The 50 Greatest Recordings of All Time (per BBC Music Mag)

[The new erato]

The list is dull because it's pretty predictable, not because it contains bad or indifferent recordings. But it's just another list, and it doesn't tell us anything New which is the main value of lists. I have 30 of those (not no 1 though).

[Dancing Divertimentian]

This is just another in a long line of marketing-driven lists "voted upon" by BBC reviewers. What I'd be more interested in is what are the reviewers' favorite recordings, which may or may not mirror the current list to a "T" but if it did I'd recommend the reviewers get out more.

But certainly thanks to Karl for posting it!

[Brahmsian]

I was surprised not to see 10 recordings of Handel's 'Messiah' 

The famous "English" Baroque composer! 

[Parsifal]

To me

"It's not the most accurate rendition, but it oozes a pioneering spirit, paving the way for Gardiner, Herreweghe et al."
translates to
"Others are more accurate, but they weren't first."

The distinguishing feature of a great musical performance is "accuracy?"

The list has little interest to me, but that recording is one of only two or three instances where they have chosen a recording that I would want to listen to.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I was surprised not to see 10 recordings of Handel's 'Messiah' 

The famous "English" Baroque composer! 

And no doubt all by the English Baroque Soloists, or some such Brit ensemble!

[Daverz]

I think the only ones that would make it on my own personal list would be the Kubelik Ma Vlast, the Monteux Daphnis, and the Baker Sea Pictures.  Maybe the Klemperer Magic Flute.

I think there are better recordings of the Bartok CfO than Reiner.  Perhaps Boulez on DG.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I think the only ones that would make it on my own personal list would be the Kubelik Ma Vlast, the Monteux Daphnis, and the Baker Sea Pictures.  Maybe the Klemperer Magic Flute.

I'm actually happy to see the Britten included - I have them and when it comes to Britten conducting his own works you can bet the quality will be high.

[Daverz]

I'm actually happy to see the Britten included - I have them and when it comes to Britten conducting his own works you can bet the quality will be high.

Yeah, I think it's probably pretty hard to beat those Britten recordings.   But the only Britten that might make it onto my personal list is the Serenade with Pears and Tuckwell.

The Janacek recordings are also great, but on my short list the Janacek recordings that would make it would be the Neumann Cunning Little Vixen and the Ancerl recordings of the Sinfonietta and Glagolithic Mass.

I'd have a hard time picking a single disc to represent any Brahms symphony, let alone all of Brahms's music.

[Mandryka]

Melnikov's Shostakovich sticks out like a sore thumb. Mostly this list propounds the idea that old recordings are the greatest recordings simply because they are old. If you click the Harnoncourt Bach Mass, they freely admit in the caption that there have been a bunch of better recordings since.

They don't say that and there haven't been.

Well one better recording of the b minor mass is Harnoncourt's other recording of the b minor mass

[Mandryka]

I'd have a hard time picking a single disc to represent any Brahms symphony, let alone all of Brahms's music.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Furtwangler Brahms 4

[Octave]

In case you can't tell, I think this list (despite some very worthy choices! Like maybe 15 or so) is silly, absurd, narrow-minded, and fundamentally idiotic.

Which 15 are the only worthy ones?

[Daverz]

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Furtwangler Brahms 4

All 7 or so Furtwangler recordings?

[Cato]

Where oh where are these recordings in the Top 50?!

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Or how about one of the Pavarotti Tosca recordings from the 1970's?!   

And Antal Dorati's Mercury recording or James Levine's DGG CD of Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra?!   

Where are George Szell's Schumann symphonies with the Cleveland Orchestra?!     

And don't even get me started on the absence of the Jochum Bruckner and Ormandy Rachmaninoff symphony recordings!!!       Or the Fischer-Dieskau recordings of Hindemith's Cardillac and Busoni's Doctor Faust !!!    0:)

[Mandryka]

All 7 or so Furtwangler recordings?

1943 BPO

[Pat B]

Aside from the token recent recording, a lot of their selections are more legendary than great. It's hard to see Casals as the greatest Bach cello recording for most listeners, just on the basis of sound quality. It is surely the most legendary though. (I'm tempted to say the same about Schnabel's Beethoven, but the transfers I've heard are probably even worse than EMI's.) Even among the not-quite-as-old recordings, I'd call the Hildegard disc more legendary than great. It is great, but it's not the 16th greatest of all time. I believe it's famous mostly for what it spawned.

[Karl Henning]

1943 BPO

Easy for you ; )

[Lisztianwagner]

Kleiber's Beethoven recording absolutely deserves the second position in the list, it's really close to perfection; that's also great to see both Furtwängler's Tristan und Isolde and E. Kleiber's Le Nozze di Figaro.

[Pat B]

One of the criticisms of that particular list is that so many of the choices are very old. Given that these lists inherently tend towards mainstream performances of mainstream works, and aren't necessarily any single person's favorites, what more-recent recordings would you expect to see? In other words, what are the usual suspects of the past 20-30 years? This interests me because most of the legends I'm familiar with date back to the LP era, and most of the more recent recordings I listen to are from the likes of Archibudelli, Peter Watchorn, and Václav Luks, who have more of a cult following.

One that comes to mind is Andsnes's Grieg and Schumann (on EMI!). There was a rare degree of consensus on this as a great recording, and it seems to have held up after 10 years.

What are some others?

[mc ukrneal]

Where oh where are these recordings in the Top 50?!

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I would take Hyperion's Complete Shubert Songs over DFD. It doesn't mean DFD is bad, just that the Hyperion set is amazing (and so extensive). Oh wait, I forgot, it's a British label and I'd be adding to the bias. 

[springrite]

All things considered, this is probably as good a list as there is. No list can satisfy everyone and most lists are so boring and predictable but this one contain enough to be worthy.

I have 22 of the 50 mentioned, BTW.