Top 5 all time favorites

[Guest Bill Barton]

I'm not really that well-versed in classical music, but the five that stand out at this point in time would be:

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Leonard Bernstein/London Symphony Orchestra is the version I have)

J.S. Bach: Suites for Solo Cello (the Pablo Casals recording knocks me out - the Rostropovich is sweet too)

Scriabin: Prometheus - The Poem of Fire (Alexander Toradze/Valery Gergiev/Kirov Orchestra, St. Petersburg [paired with Stravinsky's The Firebird, helluva CD])

J.S. Bach: Harpsichord Concertos (Byron Schenkman/Seattle Baroque)

Henry Cowell: Homage to Iran (Continuum)

[Rooster_Ties]

This really is pretty close to my all-time top five...

1. Hans Werner Henze - Requiem (1993), for trumpet, piano, and 26 instruments (but NO chorus or vocalists).

2. William Levi Dawson - Negro Folk Symphony (1934/52), my nomination for the greatest "American" symphony yet (followed closely by one of the Ives, maybe #2?)

3. Samuel Barber - Symphony No. 2 (1944/47), which Barber ordered destroyed in 1964 (and thus it because the much less known of his only two symphonies). Thankfully it was reconstructed in the 80's from a set of orchestral parts that were found in a warehouse (and previously thought to have been destroyed).

4. Brahms - Piano Quartet #1, orchestrated by Schoenberg thusly (1861, orch 1937), occasionally even referred to by some as "Brahms' 5th Symphony".

5. Kurt Atterberg - Piano Concerto (1935), a HUGE neo-romantic work that gets a little bitonal in places, every bit as much an "integrated" symphony/piano-concerto "hybrid" as Brahms' first piano concerto.

I've given out a dozen or more copies of the Henze over the years as a sort of calling card (I buy 'em cheap whenever I can).

Edited March 24, 2010 by Rooster_Ties

[BillF]

Today's choices (tomorrow's might be different):

Bach - Cello Suites

Mozart - Clarinet Quintet

Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time

Grainger - Lincolnshire Posy

Stockhausen - Hymnen

My fourth selection might have some of you scratching your head - Lincolnshire Posy is arguably the greatest piece ever written for concert band. When it was written in 1937, some conductors considered several of the movements unplayable due to their rhythmic complexity.

On another day, I might include some Beethoven, Stravinsky, Ives, or Webern.

Well, Bird certainly dug Grainger's "Country Dances"!

[jeffcrom]

Today's choices (tomorrow's might be different):

Bach - Cello Suites

Mozart - Clarinet Quintet

Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time

Grainger - Lincolnshire Posy

Stockhausen - Hymnen

My fourth selection might have some of you scratching your head - Lincolnshire Posy is arguably the greatest piece ever written for concert band. When it was written in 1937, some conductors considered several of the movements unplayable due to their rhythmic complexity.

On another day, I might include some Beethoven, Stravinsky, Ives, or Webern.

Well, Bird certainly dug Grainger's "Country Dances"!

Take my word for it - Lincolnshire Posy is a totally different animal than "Country Gardens." Grainger himself came to hate that piece so much that he had two fee levels on his concert tours. He charged one fee if he didn't have to play "Country Gardens" and a considerably higher fee if he did have to play it.

[blind-blake]

At the moment...

Chopin: Preludes, Impromtus, Barcarolle & Berceuse - Alfred Cortot

Grieg: Lyric Pieces / Emil Gilels

Gustav Mahler: Symphonie No. 9 (Karajan w/ BPO)

Debussy: Préludes for Piano, Books 1 & 2 (Paul Jacobs)

Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 - Konstantin Scherbakov

Bartok: The Piano Concertos / Anda, Fricsay, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin

Zoltán Kocsis plays Bartók (Box)

Works of Igor Stravinsky (Box)

Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Webern / Maurizio Pollini

Benny Goodman, Collector's Edition [Leonard Bernstein (Composer), Aaron Copland (Composer), Igor Stravinsky (Composer), Morton Gould (Composer), Bela Bartok (Composer), Columbia Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Béla Bartók (Performer)]

Edited March 24, 2010 by blind-blake

[A Lark Ascending]

As others have said, nigh on impossible to narrow down. But these still fly back to my record player after 30+ years:

+ Mahler 6 (with 2, 9, 10 and Das Lied in reserve)

+ Sibelius 4, 5, 6, 7

+ Vaughan Williams 5th (with the 3rd, 6th and various tone poems in reserve)

+ Janacek - Glagolitic Mass

+ Strauss - probably Ein Heldenleben and Der Rosenkavalier in poll position

+ Frank Bridge - Enter Spring

+ Delius - the Barbarolli disc of minatures

+ Shostakovich - 5, 7, 10, Violin Concerto, 8th St Qt, Piano Quintet.

