Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Purchases Of All-Time

[Sergeant Rock]

[Brian]

Life-changing concerts:
- the Pavel Haas Quartet and Danjulo Ishizaka playing Schubert's String Quintet in C at Wigmore Hall (first time I had ever heard that work)
- the Warsaw Philharmonic and Antoni Wit playing Mahler's Third Symphony in Warsaw (first time I had ever heard that work, and in terms of playing/conducting the best concert I've ever seen)

Not life-changing, but certainly unforgettable, concerts:
- BBC Proms 2011 first weekend pass (admission to Belohlavek conducting Glagolitic Mass, Grosvenor playing Liszt Concerto No. 2, and of course Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony, with fellow GMGers Luke, Dundonnell, JZ Herrenberg, and vandermolen)
- Argerich & Dutoit & the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Prokofiev Concerto 3 + Berlioz Fantastique

First CD I ever bought with my own money:
- Josef Suk and Antonín Dvorák's serenades for strings, Capella Istropolitana, Naxos

Other recordings:
- George Szell's collected Haydn symphonies (as posted by Sarge) and Robert Casadesus' collected Mozart piano concertos (ALSO as posted by Sarge!) helped me get through a time of acute depression at a horrible job with a long commute. On the drives to and from work I played discs from those boxes to reset my mind and keep a healthy enjoyment of at least something in life. I don't listen to the Mozart as much these days, but will always be grateful for the role it played. Szell's Haydn 92 remains one of my favorite recordings of anything, ever.

For the next two, please remember that I'm not talking about the Best Recordings I Own, but rather two recordings that really changed what I listen to, how I listen to it, and what my ears listen for in music. These are important for my personal history, in other words, and that's why they qualify for the list. Something else (Brilliant's 100 CD Russian Legends box) might have been a better deal, or another box (maybe Belohlavek Martinu symphonies) may have gotten more listens, but...

- Andrea Lucchesini's Beethoven sonatas on Stradivarius. Had no idea they would become so rare, or that my affection for his style would only grow and deepen with time. It was meant to be my first Beethoven sonata cycle, at a time when I'd only heard about 5 of the sonatas; though in 2011-12 my favorite near-cycle was Gilels, and at other times it's been other pianists, Lucchesini is returning to the top of my list, along with Rudolf Serkin. This was probably also the beginning of my passion for great pianism in general, and "cult" pianists in particular (see also: Michel Block, Zhu Xiao-Mei, Yevgeny Sudbin).
- Roussel symphonies (Scottish Natl Orch/Deneve/Naxos). I bought these knowing almost nothing about either composer, especially Roussel, whom I'd never heard a single note of before getting the box. And they brought me into a whole new world of listening; I spent years exploring the implications. Roussel actually led me in a backdoor approach from my old favorite Ravel back to Debussy.

And finally:
- GMG membership 

-

Bonus: things that don't count because they were free!
- student admission to a Rice orchestra concert featuring Janáček's Sinfonietta, the first time I had ever heard any Janáček, and the beginning of a lifelong obsession (this would fit under the "Life-changing" category above)
- ditto to a Rice concert of Renee Fleming singing the Four Last Songs (this would fit under the "unforgettable" category above)
- at age 13 or so my parents bought me a streaming subscription to naxos.com so I could listen to all the classical music I wanted to. They created a monster 

[Jay F]

Most of my Top 10 Favorite Purchases are ones in which I heard music for the first time which I loved instantly, or nearly instantly. They're mostly Mahler, and none is in a box set. Those are so convenient, and economical, to recommend in 2017, but "economical" and "box set" were not words used in the same sentence very often in 1987, when I bought so many of my first classical CDs.

