Favorite Classical on Vinyl

[TheGSMoeller]

About to finally get my new record player, waiting another week or so until I get back from spring break, and I need to get my hands on some good records. I used to have some but sold them all long ago, and need to replace those but mostly want to get brand new ones I haven't owned.

Been trying to locate online lists of great sounding Classical recordings on vinyl, but they are difficult to locate, or not very common. I'm also investing in a good receiver, and I have great headphones so I'm really looking for the ultimate record-player listening experience (or as close to it as possible with my budget  ) .

Please list some, or all, of your favorite Classical recordings on vinyl. Thanks!

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Congrats on getting back into the Wonderful World of Vinyl. I did it a few years ago and am glad I did 

Are you looking for "sonic spectaculars" irrespective of the actual music being played? If so, don't know if I can help you. But you might wish to peruse the "Vinyl Explorations" thread I started, dealing with hard-to-find or never reissued releases:

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,22613.0.html

[Bogey]

About to finally get my new record player, waiting another week or so until I get back from spring break, and I need to get my hands on some good records. I used to have some but sold them all long ago, and need to replace those but mostly want to get brand new ones I haven't owned.

Been trying to locate online lists of great sounding Classical recordings on vinyl, but they are difficult to locate, or not very common. I'm also investing in a good receiver, and I have great headphones so I'm really looking for the ultimate record-player listening experience (or as close to it as possible with my budget  ) .

Please list some, or all, of your favorite Classical recordings on vinyl. Thanks!

From a few years back and posted on the other thread

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/classical-vinyl-lps-what-labels-sound-the-best-rca-living-stereo-london-bluebacks-mercury.313997/

[Bogey]

Oh, and have fun with this and do not pay too much unless you buy new.  By new, I mean like the stuff here (they are a fantastic company):

http://store.acousticsounds.com/g/10/Classical

[TheGSMoeller]

Congrats on getting back into the Wonderful World of Vinyl. I did it a few years ago and am glad I did 

Are you looking for "sonic spectaculars" irrespective of the actual music being played? If so, don't know if I can help you. But you might wish to peruse the "Vinyl Explorations" thread I started, dealing with hard-to-find or never reissued releases:

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,22613.0.html

Ahh, nice. I did a search of "vinyl" here but must've missed this one. Thank you!

I'm not specifically looking for the sonic spectaculars, considering I've already spent a ton on getting spectacular sounding CDs and don't really want to replace/duplicate them with their vinyl. 
But I do like getting my hands on the hard to find ones.

[TheGSMoeller]

From a few years back and posted on the other thread

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/classical-vinyl-lps-what-labels-sound-the-best-rca-living-stereo-london-bluebacks-mercury.313997/

Oh, and have fun with this and do not pay too much unless you buy new.  By new, I mean like the stuff here (they are a fantastic company):

http://store.acousticsounds.com/g/10/Classical

Great! Thanks for the links, Bogey.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

I could give you specific recommendations, but many of them would be difficult to find and/or very expensive. Rather, I would suggest that the unpredictability of hunting for vinyl treasures is part of the fun, and your collection may end up to be far more interesting because of things you find by chance. I buy CDs from Amazon and other sellers to get hold of the newest recordings, things I can't find on vinyl, and to complete gaps in my vinyl collection. However, the vinyl itself is more fun.

In terms of sound quality and/or performances, you typically can't go wrong with the following labels:

Archiv
Deutsche Grammophon
Harmonia Mundi
RCA Victor Living Stereo (shaded dog or white dog)
Columbia monos or stereos (two eyes are generally quieter than six eyes; some of the monos are spectacular)
Westminster (old monos from the 50s and 60s, with some great performers and great sound)
Period: Old monos from the 50s with some spectacular, incredible performances (and sound) by Janos Starker, David Oistrakh
Remington: Old monos from the 50s. A bargain label in the day, not the quietest surfaces, but some very wonderful recordings
Musical Heritage Society: 50s-80s (?) Subscription series with boring white covers. Nevertheless, some great performances, and some have very good sound quality
Angel/EMI/HMV/Odeon/Pathé: A great treasure trove of recordings from some of the most important labels

ALSO, get yourself, a decent record cleaning machine. There is a thread on the Diner. My audio dealer lets me use his Keith Monks machine or VPI for free (these are in the $5K range), but there are many other less expensive alternatives. Even NEW vinyl often has a lot of crap in the grooves (mold release compound, tiny vinyl fragments), and many greatly benefit from a cleaning. Get yourselves some good inner sleeves while you're at it.

Have fun.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

In terms of sound quality and/or performances, you typically can't go wrong with the following labels:

Archiv
Deutsche Grammophon
Harmonia Mundi
RCA Victor Living Stereo (shaded dog or white dog)
Columbia monos or stereos (two eyes are generally quieter than six eyes; some of the monos are spectacular)
Westminster (old monos from the 50s and 60s, with some great performers and great sound)
Period: Old monos from the 50s with some spectacular, incredible performances (and sound) by Janos Starker, David Oistrakh
Remington: Old monos from the 50s. A bargain label in the day, not the quietest surfaces, but some very wonderful recordings
Musical Heritage Society: 50s-80s (?) Subscription series with boring white covers. Nevertheless, some great performances, and some have very good sound quality
Angel/EMI/HMV/Odeon/Pathé: A great treasure trove of recordings from some of the most important labels

Also Nonesuch - many of which have never been released on CD - Philips from the 1960s-70s, and Vanguard.

ALSO, get yourself, a decent record cleaning machine. There is a thread on the Diner.

I reiterate my love for the el cheapo Spin-Clean, which I mentioned on that thread.

There's also the question of where to acquire vinyl if you don't have a 2ndhand record store nearby. I recommend Irvington Music in Oregon (made several highly satisfactory orders there). Also, I recommend signing up on Discogs, so you can buy LPs from individual re-sellers. I've bought about 12 LPs from Discogs; the only complaint I have is that delivery can be slow. But everything has arrived. I think the key to using Discogs is to buy only from highly-rated sellers.

[bluemooze]

L'Oiseau-Lyre vinyl (Academy Of Ancient Music, Hogwood, Et Al) is of outstanding quality.   

[Jo498]

While I don't collect Vinyl I was a little into it in the early/mid 2000s (and also had stuff I more or less inherited even earlier) and I agree that part of the fun is the unpredictability. Also the often lavish books accompanying larger sets and most importantly, the worthwhile recordings that never appeared on CD or might be easier to find on used vinyl than on oop CDs.

Westminster and Nonesuch are obvious candidates for otherwise unavailable stuff. And while this applies more to Europe there are Eurodisc issues of interesting Russian or Eastern European recordings, typically 1970s or 80s discs with recordings from the 60s and 70s that are sometimes not easy to find otherwise although Melodiya brought out quite a bit on CD more recently.

And if you are interested in baroque and early music there are lots of LPs from the first flourishing of the HIP movement in the 1970s that did not make it to CD, check for Telefunken DAS ALTE WERK, Archiv, EMI reflexe(?), French and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.