Recordings that did it for me

[remdataram]

I think it would be interesting to learn about recordings that either hooked us on a piece of music, or became instant favourite performances.

Recordings that hooked me include:

Mahler Resurrection LSO Solti
Beethoven Eroica LAPO Guilini (a perversely slow 1st mov but WOW)
Schubert Piano Trio No.2 Beaux Arts
Beethoven Christ on the Mount of Olives Philadelphia Ormandy
Mahler Symphony No.6 NYPO Bernstein

[Roehre]

Beethoven Leonore III and Symphony 2 Kubelik/Concertgebouworkest on tele, December 17th 1970.
My very first real encounter with classical music in general and Beethoven more particularly. Triggered my interest in classical music. The rest is -as they say - history..... (some 45.000 pieces of music later )

[Chris Newman]

Smetana Vltava and Grieg Peer Gynt Suite: NWGRSO, Wilhelm Schuchter (HMV Concert Classics).
RVW: Symphony No 4: New Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult (HMV).
Sibelius: Symphony No 3 and 7, Scottish National Orchestra, Alexander Gibson (Saga).
Walton, Facade: An Entertainment; Cleo Laine, Annie Ross, John Dankworth Band. (Philips Fontana)
Bruckner: Symphony No 4: Bavarian RSO, Eugen Jochum (DGG)
Shostakovich, Symphony No 10, Leningrad PO, Yevgeny Mavrinsky (Saga)
Purcell, Hail Bright Cecilia, Kalmar Orchestra, Michael Tippett (Philips Fontana)

This list begins with the first record I bought as a schoolboy and then the six best ones I purchased over the next few months. The last listed record (Purcell) was bought because I heard Wilfred Brown (tenor) and Alfred Deller (countertenor) sing at my school. Because of it I bought Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra and so began a love affair with his music.

Only the RVW and Bruckner were full price LPs. The others were bargain issues, often bought on railway stations.

[antongould]

Surprise, surprise

Glenn Gould J S Bach Goldberg Variations 1981
Quartetto Italiano Beethoven String Quartets 131/132

[Alison]

One recording that never gets mentioned now is Haitink's first recording of
Tchaikovsky's Pathetique.

My father's LP was my introduction to that wondrous orchestra and conductor.
And symphony :)

[PJPJ]

Nielsen's Second with the Tivoli Orchestra under Carl von Garaguly and the Helios Overture with Ormandy introduced me to Nielsen, and was followed quickly by the Decca Eclipse issue of 1 and 5 with Thomas Jensen.

Sibelius with Anthony Collins, Elgar Symphony No. 2, the earlier mono with JB, and, borrowed multiple times from the library, Markevitch's Berwald Symphonies on DGG with the BPO. Boult in Walton 1 with the LPO on Golden Guinea.

Then there's Van Beinum in Bruckner, Beethoven and Brahms VCs with Grumiaux, Elgar's Cockaigne and Cello Concerto with Pini, and Mahler 4 with Ritchie. Fricsay doing Rimsky-Korskov's Scheherazade, Tchaikovsky's 6th, Beethoven 1 and 8, and so on..... building a nice little collection of budget LPs.

Still love all those recordings dearly.

[gurnemanz]

Off the top of my head:

Fischer-Dieskau/Moore - Die schöne Müllerin
Lisa Della Casa/Karl Böhm/VPO - Vier letzte Lieder
Igor Markevich - Rite of Spring
Eugen Jochum - Missa Solemnis
Sergio Fiorentino - Appassionata & Waldstein Sonatas
Aeolian - Schubert Quintet (Saga LP)
Knappertsbusch - Parsifal

[LeMartinPecheur]

OOH, where to start??

I remember vividly the first full-price LPs I rushed out to buy with my first pay from my vac job before Uni (before that my purchases had mainly been WHS sale mono deletions c1971). Still on my shelves are:

Silvestri's Bournemouth SO Elgar In the South (recently repurchased on CD with the Barbirolli symphonies - absolutely unmissable! Grab it before these CDs get deleted - this recording was for far too long unavailable on CD before this set came out)
Victoria Responsories for Tenebrae (Westminster Cathedral/ Malcolm)
Elgar/ Delius Cello Concertos (Du Pre)
Mahler 1 (Solti)
Elgar 1 (Solti)
Palestrina Missa Assumpta est Maria & Missa Brevis (St John's Cambridge)

There must be many more if I root among my LPs but these jump instantly to mind.

[Petrushka]

Wagner : Ring VPO/Solti
Mahler: Symphony No 1 Concertgebouw/Haitink
Mahler: Symphony No 2 Concertgebouw/Haitink
Beethoven: Symphony No 9 Leipzig Gewandhaus/Konwitschny
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben Concertgebouw/Haitink
Strauss: Orchestral Works Dresden Staatskapelle/Kempe
Shostakovich: Symphony No 5 USSR State/Maxim Shostakovich
Elgar: Symphony No 1 LPO/Solti
Wagner: Overtures LSO/Dorati + Detroit SO/Paray

Bought all of these in the very early 1970's and they are still, on CD, my favourites.

