Exceptional recordings

[visualnickmos]

I can't even begin to answer the question posed here, fascinating though it is.
I think of Picasso's response to a sort of 'which is your favourite of your paintings?' He said 'the one I'm about to start'

The CD I'm about to play. Which bizarrely enough is Régine Crespin singing Les Nuits d'éte - now that is a classic - never bettered.

Well - you know what I mean!

And I don't like lists; they are too definitve for me.....

[amateur51]

I wanted to put in my off-air recording of Ida Haendel playing the Elgar Violin Concerto with Bernard Haitink and the BBCSO Proms in about 1977. A completely to-die-for performance which sadly I have not been able to persuade ICA Classics or anyone else to take!

Have you ever considered crowd-funding LaurieWatt?

Please?!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And I don't like lists; they are too definitve for me.....

Yes. My own list does not mean I never want to hear any other versions of the works in question - more that these are special recordings I would be most reluctant to part with.

[visualnickmos]

Yes. My own list does not mean I never want to hear any other versions of the works in question - more that these are special recordings I would be most reluctant to part with.

Oh - I feel awful! I didn't mean I didn't like your lists. Far from it; they are invaluable as a source of information, and I thank you for taking the time to compile them. What I really meant - to be more specific, is that I don't like lists of 'favourites' because (for me, at least) it needs to be more amorphous.
I hope I didn't cause you any offence. It certainly was NOT my intention. It's my fault for being too cut-and-dried in my original comment.

However, I will try and compile a list of 10. Not at all easy. And if I set myself the same task next week, I can be sure that there may only be a few survivors from the first list! See what I mean.....

Besides which, it is always interesting to see others 'favs' or pieces that give particular joy or satisfaction.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

About a third of the recordings I have are of works that have only been recorded once - rarely performed and even more rarely broadcast, too, in many cases, so literally "exceptional". Of the more "mainstream" repertoire, I like to collect several versions in order that I don't get so used to the one recording that I begin to think of it as the work itself - with so many exceptional versions of the Eroica, it's almost disrespectful to the work to suggest that there can be a single "favourite".

Composers' recordings of their own work is usually an exceptional experience, so I'd nominate Schoenberg's recording of Pierrot Lunaire, (criminal that this excellent conductor wasn't invited into the recording studio more often) and the various Stravinsky recordings, as well as Strauss, Elgar and RVW. And piano rolls from Debussy and Mahler.

Oh, and, of course, Ferrier with Patzak, Walter and the VPO in Das Lied von der Erde. But that's taken for granted - as are all her recordings.

[Barbirollians]

Sibelius " Violin Concerto - Ida Haendel /CBSO /Rattle Proms 1993 - Testament for a while but it appears to have disappeared from their website .

Mahler 9 BPO/Barbirolli

[Dave2002]

I haven't got round to putting together a definitive list, but this might be on it - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dvorak-Symph...s=Carlos+Paita

This recording was originally on the Lodia label, which I believe was the conductor's own label. For a long while it seemed to be unavailable, but it has resurfaced - again - on the same label.

Monteux's recording of the same symphony might also be on my list.

[Pabmusic]

I haven't got round to putting together a definitive list, but this might be on it - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dvorak-Symph...s=Carlos+Paita

This recording was originally on the Lodia label, which I believe was the conductor's own label. For a long while it seemed to be unavailable, but it has resurfaced - again - on the same label.

Seconded! I've loved this since it came out. I'd add Norman del Mar's Enigma to the list. Kondrashin's New World, perhaps. David Munrow's recording of excerpts from Terpsichore too.

[kea]

About a third of the recordings I have are of works that have only been recorded once - rarely performed and even more rarely broadcast, too, in many cases, so literally "exceptional".

Yes, I mostly listed recordings of works that (a) have been recorded frequently and (b) I have a strong preference for one particular recording in. Can't really argue about whether Kempe or Barbirolli is preferable in Ferneyhough's La terre est un homme after all...

[teamsaint]

Although there are limitations to this kind of exercise, they provide an invaluable short cut for those in need of ..er...a short cut.

I was browsing a list of 1001 Great rock albums the other day. Almost all of the many that I know are indeed fabulous, and should be in any collection, but some of my absolute favourites , and records I feel I could make a great case for, are nowhere to be seen.

Short cuts are handy, but not necessarily always the best way to make the journey.

Anyway, here is one exceptional recording. They'll do well to better this:

Mozart. Posthorn Serenade. Berlin PO/ Bohm.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oh - I feel awful! I didn't mean I didn't like your lists. Far from it; they are invaluable as a source of information, and I thank you for taking the time to compile them. What I really meant - to be more specific, is that I don't like lists of 'favourites' because (for me, at least) it needs to be more amorphous.
I hope I didn't cause you any offence. It certainly was NOT my intention. It's my fault for being too cut-and-dried in my original comment.

Absolutely no offence taken. I'm very thick-skinned anyway (41+ years of teaching). In my response, I was doing so to clarify.

For me, I could list a dozen recordings. For others it may be more or fewer.

[rauschwerk]

4. Beethoven piano trios - Florestan Trio. A wonderful group, and Susan Tomes is such a fine chamber music pianist.

[vinteuil]

... this is so difficult. There are various recordings which, in their time, "woke me up" to the music, and which will remain always important to me. And yet, in most cases, subsequent listening and learning has made me feel that these performances are not in the end the ones I wd want on my desert island / deathbed.

So, fr' instance - original choices :

Soler - Rafael Puyana
Bach Art of Fugue - Zoltan Kocsis
Bach organ works - Michel Chapuis
Beethoven - quartetto Italiano
Haydn piano trios - Beaux-Arts

I think for the Haydn I wd now choose the Van Swieten or the 1790s; the Beethoven - perhaps the Mosaiques, the Talich, and the Busch; the Bach Art of Fugue, Davitt Moroney; Bach organ works Oortmerssen; the Soler, Andreas Staier..

[richardfinegold]

The final page of Gramophone always has a celeb interview, along with a recording he/she "could not live without" (which I always think is a little OTT).

But there are recordings of works that we might regard as so he and-and-shoulders above all others that we would never want to part with them.

My list would include:

Beethoven Eroica Symphony: VPO/Erich Kleiber
Elgar Symphony 1: Halle/Barbirolli 1957
Elgar Enigma Variations: Philharmonia/Barbirolli
Elgar The Apostles: Halle/Elder
Elgar The Kingdom: LPO/Boult
Mozart Symphony 40: VPO/Furtwangler
Puccini Madama Butterfly: Freni/Pavarotti/VPO/Karajan
Puccini La Boheme: Santa Cecilia, Rome/Serafin
Strauss Alpine Symphony: RPO/Kempe
Strauss 4 Last Songs: Popp/LPO/Tennstedt
Tchaikovsky Symphony 4: VPO/Maazel
Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony: LSO/Previn
Wagner Götterdämmerung: VPO/Solti
Wagner Tannhauser: VPO/Solti

Only 1 Alpine Symphony?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Only 1 Alpine Symphony?

When I'm put on the spot, that's the one I plump for.