Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Purchases Of All-Time

[Mirror Image]

This could be an extremely difficult one for many, but I figured why not?

I'll have to think of a list and post it later. Have fun!

[Mirror Image]

Okay, here goes nothing (in no particular order):

   
• Shostakovich symphonic cycle with Rozhdestvensky conducting the USSR Ministry of Culture SO on Melodiya
• Debussy/Ravel chamber music set with the Nash Ensemble on Virgin Classics
• Vaughan Williams symphony cycle with Bryden Thomson conducting the London SO on Chandos
• Rachmaninov orchestral set with Ashkenazy conducting the Royal Concertgebouw on Decca
• Bartok Piano Concertos with Andras Schiff with Ivan Fischer conducting the Budapest Festival Orchestra on Teldec (Warner)
• Ravel Piano Concertos with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet with Tortlier conducting the BBC SO on Chandos
• Mahler Complete Symphonies and Orchestral Songs with Leonard Bernstein conducting various orchestras on Deutsche Grammophon
• All of the various Sibelius Editions on BIS I bought (I'm going to cheat and count them as one)
• Nielsen Symphonies 3 & 5 with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Royal Danish Orch. and the New York Philharmonic on Columbia (Sony)
• Britten Complete Edition on Decca

Honorable mentions: Boulez's Complete Recordings on Columbia set, Rozhdestvensky's Prokofiev symphony and ballet sets on Melodiya, Stravinsky Complete Edition on Deutsche Grammophon, and Schnittke's Peer Gynt on BIS (w/ Eri Klas conducting the Stockholm Royal Opera Orchestra)

[Zeus]

I'll bite...

Beethoven: Piano Concertos 4 & 5 / Sudbin, Minnesota, Vanska / BIS
Brahms, Joachim: Violin Concertos / Rachel Barton Pine, Chicago, Kalmar / Cedille
Bréville, Canteloube: Violin Sonatas / Pascal Devoyon & Philippe Graffin / Hyperion
Chants juifs / Sonia Wieder-Atherton / Naive
Cras: L'oeuvre pour orchestre / Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg / Timpani
A French Baroque Diva - Arias for Marie Fel / Carolyn Sampson, Ex Cathedra & Jeffrey Skidmore / Hyperion
Les Travailleurs de la mer - Ancient Songs from a Small Island / The Harp Consort, Andrew Lawrence-King / Harmonia Mundi
Liszt: Intégrale des années de pélerinage / Bertrand Chamayou / Naive
Song of the Stars / Voices of Ascension, Keene / Naxos
Villa-Lobos: Complete Choros, Bachianas Brasileiras, etc / Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra / BIS

[(poco) Sforzando]

No reason why these all have to be recordings.

The complete Eulenburg miniature scores of Wagner's Ring I bought myself as a graduation gift when I got my Ph.D. in 1977.
The complete Harnoncourt/Leonhardt CDs of the Bach cantatas.
The score to Stockhausen's Gruppen which my friend Albrecht Moritz had the composer sign for me.
The score to Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maitre which the composer signed for me.
The live performance at Columbia U's Miller Theater of the five Carter Quartets by the Pacifica Quartet, in the composer's presence.
Callas, diStefano, and Gobbi doing Tosca under deSabata.
Bernstein's recording of the Harold Shapero symphony.
Petre Munteanu's recording of Schubert's Schwanengesang.
The Yale Quartet's recording of the Beethoven late quartets.
My Sohmer upright piano.
Kubelik conducting Gotterdammerung at the Met in 1974.
The "Sega Grand Pianist" which I just finally found at a decent price and is on its way from Japan, the most exquisite miniature musical instrument ever.
The best books by Charles Rosen: The Classical Style and The Romantic Generation.
Joseph Kerman's Opera as Drama.
Boulez doing Mahler 3 at Carnegie Hall, and a BBC aircheck of a similar performance.
The study score of Wozzeck I bought at age 18 for only $20.

That's 10, right? 

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

The score to Stockhausen's Gruppen which my friend Albrecht Moritz had the composer sign for me.
The score to Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maitre which the composer signed for me.

So jealous, so so so so jealous omg

I can't think of a top 10 at all, but I absolutely cherish the scores I own, my guitar and my best classical music experiences have so far been the concerts of new music performed by these guys for which I have been buying tickets for the past few years.

[(poco) Sforzando]

So jealous, so so so so jealous omg

Maybe someday you'll rise to their level of fame and some kid will be jealous of a score you've autographed.