I had a set of friends I went shopping with on weekends back then, each of whom had listened mainly to classical his entire musical life. I was at the record store with two of them between Christmas and New Years 1987, the day I decided I wanted to get either Rattle's Mahler 2 or Tennstedt's Mahler 8, each of which had won a Gramophone award. One, a music critic, loved Bernstein. The other, a pianist and music professor, loved Karajan. Both insisted I listen to "easier" Mahler before M2 or M8, so what I went home with were Bernstein's CBS M1 (one I've never truly loved no matter who is conducting) and HvK's Mahler 4 (which remains a favorite, and is my favorite M4, to this day).

In January, I went to Tower and to buy the Tennstedt M8 and Rattle M2, but EMI wasn't on sale. CBS was, though, and I was able to get Bernstein's CBS M6 & M8 and M7, M9, & M10 (six CDs) for the same amount of money I might have spent on the four by Rattle and Tennstedt. All of these Bernstein recordings became my favorites. They are my top two CD purchases of all time.

I bought both the M2 by Rattle, and Tennstedt's M8. I listened to them a lot, and considered the Rattle M2 my favorite for some time. But it was superseded by the Bernstein version on DG, and I have never liked any M8 as much as Bernstein's. It snuck up on me, really. The sound quality was so harsh in the first movement in this first US set of Bernstein CBS CDs, but it slid in right after the end of M6 and dared me to change to the other version.

So that's three favorites, including the HvK M4. I like too many versions of M2 to have any of them serve as a favorite here.

An earlier large body of work I liked a lot were Mozart's Piano Concertos. I started with 23 & 27, Brendel, Philips Silverline 1986. Though I came to prefer Perahia, Gulda, and Anda in the PCs, Brendel's 23 and 27 were one of the first three classical CDs I bought. As someone else pointed out, they may be more significant for the purchases they led to than for their own content.

The very first classical CD I wanted was Brendel's Silverline CD of Schubert's last piano sonata and Wanderer Fantasie. I heard it in the record store and had to have it. That was the very beginning of my becoming a classical listener and collector.

Then came Bach. My favorite favorite is Herreweghe's first St. Matthew Passion. That brings me to six favorites.

Seven: one earlier recording should be on this list. That's an LP of Vivaldi concertos conducted by Bernstein. It didn't contain the Kramer vs. Kramer theme I bought it for (shame on you, Seattle record store clerk), but it's one of my most played records of all time.

My eighth favorite allowed me to like music I had previously listened to numerous versions of and dismissed, figuring it just was something I didn't like. That CD is Paul Lewis' first Beethoven CD. I could hardly take it out of the CD player during 2005.

A new favorite for my ninth: Shostakovich's String Quartets. Since I acquired them in the cheap box set era, I have very little idea of which one I'm listening to. I have them by the Emerson, the Fitzwilliam, the Jerusalem, and the Pacifica String Quartets, and I guess I like them all equally.

I am having a hard time picking out a tenth. Pinnock's Brandenburgs or Vivaldi? Hogwood's Mozart? Perhaps Schiff's first Goldberg Variations. Or Schubert's 956 String Quintet by Melos & Mstislav.

[vandermolen]

Nice to see these old LP sleeves. The VW/Elgar is especially good - never saw it before. The Havergal Brian 'Gothic' on Marco Polo should really have been on my list too.

[Sergeant Rock]

Nice to see these old LP sleeves. The VW/Elgar is especially good - never saw it before.

The VW/Elgar Vanguard Everyman LP was my first classical purchase, and the first time I heard Elgar. Those works created a lifelong love of British music. It only cost two bucks but was, in effect, priceless.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Complete Webern by Boulez on DG

Almost made my list. An astonishing achievement.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Other recordings:
- George Szell's collected Haydn symphonies (as posted by Sarge) and Robert Casadesus' collected Mozart piano concertos (ALSO as posted by Sarge!)

Your taste in music is simply impeccable 

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Yes.  I had purchased the CBS box of LPs much earlier, and had to decide which to include in my list.  And in the spirit of posting LP covers:



But the DG is far more comprehensive and generally has better performances, so I went with it.

