Best single performance

[Madiel]

Well, if we're sticking with classical and I don't have to consider which Tori Amos live concert recording blows my socks off the most...

I think I'll go with Vladimir Ashkenazy playing Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux, op.39.

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This set has excellent performances of a number of works, including the op.33 etudes and the 2-piano version of the Symphonic Dances. But it's the opus 39 recording that takes my breath away.

I note a new set of Ashkenazy doing the complete solo piano works is coming out. No idea if it includes the same recordings or will have new ones.

[Sergeant Rock]

Haydn Symphony No. 93 D major, George Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. Perfection from first note to last, including the most vulgar bassoon fart in recorded history 

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Sarge

[Ken B]

Haydn Symphony No. 93 D major, George Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. Perfection from first note to last, including the most vulgar bassoon fart in recorded history 

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Sarge

Barbirolli never recorded that one Sarge?

[springrite]

Haydn Symphony No. 93 D major, George Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. Perfection from first note to last, including the most vulgar bassoon fart in recorded history 

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Sarge

Fartissimo !!!

[Brian]

Well, if we're sticking with classical and I don't have to consider which Tori Amos live concert recording blows my socks off the most...

Oh! You solved my problem. Dave Brubeck Quartet at Carnegie Hall.

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[not edward]

Too many possibilities to count. So I'll just go with the first that comes to mind: Janet Baker doing the Mahler song cycles with Barbirolli.

Oh, nice. Someone wrote my post for me.

If I had to narrow it down to one single performance from that disc, it'd have to be the non-cycle Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen with the Halle.

[kishnevi]

Never heard that. I think highly of Zinman's Beethoven.

I rate Zinman's M9 very high because of the last movement--he makes it into an ascent into serenity, as opposed to the anguished fade to final death other conductors make of it.   So if you prefer the anguished fade approach,  you won't be as impressed as I am.

Zinman's Mahler cycle has at least one bad performance (10th--which may be due to the version he uses--as I understand it, he's the only conductor to record that particular version, so it's hard to compare), and several symphonies are somewhere between meh and fine as most of the rest out there--the only ones I would specifically suggest are the Third and Fourth, and this Ninth.

That LHL Bach CD is also one of the ones I might put in this slot, if I were in the mood--as well as Rubinstein's Chopin Nocturnes.

[bhodges]

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances (Ashkenazy / Concertgebouw) - On the same recording, the performance of The Isle of the Dead is not far behind. This is the reissue, with a much less interesting cover; the original has the Arnold Böcklin Isle of the Dead painting.

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--Bruce

[TheGSMoeller]

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances (Ashkenazy / Concertgebouw) - On the same recording, the performance of The Isle of the Dead is not far behind. This is the reissue, with a much less interesting cover; the original has the Arnold Böcklin Isle of the Dead painting.

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--Bruce

Easily one of the best orchestral recordings I've heard, good choice, Bruce.

[kishnevi]

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances (Ashkenazy / Concertgebouw) - On the same recording, the performance of The Isle of the Dead is not far behind. This is the reissue, with a much less interesting cover; the original has the Arnold Böcklin Isle of the Dead painting.

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--Bruce

That reminds me---Solti's Tchaikovsky 4 with the CSO is another candidate for this slot, based on, among other things, the fact that he knew how to put the "fouco" into allegro con fouco.

(Reminded because my copy is from that same series of reissues).

[jochanaan]

Brahms Double Concerto: Nathan Milstein, Gregor Piatigorsky, Fritz Reiner and the Robin Hood Dell Orchestra, 1951. Lush tone and perfect tempos make this a desert-isle recording.

Mendelssohn Piano Concertos 1 and 2: Rudolf Serkin, Ormandy/Philadelphia, late 50s.

Smetana Ma Vlast: Wolfgang Sawallisch and l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, 1980.

Tchaikovsky Piano Trio: Martha Argerich, Gideon Kremer and Misha Maisky. 1997? Granted, I'm not familiar with any other recording of this, but it's one of those that's so good I just don't feel the need to seek out any others.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Here's one for  Harry 

Satie - Socrate - Patricia Rosario, Eileen Hulse & Susan Bickley (sopranos), Richard Bernas & Music Projects/London
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I will second North Star's nomination of Socrate (except that my cover as originally issued is waaay cooler!)

[NJ Joe]

The Schubert.

[Bogey]

OK, nailed it to one.

[Ken B]

The Schubert.

I've never heard this ( true of many choices here) have you heard the Cantelli?

[Bogey]

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances (Ashkenazy / Concertgebouw) - On the same recording, the performance of The Isle of the Dead is not far behind. This is the reissue, with a much less interesting cover; the original has the Arnold Böcklin Isle of the Dead painting.

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--Bruce

You're a "styler", Bruce. 

[Mirror Image]

This performance of Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra is pretty definitive to me:



I mean it's Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic. It doesn't get much better than this for Berg.

[NJ Joe]

I've never heard this ( true of many choices here) have you heard the Cantelli?

I have not.  The other performance that comes closest for me is Giulini/Chicago.

[ibanezmonster]

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances (Ashkenazy / Concertgebouw) - On the same recording, the performance of The Isle of the Dead is not far behind. This is the reissue, with a much less interesting cover; the original has the Arnold Böcklin Isle of the Dead painting.

My first recording of these pieces, and I doubt they could be done much better. 

[Lisztianwagner]

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances (Ashkenazy / Concertgebouw) - On the same recording, the performance of The Isle of the Dead is not far behind. This is the reissue, with a much less interesting cover; the original has the Arnold Böcklin Isle of the Dead painting.

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--Bruce

*pounds the table*