Actually, I also have Stockhausen's signature on my score to Refrain and my CDs of Licht:Samstag (all thanks to Al Moritz, who used to travel to the Stockhausen courses each summer), and a signed copy of Boulez's Notes from an Apprenticeship. From Elliott Carter, I have his signature on the Juilliard Quartet's CD of the quartets (this was at the Pacifica concert; he was more than unusually peppery that night and said, "I shouldn't be signing my name; I should be writing music"). From Carter, I also have an album-leaf with his signature and a handwritten passage from the 2nd Quartet.

[some guy]

Wow, a top ten poll that makes sense to me.

I've been trying to come up with one myself, but failing. Fortunately, I no longer have to try. Mirror has done it for me.

The first thing that happened to me was not a purchase, not my purchase, that is. I inherited a box full of classical and jazz 78s from my uncle Bill. I assume someone had purchased them, perhaps Bill himself.

But they came to me. And that was the first I had heard any classical music--identified as such. (I came to find, as many others also have, that the cartoons I had watched, and the movies, too, had been full of little snippets of classical music.) It was revelatory. For me, it was "oh, this is what music really sounds like." And I embarked on a ten or eleven year survey of several hundred years worth of classical music.

Early in that decade, I purchased Rachmaninoff's piano concerto #2 (with Tchaikovsky's #1 on the other side). I wore that poor lp out playing it.

Good times those were, full of dozens of new discoveries, each more momentous than the first, which was the most momentous of all. ( )

And then, in 1972, I bought Reiner's recording of Bartok's Concerto for orchestra. Magic. That was the most outrageous thing I'd heard so far, and it was what started me off on the rest of my listening life, though I came to realize that I had heard quite a lot of 20th century music already: Kodaly, Janacek, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev. (His fifth symphony would count as one of my favorite classical purchases (Martinon) as would his Romeo & Juliet ballet (Maazel). (Janacek's Taras Bulba was long a favorite of mine on the radio. When I finally found a recording of it (Ancerl), I played it very sparingly, wanted to keep it as fresh as possible for as long as possible.)

In quick succession, there was more Bartok and more Stravinsky. (I suppose the performance in Stockholm of Les Noces would count. I did purchase the ticket for it, anyway. I was well and truly hooked by that time. And that was one of the more memorable concerts of my life.)

Soon, there'd be Varese (Mehta) and Carter (Prausnitz). Prausnitz was also at the helm for another of my favorites, Gerhard's symphony no. 3.

And Stockhausen and Eimert and Ferrari. My favorite Ferrari then was the recording of Societie II. And I soon found myself in a long-running contest with several friends (and one son) to see who would get the first new Ferrari disc.

Lovely, lovely times.

Probably my very favorite LP purchase of those times was the Sonic Arts Union recording on Mainstream (love that name for an avant garde classical label) called Electric Sound. I genuinely loved all this stuff, but this album was too much, even for me. But I knew, of a certainty, that this was the real stuff, and that when I was ready for it, I would understand and love. Which turned out to be true. The only piece I could listen to at first with any sort of pleasure was Mumma's Hornpipe. Behrman's Runthrough was next, then Lucier's Vespers, and finally, many years later, Ashley's Purposeful Lady, Slow Afternoon. Ashley gets his own item on my top ten list: In Sara, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven there were men and women. As alluring a piece as I know. It goes along with Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Xenakis' Persepolis as one of the pieces that once I've started playing them, I cannot stop.

So ten, eh? I suppose if I can put in another concert, that would be the 1976 performance by the L.A. Phil of Cage's Renga, with Apartment House 1776. It didn't hurt that I had arranged to meet Cage at rehearsal in the afternoon, spending the rest of the afternoon in the lobby of his Westwood hotel, talking about music and mushrooms and playing chess.

I bought the ticket for that concert, so it counts as a purchase, but truly, you can't buy experiences like that, not for any amount.

[The new erato]

A poll that makes sense. For me it must be not the absolutely best recordings, but the recordings that set me on the path to discovering this vast and varied musical universe - all these on LP that has been worn thin BTW, though I also mostly have them on CD.