I have both too (like you, I have the earlier Sony in an LP box). But I prefer the DG for the reasons you give. James can suck it 

Sarge

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Far and away my favorite classical purchase is the complete Berlioz cube from Philips. Cheap for its time ($125.00) and always in use (no matter text/libretti aren't included as I have alternates).





Bartok, string quartets, Vegh.




Hindemith, Ludus tonalis, Mustonen.




Dvorak, last two quartets, Panocha Quartet.




Beethoven, Op.131, Hagen Quartet.




Sibelius, violin concerto, Haendel/Berglund/Bournemouth.




Martinu, string quartets, Panocha Quartet.




Rimsky-Korsakov, Kashchey the Immortal, Gergiev.




Prokofiev, 8th piano sonata, Gavrilov.




Liszt, Dante sonata, Nemoto.




Handel, Agrippina, Gardiner.




Bach, Christmas Oratorio, Veldhoven.




Berg, Lyric Suite, Arditti Quartet.




Schumann, Symphonic Etudes, Pletnev.




Bruckner, 8th symphony, Boulez.




Wagner, Parsifal, Knappertsbusch.




Prokofiev, complete piano concertos, El Bacha/Ono.

[Karl Henning]

Far and away my favorite classical purchase is the complete Berlioz cube from Philips. Cheap for its time ($125.00) and always in use (no matter text/libretti aren't included as I have alternates).

Cool.

(Love that Mustonen disc, too.)

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[(poco) Sforzando]

Cool.

(Love that Mustonen disc, too.)

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Glad to see Jolli Olli is still using his patented technique of attacking the keys from three feet in the air.

[Todd]

Hard to come up with a definitive top ten purchases ever, but this will do for now:

Beethoven - Complete Piano Sonatas; Annie Fischer (Hungaroton).  Though I bought them individually, I treat them as one.  This set the standard for LvB sonatas that I am still trying to match 92 cycles in.

Bartok - Violin Concertos; Isaac Stern & Eugene Ormandy/Leonard Bernstein (Sony).  Part of the first batch of classical discs I bought, and one that made me want to explore classical music.

Berg - Wozzeck; Claudio Abbado, et al (DG).  The second recording I heard (Dohnanyi was the first), and the first I bought, of this work, the piece that made me appreciate opera.

Ravel - Daphnis et Chloe; Pierre Boulez (DG).  Great music and performance tied up with an extra-musical association.

Bruckner - Symphony 8; Sergiu Celibidache (EMI).  A recording that for me showed how far music could be pushed, in this case to a lengthy extreme, and still be phenomenal.  Or epiphenomenal, if you prefer.

Chopin - Four Scherzi; Ivo Pogorelich (DG).  Basically perfect.

Michel Block Plays the Holy Music of Franz Liszt; OM Records.  Definitely perfect.

Masters from the Golden Century (Morales, Guerrero, Victoria); Jordi Savall, et al (Alia Vox).  Great music making, with the Morales disc one of the most captivating and beautiful things I've ever heard.

The Art of Ivry Gitlis (Vox).  A magnificent twofer that demonstrates big names and big labels don't have a lock on great music making.

The Robert Casadesus Editon (Sony).  I bought the last readily available one on the market back in 2002 after hemming and hawing.  Around the same time, I lost out on the bargain basement complete GPOC cycle at BRO (for only $400!), so this can be viewed as a kick-ass consolation prize. From this magnificent purchase I gained my appreciation of surveys of all of an artist's recordings for a given label.

[vandermolen]

The VW/Elgar Vanguard Everyman LP was my first classical purchase, and the first time I heard Elgar. Those works created a lifelong love of British music. It only cost two bucks but was, in effect, priceless.

Sarge

Very interesting to hear. Where did you buy the LP from?

