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Classical Music for Aficionados

I would like to start a thread, similar to Orpheus’ jazz site, for lovers of classical music.
I will list some of my favorite recordings, CDs as well as LP’s. While good sound is not a prime requisite, it will be a consideration.
  Classical music lovers please feel free to add to my lists.
Discussion of musical and recording issues will be welcome.

I’ll start with a list of CDs.  Records to follow in a later post.

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique.  Chesky  — Royal Phil. Orch.  Freccia, conductor.
Mahler:  Des Knaben Wunderhorn.  Vanguard Classics — Vienna Festival Orch. Prohaska, conductor.
Prokofiev:  Scythian Suite et. al.  DG  — Chicago Symphony  Abbado, conductor.
Brahms: Symphony #1.  Chesky — London Symph. Orch.  Horenstein, conductor.
Stravinsky: L’Histoire du Soldat. HDTT — Ars Nova.  Mandell, conductor.
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances. Analogue Productions. — Dallas Symph Orch. Johanos, cond.
Respighi: Roman Festivals et. al. Chesky — Royal Phil. Orch. Freccia, conductor.

All of the above happen to be great sounding recordings, but, as I said, sonics is not a prerequisite.


128x128rvpiano
rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano OP
938 posts
 
I totally agree.  Those remasterings of early stereo recordings on CD are wonderful.  The majority of CDs however don’t have the space that most LPs do.
schubert
4,867 posts
 
The best sounding albums I've ever heard, as in the performance is in my living room, are the Vanguard Classical's from the 50's, 60's . Very close
to live music  The ones with the circle saying"The Bach Guild " are !

I'll have to see if any CD's of them are available .
schubert
4,867 posts
 
There were and I ordered 5 CD’s from Amazon I have on Vinyl .
Somebody must agree with me on "The Late LvB Quartets " by the Yale Qt.
A vinyl box is available for only $214 .
craigl59
306 posts
 
Know nothing of vinyl because I abandoned it in the 80s.
Have found, however, that you can get a significant amount of air with CDs by upsampling them in JRiver to 192/24 then playing them back with a quality converter. Engineers have explained to me that the improvement happens during the playback conversion when the better SN ratio produces a quieter result that has, consequently, more "air."
Have also noticed that higher res digital files (94/24 is the studio standard) have this sense of "air" about them. 
craigl59
306 posts
 
Vindenpar:
Have recently purchased a number of ADD sets as large collections from Amazon and been surprised at their superb sound quality. Some of the Columbia recordings by Bernstein have a natural acoustic feel lacking in modern digital efforts.
Have also found that removing any original tape hiss found in many inexpensive releases (Sony is notorious in leaving this in) makes a tremendous difference in being able to hear more of the original performance. Purists may want the hiss, but I want to be able to hear the viola section...
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