Studio der Fruhe Musik's recordings on Telefunken and EMI's Reflexe series of medieval music
David Munrow's wonderful recording of Dufay's Se la Face ay Pale (a waterstone recording for me)
Milos Sadlo on Supraphon in cello concertos by Honegger and Shostakovich
David Oistrakh's EMI recording of Shostakovich's first violin concerto
A volume of the Leonhardt/Harnoncourt Bach cantata series with cantata no 21.
Ansermet's Pelleas and Melisande
Karl Bøhm in Bruckner's 4th, and Haitink in his Philips recording of the 8th
The Hungarian Quartets Bartok cycle
The Busch Quartet's late Beethoven (like Sforzando, I also have a weak spot for the Yales)
Frank Martin's Der Cornet on Orfeo (with the stunning Marjana Lipovsek)
Ormandy's Shostakovich 14th
Pettersson 7th With Dorati
Vaughan Williams 6th with Boult on EMI

These were some of the discs I were weaned on. Come to think about it, some of these are still the best.

[vandermolen]

My goodness - what a task!
Ok here goes off the top of my head:

Vaughan Williams: Symphony 6 Decca Eclipse LP. LPO Boult. I was about 17 and this work in this performance tea formed my attitude to music. It had a huge effect on my youthful self. VW's speech at the end of the performance only added to the magical aspects of the whole thing.

Hilding Rosenberg: Symphony 3 Swedish EMI LP, Blomstedt Stockholm PO - the redemptive ending had a huge effect on me too - I played it over and over again.

Allan Pettersson: Violin Concerto 2 - Caprice LP Ida Haendel. The greatest VC of all time IMHO - I found the final section unbearably moving.

Honegger: symphonies 2 and 3 Berlin PO Karajan DGG LP. The third 'Liturgique' reminded me of Vaughan Williams's contemporaneous Symphony 6 with a more hopeful ending.

Miaskovsky: Symphony 6, Melodiya LP - after this I never looked back with Miaskovsky.

Bruckner: Symphony 9 Furtwangler Berlin PO (1944 performance) Heliodor LP. Wonderfully doom laden atmosphere throughout this great performance.

Shostakovich: Symphony 4 CBS LP, Ormandy - one of the great symphonies of all time.

Patrick Hadley: The Trees so High, Lyrita LP

Bax: Symphony 3, LSO Downes, RCA LP - never on CD ( ) listened to this one over and over again on headphones in the university library when I should have been studying.

Moving on to CD

John Kinsella, symphonies 3 and 4 Marco Polo CD.

[vandermolen]

Okay, here goes nothing (in no particular order):

   
• Shostakovich symphonic cycle with Rozhdestvensky conducting the USSR Ministry of Culture SO on Melodiya
• Debussy/Ravel chamber music set with the Nash Ensemble on Virgin Classics
• Vaughan Williams symphony cycle with Bryden Thomson conducting the London SO on Chandos
• Rachmaninov orchestral set with Ashkenazy conducting the Royal Concertgebouw on Decca
• Bartok Piano Concertos with Andras Schiff with Ivan Fischer conducting the Budapest Festival Orchestra on Teldec (Warner)
• Ravel Piano Concertos with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet with Tortlier conducting the BBC SO on Chandos
• Mahler Complete Symphonies and Orchestral Songs with Leonard Bernstein conducting various orchestras on Deutsche Grammophon
• All of the various Sibelius Editions on BIS I bought (I'm going to cheat and count them as one)
• Nielsen Symphonies 3 & 4 with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Royal Danish Orch. and the New York Philharmonic on Columbia (Sony)
• Britten Complete Edition on Decca

Honorable mentions: Boulez's Complete Recordings on Columbia set, Rozhdestvensky's Prokofiev symphony and ballet sets on Melodiya, Stravinsky Complete Edition on Deutsche Grammophon, and Schnittke's Peer Gynt on BIS (w/ Eri Klas conducting the Stockholm Royal Opera Orchestra)

Great list which could largely come from me too although I'm less of a fan of Britten other than the Sinfonia da Requiem and War Requiem.

[vandermolen]

A poll that makes sense. For me it must be not the absolutely best recordings, but the recordings that set me on the path to discovering this vast and varied musical universe - all these on LP that has been worn thin BTW, though I also mostly have them on CD.

Studio der Fruhe Musik's recordings on Telefunken and EMI's Reflexe series of medieval music
David Munrow's wonderful recording of Dufay's Se la Face ay Pale (a waterstone recording for me)
Milos Sadlo on Supraphon in cello concertos by Honegger and Shostakovich
David Oistrakh's EMI recording of Shostakovich's first violin concerto
A volume of the Leonhardt/Harnoncourt Bach cantata series with cantata no 21.
Ansermet's Pelleas and Melisande
Karl Bøhm in Bruckner's 4th, and Haitink in his Philips recording of the 8th
The Hungarian Quartets Bartok cycle
The Busch Quartet's late Beethoven (like Sforzando, I also have a weak spot for the Yales)
Frank Martin's Der Cornet on Orfeo (with the stunning Marjana Lipovsek)
Ormandy's Shostakovich 14th
Pettersson 7th With Dorati
Vaughan Williams 6th with Boult on EMI

These were some of the discs I were weaned on. Come to think about it, some of these are still the best.