[Alf-Prufrock]

I was interested in classical music as a young teenager; I can remember developing an interest in Britten's music quite quickly and eagerly waiting for the first performance of the Nocturne on radio; that occurred, I think, in 1958. We did not have an LP record-player at all until I was at university, but when I heard my father had bought one I went out and squeezed enough money out of my grant to buy Tchaikovsky's Pathetique on Ace of Clubs, conducted (I am pretty sure) by Munch.

My second LP was of Brahms's third symphony conducted by Karl Bohm, also on Ace of Clubs. I can remember saying to my mother, 'I don't think I like it very much,' and she replying, 'Well, take it back and get it changed.' Even at that time I could see the naughtiness of that, and kept the record. I soon grew to love the work, of course.

I cannot remember what was third; all the LPs I ever owned have now gone. I sometimes wish that I had kept at least some, but where I would have stored them, I have not the faintest idea.

[Barbirollians]

4 LPs from the Classical Selection Club bought when I was a teenager - as one of their offers

Chopin Waltzes - Rubinstein ( liked it but like it much more now )
Beethoven Symphony No 5 ( Halle/Loughran on ASV ) - OK but I was soon looking for an alternative and hurrah came across Carlos Kleiber )

And two records I still adore to this day though now in CD versions - the Barenboim/Klemperer Emperor and Dvorak Cello Concerto with Tortelier and Previn .

[hackneyvi]

I bought Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra and so began a love affair with his music.

... The others were bargain issues, often bought on railway stations.

I found Tippett through his string quartets. They were the first even remotely modern music which I came to know (outside Britten's Purcell piece introducing the orchestra). Had to play them over and over until they penetrated my thick skull. That led to an EMI double album of orchestral and instrumental music and life was changed.

Elgar's Enigma Variations / Pomp and Circumstance - a cassette bought in a motorway service station as a 12 year old boy.
The Boult/Paul Tortelier recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto.
Beethoven's 3rd from the Berlin Philharmonic and Karl Bohm.
From my mother, Kathleen Ferrier and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf.
Heifetz playing the Sibelius violin concerto (under Thomas Beecham, I think).
Alfred Brendel's recordings of Schubert made around 1990. Though when I found his earlier performances (record library again), I sometimes preferred them.

[Barbirollians]

Ah yes that reminds me - another early pair of purchases - the du Pre/Barbirolli Elgar with Sea Pictures - good old ASD655 and Boult''s last EMI Enigma - two more much loved still records.

[MrGongGong]

For me finding this boxed set of 7 LPS in the school music Library and taking them home for the summer and realising that music could be much much more than what my teachers and family thought

K.Stockhausen
Aus Den Sieben Tagen: 1968
Kontarsky, Alings & Gehlhaar, Globokar, Alsina, Drouet,
Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog#:2720 073

[umslopogaas]

Reading through these posts, it sounds as if I have followed a well-trodden path!

My first exposure to classical music was in the mid sixties when my parents bought a Dansette record player and, knowing little about classical music, turned to Readers Digest for help. They lashed out on the complete Beethoven symphonies (Leibowitz), a box of operettas and the RD Festival of Light Classical Music. I didnt take to the operettas much, but the other two got played to death. All in mono, but this hardly mattered, the Dansette only had one speaker.

I also made good use of those mono deletion boxes to be found at Smiths, particularly on the platform outside the one at Waterloo. I seem to recall Supraphon were good value: Honegger symphs 2/3, and 5/Pastorale d'Ete are two I still have.

And yes, my first full price purchase (which I couldnt afford, but I bought it all the same) was Mahler 2 by Solti on Decca, soon followed by number 1. Still got both of them. Other very early discoveries were:

Bach Brandenburgs on Saga (cant remember the conductor, was it Harry Newstone?)
Shostakovich symph 10 with Ormandy on CBS
Handel Concerti Grossi op 6 1-12, ASMF on Decca. Stunning playing and sound.
R. Strauss Metamorphosen and Wagner Sieg. Id. ASMF on Argo
Elgar Enigma Vars. Ormandy on CBS
Schubert symph 9 Munchinger on Decca
Bartok Concerto for Orch. Solti on Decca
Schubert Sonata D960 Brendel on Philips

I still have many of these, though few are the original purchases, cheap student playback equipment wasnt kind to vinyl. In the last twenty years or so I've succumbed to nostalgia and have been amassing original LPs, of which I now have thousands, including undamaged copies of many of the ones I wrecked as a student. Yes, they do take up a lot of space (all of it, to be honest), but I live by myself so there is no-one else to complain. It satisfies the collecting urge, and gives me a nightly concert of great music and performances.