Legendary recordings that live up to their reputation

[slarty]

Having recently discovered the High Definition Tape Transfers site, it has been a great pleasure to upgrade a couple of my all time favorites classic recordings.

The 1956 Barbirolli Halle Enigma Variations - recorded for Pye by the Mercury team.

the 1965 Sibelius Symphony 4 with Karajan and the BPO and

the 1961 Dvorak Cello Concerto with Fournier and Szell and the BPO.

I have never been without these recordings, but to now hear them in 24/192 transfers is like lifting a veil from the recordings.

[StephenO]

I'd agree wholeheartedly about two classic recordings of Russian symphonies - Leningrad PO/Mravinsky in Tchaikovsky 4-6 and LSO/Previn in Rachmaninov 2.

I'd add VPO/Carlos Kleiber in Beethoven's Symphonies 5 and 7, Brymer/ASMF/Marriner in the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and Rattle's CBSO Mahler 2 (but definitely not his later BPO recording). Plus, of course Solti's Ring.

[Sir Velo]

Have we had Kertesz's Bluebeard with the Berrys? Worth it for the opening of the fifth door alone. Spine tingling. Great recorded sound too.

Not to forget Anda and Fricsay in the piano concertos; or Chicago/Reiner in the MFSPC.

[LaurieWatt]

Rachmaninov Symphony No 2 LSO/Previn is pure gold for me, too.

A number of you have come up with this undoubtedly legendary recording but I have always been in a minority on it. Wonderful as the performance undoubtedly is, I have always disliked the very string heavy balance of the recording. It is a symphony where the horns have a lot to do and in this recording you can hear that they are playing full out but because of the recording balance are only just audible in the mix. A rather curious phenomenon unless, of course, it has been rebalanced since I first heard and rejected it many years ago!

I would agree with a number of the suggestions of legendary recordings which still justify that epithet, without repeating what has gone before I would add a few who come to mind:

Monteux - Enigma Variations
Beecham/Jack Brymer - Mozart Clarinet Concerto
Rostropovich/Boult - Dvorak Cello Concerto
Handel Fireworks - Charles Mackerras with Pro Arte in 1959
Previn/LSO - Shostakovich 5
Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty - Rozhdestvensky/BBCSO (I would wouldn't I!)
Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6 - Pletnev/RNO ( his first on Virgin Classics)
Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky - LSO/Abbado
Mahler Symphony No 2 - LPO/Tennstedt (own label)
Mahler Symphony No 8 - ditto -

[Tony Halstead]

A number of you have come up with this undoubtedly legendary recording but I have always been in a minority on it. Wonderful as the performance undoubtedly is, I have always disliked the very string heavy balance of the recording. It is a symphony where the horns have a lot to do and in this recording you can hear that they are playing full out but because of the recording balance are only just audible in the mix. A rather curious phenomenon unless, of course, it has been rebalanced since I first heard and rejected it many years ago!

I would agree with a number of the suggestions of legendary recordings which still justify that epithet, without repeating what has gone before I would add a few who come to mind:

Monteux - Enigma Variations
Beecham/Jack Brymer - Mozart Clarinet Concerto
Rostropovich/Boult - Dvorak Cello Concerto
Handel Fireworks - Charles Mackerras with Pro Arte in 1959
Previn/LSO - Shostakovich 5
Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty - Rozhdestvensky/BBCSO (I would wouldn't I!)
Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6 - Pletnev/RNO ( his first on Virgin Classics)
Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky - LSO/Abbado
Mahler Symphony No 2 - LPO/Tennstedt (own label)
Mahler Symphony No 8 - ditto -

Which of the two Rachmaninov / LSO/ Previn recordings, Laurie?
The one from the mid-1960s, on RCA I think, the clarinet solos played by De Peyer, the horns led by Tuckwell,
or
the 1970s EMI one, the clarinet solos played by Brymer, the horns led by Bryant?

[Nick Armstrong]

Judging by hearing it (for the first time ) this morning, the Szell/Cleveland Mahler 4 is in this category...

The horn playing has to be heard to be believed (presumably under the principal-ship (ugghh - sorry - but what is the word?!) of the legendary Myron Bloom)

[verismissimo]

Judging by hearing it (for the first time ) this morning, the Szell/Cleveland Mahler 4 is in this category...

The horn playing has to be heard to be believed (presumably under the principal-ship (ugghh - sorry - but what is the word?!) of the legendary Myron Bloom)

With the perfect Judith Raskin. So many sopranos sound too mature and too wobbly in this piece.

[pastoralguy]

Judging by hearing it (for the first time ) this morning, the Szell/Cleveland Mahler 4 is in this category...

The horn playing has to be heard to be believed (presumably under the principal-ship (ugghh - sorry - but what is the word?!) of the legendary Myron Bloom)

Surely one of the great recordings of anything! Must have been something in the water that day!

[Beef Oven!]

Judging by hearing it (for the first time ) this morning, the Szell/Cleveland Mahler 4 is in this category...

The horn playing has to be heard to be believed (presumably under the principal-ship (ugghh - sorry - but what is the word?!) of the legendary Myron Bloom)

My first M4.

Had know eye dear that it was a great recording. I only bought it because it was way cheaper than all other M4s in the early days of CD.

[Richard Tarleton]

My first M4.

Mine too. Fabulous.

[Tony Halstead]

Judging by hearing it (for the first time ) this morning, the Szell/Cleveland Mahler 4 is in this category...

The horn playing has to be heard to be believed (presumably under the principal-ship (ugghh - sorry - but what is the word?!) of the legendary Myron Bloom)

the legendary Myron Bloom

With whom I had the very good fortune to study, when he was 1st horn of L'Orchestre de Paris in the mid-1970s to mid-1980s.
He returned to the USA and as far as I know is still teaching at BLOOMINGTON, Indiana ( University)

[remdataram]

Surely one of the great recordings of anything! Must have been something in the water that day!

I often feel that high definition remasterings aren't worth the significant mark ups often charged but Szell's Mahler 4 really is sublime and even better in the hires version. A desert island download.

[LaurieWatt]

Which of the two Rachmaninov / LSO/ Previn recordings, Laurie?
The one from the mid-1960s, on RCA I think, the clarinet solos played by De Peyer, the horns led by Tuckwell,
or
the 1970s EMI one, the clarinet solos played by Brymer, the horns led by Bryant?

Tony, the one produced by Christopher Bishop for EMI.
Laurie

[Nick Armstrong]

With whom I had the very good fortune to study, when he was 1st horn of L'Orchestre de Paris in the mid-1970s to mid-1980s.
He returned to the USA and as far as I know is still teaching at BLOOMINGTON, Indiana ( University)

Crumbs, Tony

One of the very best, I think, I guess you'd agree?

[Barbirollians]

Lipatti Bach Partita No1 I see mentioned above - oh yes indeed my favourite non vocal Bach record of all time .