[brink]

 
 
 


Quote:

Someone remembered that I had written up some threads a few years back about Classical Collection building.  Really flattered
 
I'll post them here.  Check em out if you like:
 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/255955/a-little-classical-101
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/257901/building-a-beethoven-collection
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/258048/building-a-brahms-collection
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/258098/building-a-schumann-collection
 
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/258274/building-a-bach-collection

Thank you for this. Very helpful!
 
 

 

[DavidMahler]

Quote:

 
 
 





Thank you for this. Very helpful!
 
 

You're welcome! Thanks for taking a look
 

 

[khaos974]

DavidMahler is en endless source of cool lists, here's another one:

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/461782/the-100-greatest-pieces-of-classical-music

 

[vcoheda]

i own a ton of classical music and just as important as specific works is sound quality. in terms of sound quality, i would rank the labels as follows:
 
best sacd
 - pentatone
 - bis
 - channel classics (non-sacd is great too)
 
best redbook
 - ecm
 - hyperion
 - harmonia mundi
 - archiv
 
the big labels
 - dg
 - philips
 - decca
 - emi
 - rca
 - sony

 

[DavidMahler]

 
Quote:

i own a ton of classical music and just as important as specific works is sound quality. in terms of sound quality, i would rank the labels as follows:
 
best sacd
 - pentatone
 - bis
 - channel classics (non-sacd is great too)
 
best redbook
 - ecm
 - hyperion
 - harmonia mundi
 - archiv
 
the big labels
 - dg
 - philips
 - decca
 - emi
 - rca
 - sony

Hmmmm, ECM above the Hype?  I dunno... they're both clearly one and two, I may reverse that....
 
I have a few Harmonias that clips quite badly..... Herreweghe's Matthew Passion for instance.
 
Nice list tho, really interesting concept.  
 
I may put EMI at the bottom of the big labels, Sony is pretty good at times....... those perahia recordings are amazing sounding for instance.
 

 

[Lex2]

Since the OP likes piano / violin, I would recommend the Perlman / Ashkenazy Spring and Kreutzer sonata recordings. Another must have is Kempff's complete Bethoven sonata cycle. Barenboim's Mozart piano concerto cycle is another I would recommend. All can be had for a bargain online. Although I do have to go with the Gould (1981) recording of the Goldberg Variations instead of Perahia's in this particular instance.

 

[DavidMahler]

Quote:

Although I do have to go with the Gould (1981) recording of the Goldberg Variations instead of Perahia's in this particular instance.

Really, that's very interesting.   Gould's most esteemed reading is his 1950s version.  There are things I like about Gould and things I don't like:
 
Things I like:
His playing is unique, tempos, dynamics (or lack of), complete absence of pedaling is all him.
 
Things I don't like:
His unique approach leaves a bad taste in my mouth very often.  His recordings have horrible splices all throughout which leads me to believe he made errors more often than others; his tone is suited primarily for the contrapuntal aspect of the music, but in terms of the interpretative quality it lacks a bit of romanticism which I feel even Bach can benefit from.  His groans and singing can detract.
 

Perahia's version is more straight ahead, but the tone and the overall feel I think is better for a stand alone reading.  Maybe if one were to collect several versions, Gould's could be the preferred listen. His 1982 reading is extremely slow and his 1955 reading is extremely fast.
 

 

[Lex2]

Quote:

Really, that's very interesting.   Gould's most esteemed reading is his 1950s version.  There are things I like about Gould and things I don't like:
 
Things I like:
His playing is unique, tempos, dynamics (or lack of), complete absence of pedaling is all him.
 
Things I don't like:
His unique approach leaves a bad taste in my mouth very often.  His recordings have horrible splices all throughout which leads me to believe he made errors more often than others; his tone is suited primarily for the contrapuntal aspect of the music, but in terms of the interpretative quality it lacks a bit of romanticism which I feel even Bach can benefit from.  His groans and singing can detract.
 

Perahia's version is more straight ahead, but the tone and the overall feel I think is better for a stand alone reading.  Maybe if one were to collect several versions, Gould's could be the preferred listen. His 1982 reading is extremely slow and his 1955 reading is extremely fast.
 

There is a great Gould restropective on DVD which highlighted the fact that he would typically play the same passages over and over again with different tempi / dynamics all without any mistakes (for so great was he on the piano and I have no reason to doubt that) but which gave multiple headaches to the recording engineer who had to splice the ones that the maestro likes into one coherent recording. His early 80s re-recording was more introspective / less mechanical / more romantic (about as Romantic as someone like Gould can get) compared to the extremely fast Fifties version (which I have tried to like without any success). Having said that I love his groans and singing, and certainly doesn't detract in my case.