[Ken B]

Well, going by what got played the most over the years

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and the one Sarge forgot:
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[(poco) Sforzando]

Have to add one more, though my count remains at 10 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 10!) This was a little gouache I had custom-painted by an artist, Jane Mount, who specializes in painting people's favorite books (well, their spines really). For $300, framed, in 2011, I got a little 8x10 of about a dozen of my favorite musical scores, including Meistersinger, Falstaff, the Beethoven quartets, Marteau sans Maitre, the WTC, etc. And a volume of the Collected Works of Sforzando. Her prices have gone way up and I couldn't afford another, but here's a sample of her work: https://www.idealbookshelf.com/blogs/blog?page=53

[kishnevi]

Off the top of my head
Teldec Complete Bach set
Brilliant 100 CD Symphonies set ( includes Fischer's Haydn, Barshai's DSCH, and a PI Mozart cycle)
Hogwood Haydn box
Borodin Qt DSCH cycle
Zinman/Zurich Mahler 9
DG Complete Mahler box
DG Complete Boulez box
Handel's Ariodante (McGeghan)
Puccini Turandot (Mehta)
And squeezed into tenth place, the entirety of the Naive Vivaldi edition

Squeezed out for lack of room
DG Complete Debussy box
DG Complete Ravel box
Sony Ligeti Edition (chamber, keyboard, and vocal works)
Beghin's set of Haydn keyboard works
Schiff's Beethoven sonatas
Furtwangler's RAI Ring
Knappertsbusch's Parsifal from (?) 1954
Gardiner's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage
EMI Eminence box
Mercury Living Presence 1 box

And in a class of their own, the complete Callas Remastered, Artur Rubinstein, and Murray Perahia boxes.

[springrite]

Off the top of my head
Teldec Complete Bach set
Brilliant 100 CD Symphonies set ( includes Fischer's Haydn, Barshai's DSCH, and a PI Mozart cycle)
Hogwood Haydn box
Borodin Qt DSCH cycle
Zinman/Zurich Mahler 9
DG Complete Mahler box
DG Complete Boulez box
Handel's Ariodante (McGeghan)
Puccini Turandot (Mehta)
And squeezed into tenth place, the entirety of the Naive Vivaldi edition

Squeezed out for lack of room
DG Complete Debussy box
DG Complete Ravel box
Sony Ligeti Edition (chamber, keyboard, and vocal works)
Beghin's set of Haydn keyboard works
Schiff's Beethoven sonatas
Furtwangler's RAI Ring
Knappertsbusch's Parsifal from (?) 1954
Gardiner's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage
EMI Eminence box
Mercury Living Presence 1 box

And in a class of their own, the complete Callas Remastered, Artur Rubinstein, and Murray Perahia boxes.

I seem to slightly prefer the ones you squeezed outside of the room than the ones in it. I may decide to drive by and pick them up...

[James]

The ones that 'really got me' at the very beginning .. and more importantly remain as opposed to those that tended to atrophy or die away with time ..

Bartok - 6 SQs, Juilliard 60s (Sony)
Bartok - Pno Ctos, Friscay/Anda (DG)
Stravinsky conducts Agon (Columbia)
Webern - Complete Works, op. 1-31, Boulez (Sony)
JS Bach - Goldberg Variations, Gould '55 (Sony)

more to come ..

[Karl Henning]

Teldec Complete Bach set
Hogwood Haydn box

I can affirm the musical joy and wisdom in these    0:)

[James]

More crème de la crème ..

Dowland, Complete Lute Works, Paul O'Dette (Harmonia Mundi)
Faure, Complete Solo Piano, Jean Doyen (Erato)
JS Bach, Brandenburg Ctos (Pinnock/Archiv); (Carlos/Columbia)
JS Bach, Complete Organ Works, Michel Chapuis (Valois)
JS Bach, Mass in B Minor, Harnoncourt (Telarc)
JS Bach, Partitas (Schiff/Decca); (Gould/Sony)
Debussy, Orchestral Works, Boulez (Sony)
Barborelli conducts Wagner (Vanguard)

..