The last two could be on my list too although I prefer the earlier Boult version of the VW on Decca.

[The new erato]

The last two could be on my list too although I prefer the earlier Boult version of the VW on Decca.

I have the Decca cycle but are imprinted on the EMI.

[vandermolen]

I have the Decca cycle but are imprinted on the EMI.

The EMI cycle is great too and many prefer the more recent recordings. I think that there is marginally less mystery in the last movement than on the Decca but the Guide to the Top 1000 CDs of all time chooses the EMI version as the No.1 choice.

[Mandryka]

Ashley gets his own item on my top ten list: In Sara, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven there were men and women. As alluring a piece as I know. It goes along with Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Xenakis' Persepolis as one of the pieces that once I've started playing them, I cannot stop.

Yes, I agree.

[NikF]

Only some of these are favourite music and/or recordings. A few are listed because they kind of opened a door for me that led to other works.


Brahms: Op. 119 - Serkin. (BBC Legends)

Brahms: Piano Concerto in D Minor - Pollini/Thielemann/Staatskapelle Dresden. (DG)

Shostakovich: Complete Quartets - Borodin Quartet. (Melodiya)

Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 1 - 5, Piano Concertos 1 & 2 etc. - Masur/Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. (Warner Classics)

Mahler: The Complete Mahler Symphonies - Bernstein/New York Phil. (Sony)

Bartók: 6 String Quartets - Hungarian String Quartet. (DG)

Debussy/Ravel/Faure: Piano Trios - Rouvier/Kantorow/Muller. (Denon)

Prokofiev: Piano Concertos - Krainev/Kitayenko/Moscow Philharmonic. (Melodiya)

Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps - Bernstein/New York Phil. (Columbia)

Vaughan Williams: The Complete Symphonies - Boult. (EMI)

[Turner]

I think I´ll pass, but thanks for some very interesting posts & reading here.

Only some of these are favourite music and/or recordings. A few are listed because they kind of opened a door for me that led to other works.
....
Prokofiev: Piano Concertos - Krainev/Kitayenko/Moscow Philharmonic. (Melodiya)
....

Good to see that one! And it´s better than - and quite different from - Krainev/Kitayenko and the Frankfurt RSO.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I bought the ticket for that concert, so it counts as a purchase, but truly, you can't buy experiences like that, not for any amount.

No you can't, but so long as prices for concerts and scores remain at their current astronomical highs, I consider them purchases!

[North Star]

- Bach: Famous Cantatas Vol. 1 (BWV 21 & 42/12, 38 & 75/27, 84, 85 & 161) (Collegium Vocale Gent/Herreweghe)
- Beethoven: Complete Works for String Quartet & String Quintet (The Endellion Quartet)
- Harmonia Mundi: Lumières - especially for Rameau's Castor & Pollux (Christie), Glück's Orfeo & Euridice (Jacobs), Mozart's Le nozze (Jacobs)
- Haydn: String Quartets, Opp. 64, 76, 77 (Mosaïques) - my first proper introduction to Haydn
- Ravel: Complete Edition (Decca/Universal) - Ravel was a favourite already before I got this, but I got to know many works, the operas and songs in particular, from here.
- Boulez's DGG boxes of Bartók and Stravinsky - instrumental in getting me more into 20th C. music. I'll count them as one here.
- The Decca Janáček box with chamber, instrumental and choral works.
- Cinquecento's Richafort Requiem - a major contributor to my interest in early music.
- UMG's Complete Chopin - led to a greater appreciation of a favourite composer to whom I hadn't paid the attention he deserved.
- Gidon Kremer & Martha Argerichs' Prokofiev Violin Sonatas - A glorious disc, and searching about it is what originally led me to GMG, where I would discover so much more music, and friends.
+ this one from last year, before which I had heard only a handful of the symphonies: Haydn: 107 Symphonies (Hogwood, Brüggen, Dantone, UMG)

ETA
I forgot about these, they belong on that list too:
Brahms: Complete Chamber Works (Hyperion) - I knew some Brahms before (a dozen or two pieces) but this set made my appreciation grow to a different degree.
Christian Gerhaher: The Art of Song (Schubert, Schumann, Mahler, etc etc) - This is some of the finest lied singing I've ever heard, and has got me interested in hearing more of the repertoire.

