10 Great Classical LP's

If you've just started listening to classical music, you would not be concerned terribly with what performers give "the best" or "greatest" interpretations. Besides, that's always a matter of opinion. The same is true for the greatest lps or the greatest individual pieces of music. Even a list of 10 great (if not THE greatest) pieces will vary to some extent among classical lovers. Let's say that I recommend you listen to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which many consider to be at the pinnacle among great works. Hopefully, you would make a good effort to hear it through to its finish. It typically takes at least an hour to perform, so prepare yourself for "an experience". You might begin by trying an overture to get a briefer taste for what's to come, maybe Rossini's Barber of Seville, Brahms' Academic Festival or Wagner's Tannhauser. If you like the violin, try Mendelssohn's Concerto. For the piano, either Tchaikovsky's First Concerto or Mozart's Concerto No. 21. Then there's Dvorak's Cello Concerto, a wonderfully musical piece. When it comes to other symphonies, you might want to explore Brahms' Second, Rachmaninoff's Second, Tchaikovsky's Fourth and Dvorak's Eighth. Finally, Cerot(above) mentions Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, a charming and dynamic work. And if you're fascinated by or curious about a particular title, go for it. Good luck and good listening!

15 years ago i was getting 'back' into vinyl after 15 years away....and i wanted to get into classical music for the first time. so i had no knowledge of the music and especially of the best Lps to purchase. in some ways i was lucky. at that same time Classic Records were doing their reissue series of RCA 'Living Stereo' shaded dogs.....both in 33 rpm and 45 rpm. there was lots of discussion in the magazines then (the internet was in it's infancy and there was no AudiogoN or Audioasylum) about whether these reissues were as good, better or not as good. Anyway, i bought most every one of those Classic Records reissues (in both 33 and 45) and that turned out to be a great entry into classical Lps both from a sound quality and performance perspective. 15 years later these RCA's are still some of the best Lps i have heard.

i would strongly recommend trying to find these RCA reissues as they will be consistently excellent and are very 'accessable' in terms of the music.

another source of great Lp recordings is the recommended lists on Acoustic Sounds. along the left side of the page is a 'Browse' section and underneath that is 'Absolute Sound Recommended'.....which is a pretty good list of great sounding Classical Recordings.

I love my Classical Lps and play them often. i'm still not much of an expert on the music but i have learned quite a bit.

enjoy.

Hi Mike, I hope you've continued your classical music exploration by going into the Mercury catalogue reissues from Classic Records and, more particularly, Speakers Corner. And then there's the entire Lyrita catalog to explore from the used market.
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Hi Rush,

i could not agree more with your Mercury, Speakers Corner and Lyrita recs. it's all good and these are all excellent Lps which i have aquired too. i just figured that the Classic Records RCA's was the right place to start for a Classical newbie. i suppose any/all of these series could be included in that idea.

best regards,

Mike, glad to hear it! And it's a slippery slope. For orchestral, keep going and also head to the Decca and EMI catalogs. If you find you also enjoy Baroque and pre-Baroque music, then it's off the the Harmonia Mundi, Accent, Astree, CRD and Telefunken catalogs. Then you discover opera is not as bad as you once thought and it's off to the Decca archives once again. Then organ music and you're off to the Vista, Proprius, Erato catalogs. Great fun! Makes it hell to make recommendations. :-)
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