I am newbie to classical music and but have been really disappointed so far! Not with the music but with the recordings. I have found bad recordings to be really offputting to the music and hate to miss out on a good piece bcz some recordings just sound plain bad! so what are some recommended record compaines..

the one ive tried so far are naxos (really bad recording of pachelbel's canon ), some discounted classical(mental note, dont buy anymore cheap classical albums), Deutsche Grammophone(very good but its not very common at borders, hmv etc) and a hmv compilation label(okay but sounds produced).

so what are some good labels that can be easily purchased? phillips? sony? others??

Unfortunately, almost all of them have their bad days.

Your best bet is to post the pieces you are interested in (here, perhaps), and ask for the best recordings or for similar recordings.

how about:

1. pachelbel's cannon
2. Shostakovich(recommended on this board)
3. Brucker
4. Bach

some nice violins recordings would be good. i think at the moment i prefer nice solid recordings rather than good pieces.. i am like that with my jazz.. my fav miles davis cd is cookin' coz it sounds so good

telarc and teldec are renowned for having good sound quality. Some deutsche grammophone cds i've found to be lackluster sound (Böhm Tristan&Isolde) while newer ones (Boulez Mahler's 1st) have spectacular sound, perhaps surpassing the Telarc/Lopez Cobos recording of Mahler's 3rd that i use for testing stuff with.

look out for Benjamin Zander's Mahler cycle on Telarc. although the interpretations have gotten mixed reviews.

the Haitink recordings of Shostakovich symphonies on Decca/London have good sound, and the Celibidache recordings or Bruckner symphonies on DG should also be in good sound, although they are ludicrously priced (+$60 for 7,8,&9). Actually, you should just get the Naxos white box of Bruckner symphonies, it was released very recently, and the more recent Naxos cds have been praised for both good sound quality and great proformances. I can testify to this with the Sir Malcom Arnold symphonies released on Naxos.

oh yeah, one more thing, the most recent recording of Bach's St Matthew's Passion by Nikolaus Harnoncourt won some award in Grammophone magazine. i bought it, but haven't had a chance to listen to it all yet. once again, great sound, very natural, but costs an arm and a leg (~$45)