Hello all just wondering for all you classical buff. Mind telling me what labels make good recordings for classical music. The reason I ask is the plain fact that I have gotten some horrendous recordings of good music. I mean they were good groups (Cleaveland, Chicago, Saint Lucs etc) but to me sounded not good.

Ps any suggestion on good recordings of

Firebird
All the mahler symphonies
La mer
Ein Heldenleben
Sherehazade

thanks all

I will try to answer some of your question about Mahler symphonies, unfortunately there is not one great complete set and you have to mix and match labels/conductors.

-symphony 2, first choice has to got to Rattle/EMI recorded in late 1980's sounds very good and the performance is consistantly rated one of the best ever. At mid price you have Klemperer/EMI
from the early 1960's which has been remastered at mid price and the sound quality is stunning now, I had the original CD and can't believe the improvement in sound . Full symphony on single CD with Elisabeth Scharzkopf!

-symphony 3, the best Mahler recording I have ever heard as far as sound quality for any Mahler symphony is the new Rattle/EMI, other sound engineers take note! The Salonen/Sony is also a very nice recording, but most people prefer the performance of Horenstein/Unicorn for this symphony. This is an older recording and sound can't compare to new Rattle/EMI, but Horenstein builds the long line in the closing that has yet to be surpassed.

More on Mahler later.

For Rimsky Korsakov "sherehazade" I think sound wise best recording has to be MacKerras/Telarc, extremely dynamic very powerful sounding, also has a thrilling capriccio espangiol included. Performance wise many prefer the older recordings of Reiner/RCA, Beecham/EMI, or Kondrashin/Phillips

Hey, DA, have you heard this one? I was curious what you thought of it. There's also a CD version (this is one of them "DAD's"; the CD is downmixed to standard redbook from the 24/96). It's the only version I have, so I wonder how it compares.

47 601 – 6 Mahler Symphony No. 2 audiophile 24 Bit / 96 kHz 6 00554 76016 2

Straube, Bernardy, Philharmonie Chemnitz, Oleg Caetani

EDIT: Oops, forgot to mention, label is Arts Audio.

http://patriot.net/~dusty/av-ttl.html

Regarding to what makes a classical recording good, it depends a lot on your opinion.
Personally, if I am forced to choose between a classic, wonderfuly performed piece with bad sound enginnering, or something less amazing with excellent sound engineering, I usually go for the last.

This shocks many people, but I have no problems trading a fair amount of performance quality for good sound.

I have realized I seldom listen to classic amazing performances... for instance, Callas' Traviata recorded here in Lisbon...critics die for it, yet, that Mono sound gives me the creeps, no matter how wonderful Callas and Kraus sing. I'd prefer to hear any young, inexperienced soprano singing at some cheap unknown label with top-notch sound quality.

So the trick is... try to get both! I usually track down a few versions of the titles I want (choosing by performance quality and reviews)... operas ,whatever.. and from those, then select them based on the sound engineering quality.

For La Mer, you can go the cheap way with Naxos, with good quality.

PRELUDE A L’APRES-MIDI D’UN FAUNE + NOCTURNES + LA MER
-BRT Philarmonic Orchestra, Brussels (Alexander Rahbari)
-Ed. Naxos, Rec. 1989, DDD

I am quite pleased with this recording so far, even after listening to an excellent La Mer played live.

And for the Firebird... again, why not save some money...This is also a very cheap CD...

-THE RITE OF SPRING + THE FIREBIRD BALLET SUITE 1945
-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Simonov )
-Ed. Royal Philharmonic Collection /Tring, Rec. 1997, DDD

Sound quality is excellent, and the performance is also pretty good (Check Grammophone)

Here is a list of the very best audiophilel labels in the world. With these labels you will get the very best sound quailty that money can buy. Everything else sounds like low-fi crap when compared. The music itself is a matter of personal taste, as always :

AIX Records
Analogue Productions
AudioQuest Music
Chesky Records
Classic Records
DMP Records
Linn Records
MA Recordings
Mapleshade Recordings
Opus 3 Records
Red Rose Music
Reference Recordings
Telarc
Waterlily Acoustics

I would have to add Arts Audio to your list KR...

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Alia Vox also has some good recordings
It is important not to consider just the label, as some of the albuns might not be really impressive in the audio engineering department.

For instance, I am listening to Teldec's Armida with Cecilia Bartoli while I type this.. while this is a pretty good recording, I wouldn't put it on the top of my list for that.

Still, checking the label is a pretty good start.

I have to chime in here and strongly disagree with KR. I have personally found that Chesky records is a poor choice for classical -- their musical preference seems to be based in jazz and only seem to remaster old performances. I have a Chesky "Gold" CD of Fritz Reiner conducting the Royal Philharmonic on Brahms Symphony no. 4. Performance is not so good and I couldn't tell any sound-quality difference.

I would say that looking for good labels in classical music is a fool's errand -- not because it's so hard to find, but because most are very good as it is. If you're very worried about getting the best recording of a particular piece you may want to look to classical music press to find what are the best performances of the music. Failing that, look for particular artists or groups that you like.

