Well-known Classical Recordings for the audiophile

[Analog21]

Random question, but wanting to get more audiophile worthy classical recordings and looking for some of the best releases/reissues/pressings of well-known classical recordings. Feel free to post some great options you own or have that really make some famous musical passages come alive for someone wanting to get more into classical pieces. Add any noteworthy performances as well, as trying to compile a list for us "classical novices" wanting to explore more of the beauty of this genre. Some specific recordings I'm looking for are (but would appreciate any recommendations):

Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite
Debussy's Claire de Lune
Beethoven's Symphony 9, Ode to Joy (preferably choral)
Bach Orchestral Suite no 3, Air on G String
Bach Cantata no. 147, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring
Pachelbel Canon in D

[astrotoy]

You have some very nice tuneful choices here. The Beethoven Symphony 9 is just a part of the fourth movement. Same with the Bach Air on a G String, just one movement of the 3rd Orchestra Suite. Claire de lune is a relatively short piano piece (which some others have orchestrated) which is contained within a suite of piano pieces that Debussy wrote and the Pachelbel Canon or Kanon is relatively short stand alone piece. Only the Nutcracker Suite and the Bach Cantata are complete pieces, although they would make up about 1/2 a record or 20 minutes or so. The Nutcracker Suite was composed by Tchaikovsky from favorite parts of his much longer complete ballet. And it may be that you are thinking of the Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring them, rather than the entire cantata. For all the pieces you have chosen, you would either have to get the whole piece which contains the part you want or some collection with them, or download that particular movement. Most of us who are serious classical music fans have albums with the entire pieces. If you are interested in going in that direction, I, and I am sure others, can suggest albums that have these pieces and others. Format is important, since many albums are not available in all formats. I do mostly vinyl - so I can suggest records. Others do CD's, etc.

An analogy would be looking for Paul McCartney's Yesterday. You could buy the Beatles album Help or some other album where another artist covered the song, or just download the song itself.

Larry

[Analog21]

Yes, the entire complete pieces with these pieces would be great Larry! Any suggestions for good recording would be appreciated. Thanks!

[1morerecord2clean]

Hi analog 21,

I will suggest three. Bartok Concerto for Orchestra Reiner/Chicago. Tchaikovsky Cappricio Italian/Rimsky Korsakov Cappricio Espanol. Again Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade. The Bartok was available as a Classics Record reissue and might be available now as an Analog Production reissue. Same is true of The Tchaikovsky. Scheherazade is definitely available from Analog Production. The other two might be found used on eBay.

[Analog21]

Awesome, thanks for the suggestions. Will look them up today.

[astrotoy]

Check my blog for some suggestions for pieces and recordings. I have one on the Nutcracker and Tchaikovsky's other famous ballets.

http://zero-distortion.org/music-notes/

Agree with #3 post also. Reiner has excellent versions of Bartok Concerto for Orch and Scheherazade. My favorite version of Capriccio Espagnol is the Decca Argenta version, mentioned in one of my blogs. The cover of the album entitled "Espana."

The Solti Chicago Symphony is a fine recording of Beethoven's 9th Symphony also on Decca. I very fine recording of the Bach Orchestral Suites is on Philips (maybe now Decca) with Raymond Leppard conducting the English Chamber Orchestra.

More to come.

Larry

[Analog21]

awesome reference list, thanks!