[kelly]

In another thread, I asked for Stravninsky recommendations and one that came back was a collection conducted by Stravinsky himself.

Are there a lot of recordings like that available? If you guys know of some other good ones, please recommend them. It would be nice to hear what the composer actually had in mind.

 

[aos]

You can get all Rachmaninoff's piano concertos performed by himself, plus a few more things like Symphonic Dances and Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, I think. I'm sure you can do the same for at least some 20th century composers. Actually, it's certain that recordings exist but they are in archives of national radio/tv stations and have never been released. There's tons of material there, rotting and laying forgotten.

 

[FCJ]

There are other examples. One that comes to mind is the organ works of Oliver Messiaen. He played a large number of his own compositions on an EMI 3-CD set that was recorded in the early 1950s. The sound is pretty bad mono, but for a definitive take on some of the most beautiful music ever made, it's the one to get (but not the only one--I recommed the complete organ works performed by Olivier Latry on a 6-CD DG set. Excellent sound).

Another example is the work of modern composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass. You can hear their works performed by their own ensembles and conducted/played by others.

 

[GanChan]

Leonsrd Bernstein conducted many of his own works on record.

Benjamin Britten's own conducting of his compositions are generally available as Decca/London reissues.