You'll rarely find a great performer on Chesky Records or Telarc because they can't afford them. That's why I like Sony Classical -- they can afford musicians like Yo-Yo Ma and Isaac Stern. EMI records also has deals with some wonderful musicians like the Alban Berg Quartett.

If you really like classical music you probably know that the performance is far more important than recording quality. The snobs at Chesky care more for bitrates than for music -- and so they don't know where to spend the very little money they have.

An exception to the Golden Rule ("He who has the gold makes the rules") are some small record companies with Naxos who have a fine collective ear for fine performers. You can find very inexpensive records that they sell (often around $5-6 for a CD) which are actually good music. They're on (gasp) regular compact discs (no gold plating) with no-name performers -- but these performers are usually great finds. There have been some issues with recording quality obstructing the listening experience and some poor choices for performers, but usually these CDs are real gems. Just ask for people's opinions before you buy -- and if you don't, you don't really lose that much money anyway. It's not like spending $20 for brand-name recognition. Are your CDs jewelry?

Dan

Dan is pretty much right, while the "boutique" small labels KR mentions may have some very well recorded CDs, most of the best performances of the well known composers are on the major labels:
DG
EMI (angel)
London (decca)
Phillips
Sony (cbs)

But the major labels also have some fabulous recordings you just have to find them. You should of course purchase (if you haven't already) the "penguin guide" and/or grammaphone's "good CD guide" for classical music. These give good info about nature/quality of performances, but really say very little about sound quality. The reviews in Grammaphone magazine actually give more detail and grade sound quality.

In general recordings from 1981-86 should be carefully researched, since this is where the first digital recordings were made and some of the worst sound comes from this period. There are still good Cds here but also some poor sounding ones so be cautious. A good example of this are the Karajan/DG Tchaikovsky symphonies which were just recorded in analog in the late 1970's
but Karajan wanted them re-recorded in digital in the early 1980's
and the 70's set is much better sound quality (and performance)

Suprisingly small labels like Naxos are starting to turn out "some" quality stuff. I just recently purchased the Titner/Naxos Bruckner symphony series and the performance and recording quality are probably the best available, sound quality is really quite good by any measure. Buy a Bruckner CD for $5 and see how far Naxos has come, making the major labels sweat a bit I imagine. Only caveat is the smaller orchestras don't always have top notch musicianship but they make up for it in excitement and passion.

Regarding Mahler's symphonies- Denon recorded the series (including Das Lied Von Der Erde) with Eliahu Inbal and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Although it's a mixed bag, there were some stand outs. From an audiophile POV, instead of using multi-array microphone to capture the performances- Denon engineers used a single omni-directional B&K mic. The sound when heard through my HD580 is better than most major label orchestral recordings in that it presents a better sense of space, a sweeter sound especially to the string instruments. The one I have from that series are the 7 and the 9th,
I'm biased towards Leonard Berstein's interpretation- erratic, languid and totally evocative. From his series with DG, I've heard (and own) his 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th,6th and his song cycle recording. The 5th is magnificient!
As to the 8th, Klaus Tennestedt recording with EMI combined good sound and good interpretation. I wished Bernstein had finished his with a definitive recording of the 8th.

Yes I also like the Bersntein/DG Mahler 1,4,5 symphonies and think they rank very high of all performances available especially the 5th which is probably the standout of this series. His Mahler 4th is somewhat unusual in that he uses boy for vocals instead of female sopranno, but I enjoy it very much.

I also still have a couple Inbal/Dennon Mahler Symphonies which had very good sound at that time in the early days of digital. I find I must increase the volume higher than normal on these CDs.

For the Mahler 8 the new remastered Solti/Decca Legends series
is hard to beat, single CD at mid price.

Of course for Mahler 9 we must pay homage to the iconoclastic Karajan/DG who is very had to surpass for this work.

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Actually Naxos is becoming quite well known for not only great sound quality, but also very good musicianship. They use lesser-known artists who aren't signed with the "big" labels, but who are still very good musicians (the label head is a classical freak ). You'll find some duds now and then, but you have a better chance of getting a very good performance that sounds great. I've gotten to the point where if there's a piece I'm not familiar with, I'll just buy the Naxos version for $5, and if I decide I really like it I'll do some research into the "reference" version (and a few times I've been pleased to find out that the Naxos version is on par with some of the better-known versions).

P.S. There was a great interview with the head of Naxos in Stereophile -- I think they've put it in their online archives so you can view it on the web. In addition to being an interesting article, at the end they list some of the Naxos works that they recommend for both good performance and good recording.

For La Mer I have an absolutely great recording to recommend, possibly the best recorded performance ever. It's on RCA Victor and the catalog number is 09026-61500-2. The album was made during the 50's so the recording quality isn't going to be as good as the newer hifi labels can offer. However, a great recording of an average performance isn't truly a great recording now is it? The album includes Saint-Saens' Symphony No. 3, Debussy's La Mer, and Ibert's Escales performed by the Boston Symphony and conducted by Charles Munch, possibly the best impressionist French music director ever. On my top ten albums of all time.