past couple of years is Belder's complete Bach WTC.

[madaboutmahler]

Surprisngly, Previn's Der Rosenkavalier Suite came up!!
Also, Sawalisch's Schumann 4, which I listen to every week on the way back from Academy.
Grainger's Immovable Do and Shephard's Hey I listen to every night before bed.
The last movement of Debussy's Iberia from Martinon, and the Feria from Ravel's Rhapsodie Espagnol from Abbado's recording, plus the final Alborada from Capriccio Espagnol in Jarvi's recording all featured very highly on the list.
The last movement of Mahler 1 from Solti too.

[Brian]

Grainger's Immovable Do and Shephard's Hey I listen to every night before bed.

I've had a rotating slate of night-time music for the past year or so. I don't play it every night, maybe once a week or two, but when it is time for night-music, I turn to one of these works per night:

Roussel - Le marchand de sable qui passe (The sandman passes) [Deneve/Naxos]
Vaughan Williams - Tallis Fantasia [Barbirolli/EMI]
Kernis - Musica celestis, adagio [Schwarz/Naxos]
Debussy - Smattering of piano works [Bavouzet/Chandos]
Glass - Dracula suite [Levingston/Sono Luminus]
Wagner - Siegfried Idyll [Sallaberger/ZigZag or Celibidache/EMI]

[Lisztianwagner]

Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen with Karajan/BPO.
Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies No.2 and No.15 with Artur Pizarro.
The second and the fourth movements from Beethoven Symphony No.9 with Karajan/BPO
Ravel's Alborada del gracioso and Daphnis et Chloé with Abbado/LSO.
The second movement of Mahler No.1 with Bernstein/Concertgebouw.
The last three sections of Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra, with Karajan/VPO.
Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol in Jansons' recording is a work I started listening to quite often, especially the movements Scena e canto gitano and Fandango asturiano.

[TheGSMoeller]

I've had a rotating slate of night-time music for the past year or so. I don't play it every night, maybe once a week or two, but when it is time for night-music, I turn to one of these works per night:

Roussel - Le marchand de sable qui passe (The sandman passes) [Deneve/Naxos]
Vaughan Williams - Tallis Fantasia [Barbirolli/EMI]
Kernis - Musica celestis, adagio [Schwarz/Naxos]
Debussy - Smattering of piano works [Bavouzet/Chandos]
Glass - Dracula suite [Levingston/Sono Luminus]
Wagner - Siegfried Idyll [Sallaberger/ZigZag or Celibidache/EMI]