Exceptional recordings

[Petrushka]

I found it very difficult to listen to any other version than the LSO/Previn of the Rach 2 for many years. It totally bowled me over at first hearing (August 1977) and would still be my runaway first choice, the less than perfect sound notwithstanding and with everybody else fighting for second place. I was lucky to hear Previn and the LSO in a performance of the Rachmaninov 2nd in Manchester (November 3 1977) and even luckier to meet Mr Preview after the concert. Jack Brymer was the clarinettist on that occasion too.

My second choice would be Ashkenazy and the Concertgebouw in full-blooded Decca sound. I have the BBC MM Downes recording but haven't heard it in years though memory tells me I found it too slow.

[amateur51]

You may also wish to consider Ashkenazy on the HMV CFM Full works for £0.01 plus p&p or the Rozhdestvensky for £0.09

Second both these suggestions, cloughie

[Barbirollians]

The recent Pappano recording is now my second favourite after the Previn though I also have a soft spot for the Kletzki

[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 recording?

[visualnickmos]

You may also wish to consider Ashkenazy on the HMV CFM Full works for £0.01 plus p&p or the Rozhdestvensky for £0.09

Grab it while you can - it is amazing.

[teamsaint]

Grab it while you can - it is amazing.

The Clincher !! I just did. Thanks for all the advice on this one everybody.
Much appreciated.

[richardfinegold]

I am a late comer to this thread. As I tried to think of my own list of irreplaceables, I am surprised that it is so short. With so much duplication of core repetoire, even though I have prefered recordings that I cherish, I realize that there many alternatives that I could be happy with. For example, the Hungarian Quartet on EMI has been my prefered version of the Beethoven Quartets, but if they dissapeared, I could get by with the Italians or the Tokyo recordings that also reside there. So here is my top 10 (or so) recordings that I consider indispensible:

Bach-Goldberg Variations /Sergey Schepkin
Bach-Orchestral Suites/Suzuki Japan Collegium
Bartok-Music For Strings, Percussion and Celesta/Hungarian Pictures Reiner/Chicago
Beethoven Piano Concerto #3 Barenboim/Somogyi Vienna State SO
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique Paray/Detroit SO
Brahms Piano Concerto #1 Fleisher/Szell/Cleveland
Chopin Etudes/Pollini (DG)
Chopin Nocturnes Arrau (Phillips)
Debussy Preludes Michelangeli (DG)
Dvorak Cello Concerto Gendron/Haitink LPO (Phillips)
Handel Water/Fireworks Music Pinnock
Holst Planets Solti/LPO
Mahler 6/Karajan ( I am self amazed that the one indispensible Mahler recording would be by Karajan)
Mozart PC 20-27 Casadesus/Szell
Mozart Clarinet Quintet, Horn Quintet, Oboe Trio AAM Players
Schubert Trout Quintet Marlboro Players
Vaughn Williams 5th Symphony Bryden Thomson, LSO

[Stanley Stewart]

#127 The complete cycle of the Beethoven String Quartets by the Hungarian String Quartet are included in the EMI Beethoven Collector's Edition, 50 CD boxset, rfg. CDs 35-42. Worth a search as the retail price was modest.

[LeMartinPecheur]

#12 The complete cycle of the Beethoven String Quartets by the Hungarian String Quartet are included in the EMI Beethoven Collector's Edition, 50 CD boxset, rfg. CDs 35-42. Worth a search as the retail price was modest.

#12???

[Don Petter]

#12 The complete cycle of the Beethoven String Quartets by the Hungarian String Quartet are included in the EMI Beethoven Collector's Edition, 50 CD boxset, rfg. CDs 35-42. Worth a search as the retail price was modest.

Well, the 50CD set is about £70 on Amazon - a good price pro rata, but if you just want the Hungarian's complete quartets (mono, which I and some others prefer) they are on Regis for £17 or £8 as a download:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=beethoven+hungarian

[Stanley Stewart]

Woops! Message number now amended to 127.

[richardfinegold]

#127 The complete cycle of the Beethoven String Quartets by the Hungarian String Quartet are included in the EMI Beethoven Collector's Edition, 50 CD boxset, rfg. CDs 35-42. Worth a search as the retail price was modest.

I have had the Stereo Set for several years, purchased in France. Thank you for the notice, however