(Other signposts: Pärt Tabula Rasa (ECM), the DGG Berg box, Naxos's reissues of Craft's Schönberg, Colin Davis's Berlioz, Rattle's Britten with Bostridge, and the EMI Britten Collector's Edition, Suzuki's last one of the 15 CD Bach cantata boxes, Jansons' Shostakovich box, the EMI Complete Mahler box, and naïve's box with Alessandrini's Monteverdi Vespers and Vivaldi 'Vespers', and the UMG Complete Rakhmaninov)

[mc ukrneal]

Hmmm. I think my favorite purchases would be (hopefully nothing forgotten, in the order they popped into my head):
- Godowsky: Complete Studies on Chopin's Etudes, Marc-Andre Hamelin (Hyperion) (amazing)
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade, LSO/Mackerras (Telarc) (listened countless times and such good sound)
- Schubert: Complete Hyperion Schubert Lieder Edition (40 discs), Hyperion (granted, I bought them separately, but since it is available like this, I think it's fair)
- Bach: Paris Saxophone Quartet (CBS Masterworks) (only available on Vinyl, but I converted to cd and the one disc I wish they'd release on CD)
- Beethoven: Piano Sonatas 8, 14, 21, and 30, Rudolf Firkusny (EMI) (perhaps the best Beethoven I've ever heard)
- Brahms: Complete Piano Trios, Florestan Trio + Soloists (Hyperion) (sublime)
- Victoria: Sacred Works (10 discs, Arkiv)  (recent purchase, but I think about it all the time)
- Icon: The Mighty Boris (Christoff) (11 discs EMI/Warner) (again, bought the songs separately in 3 and 5 disc sets respectively)
- Mozart: Marriage of Figaro, Te Kanawa/Pop/Von Stade/Ramey/etc/Solti (3 discs, Decca) (the singing has never been bettered in this marvelous performance)
- Offenbach: Entre Nous (2 discs, Opera Rara) (listening to this just begs the question why more of his music hasn't been recorded)

Honorable mentions (on another day, they might be on the list, so no real difference with the above): Mozart Mass in C Minor/Leppard, Bruckner Symphony No. 9/Haitink (later one), Alnaes Piano Concerto (Hyperion romantic concerto series), Debussy/Kocsis, Elgar/Boult set (3 discs), British Light Music (4 discs, Hyperion), and Grainger Country Gardens (Eastman-Rochester/Fennel).

[vandermolen]

Hmmm. I think my favorite purchases would be (hopefully nothing forgotten, in the order they popped into my head):
- Godowsky: Complete Studies on Chopin's Etudes, Marc-Andre Hamelin (Hyperion) (amazing)
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade, LSO/Mackerras (Telarc) (listened countless times and such good sound)
- Schubert: Complete Hyperion Schubert Lieder Edition (40 discs), Hyperion (granted, I bought them separately, but since it is available like this, I think it's fair)
- Bach: Paris Saxophone Quartet (CBS Masterworks) (only available on Vinyl, but I converted to cd and the one disc I wish they'd release on CD)
- Beethoven: Piano Sonatas 8, 14, 21, and 30, Rudolf Firkusny (EMI) (perhaps the best Beethoven I've ever heard)
- Brahms: Complete Piano Trios, Florestan Trio + Soloists (Hyperion) (sublime)
- Victoria: Sacred Works (10 discs, Arkiv)  (recent purchase, but I think about it all the time)
- Icon: The Mighty Boris (Christoff) (11 discs EMI/Warner) (again, bought the songs separately in 3 and 5 disc sets respectively)
- Mozart: Marriage of Figaro, Te Kanawa/Pop/Von Stade/Ramey/etc/Solti (3 discs, Decca) (the singing has never been bettered in this marvelous performance)
- Offenbach: Entre Nous (2 discs, Opera Rara) (listening to this just begs the question why more of his music hasn't been recorded)

Honorable mentions (on another day, they might be on the list, so no real difference with the above): Mozart Mass in C Minor/Leppard, Bruckner Symphony No. 9/Haitink (later one), Alnaes Piano Concerto (Hyperion romantic concerto series), Debussy/Kocsis, Elgar/Boult set (3 discs), British Light Music (4 discs, Hyperion), and Grainger Country Gardens (Eastman-Rochester/Fennel).

Scheherazade was my first classical LP (Reiner).

Honourable mention:

Walton Symphony 1  New Philharmonia Orchestra Sargent. Sargent was underrated - his BBC SO version of Sibelius's Symphony 5 is my favourite version.