+ Malcolm Arnold - Symphonies 2 and 5 (and maybe his Grand, Grand Overture just because it beautifully sends up the more pompous side of the genre)

+ Stravinsky - Violin Concerto, Dumbarton Oaks, Concerto in D, Danses Concertante

+ Britten - Peter Grimes, The Turn of the Screw, Death in Venice...and so much more

+ EJ Moeran - Symphony in G

+ Holst - The Planets, Egdon Heath

+ Debussy - Preludes, Images for orchestra

+ Falla - Harpsichord Concerto, El Amour Brujo, Three Cornered Hat and others

I think that's 5 to be getting on with.

[BillF]

Today's choices (tomorrow's might be different):

Bach - Cello Suites

Mozart - Clarinet Quintet

Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time

Grainger - Lincolnshire Posy

Stockhausen - Hymnen

My fourth selection might have some of you scratching your head - Lincolnshire Posy is arguably the greatest piece ever written for concert band. When it was written in 1937, some conductors considered several of the movements unplayable due to their rhythmic complexity.

On another day, I might include some Beethoven, Stravinsky, Ives, or Webern.

Well, Bird certainly dug Grainger's "Country Dances"!

Take my word for it - Lincolnshire Posy is a totally different animal than "Country Gardens." Grainger himself came to hate that piece so much that he had two fee levels on his concert tours. He charged one fee if he didn't have to play "Country Gardens" and a considerably higher fee if he did have to play it.

[A Lark Ascending]

Give this a listen for a very tasteful 'folk-rock' version of Lincolnshire Posey by the Home Service (an offsheet of the Albion Band who were an offshoot of Steeleye Span who were and offshoot of Fairport Convention!).

http://www.thebeesknees.com/?p=63

The brass/reeds section included ex-military brass band players; the main singer, John Tams, is one of the great UK folk singers - several of Grainger's pieces are moved back to the original songs. Knowing Tams he would know his Grainger well and, probably, have worked from discs of source singers. 'Folk-rock' can be arthritic - this isn't.

Edited March 24, 2010 by Bev Stapleton

[Bol]

Beethoven string quartets -- Takacs Quartet (Decca)

Boccherini string quintets -- Europa Galante (Virgin)

Brahms symphony no. 4 -- C. Kleiber (DG)

Brahms piano concerto no. 1 -- Solti & A. Schiff (Decca)

Brahms piano quartets -- Domus (Virgin)

E. Carter string quartets -- Arditti Quartet (Etcetera & Astree)

Haydn string quartets -- Quatour Mosaiques (Astree)

Haydn piano sonatas -- Brendel (Philips)

Mahler Das Lied von der Erde -- B. Walter & K. Ferrier (Decca)

Mozart late string quartets -- Quatour Mosaiques (Astree)

Schubert late string quartets -- Alban Berg Quartet (EMI)

Schubert late string quartets -- Belcea Quartet (EMI)

Schubert solo piano pieces -- Brendel (Philips)

R. Strauss Der Rosenkavalier -- Karajan & Schwarzkopf (EMI)

Edited May 16, 2010 by Bol

[P.L.M]

- Beethoven: 14th String Quartet (Quatuor Végh) (1972/73 version, Valois-Auvidis)

- Berg: Suite Lyrique + Quatuor op.3 (Arditti String Quartet)(Disques Montaigne)

- Bach: 6 Cello Suite (Pierre Fournier) (DG)

- Britten: Cello Suite 1-3 (Truls Mork) (Virgin Cl.)

- Bartok : The Two Violin Sonatas (Gidon Kremer - Martha Argerich) (DG, 2 separate CD)

- Debussy: Les Trois Sonates (P. Rogé, R. Pasquier, B. Pasquier, F. Guye, F. Cambreling,

Ph. Berthold)(Adda)

- Feldman: All Piano (John Tilbury) (Matchless)

- Grisey: Vortex Temporum - Talea (Ensemble Recherche) (Accord-Unacorda)

- Kodaly: Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello (Janos Starker) (Delos)

- Schoenberg: The Piano Music (Maurizio Pollini (DG)

My Favorite "Récital" CD:

- Ensemble Aventure: Octandre (Varèse/ Luzuriaga/ Bruttger/ Aharonián/ Etkin/ Paraskevaidis/

Riehm (Ars Musici)

[rostasi]

• Karlheinz Stockhausen: Hymnen

• Pierre Henry - Apocalypse De Jean

• Iannis Xenakis: Bohor

• François Bayle: Toupie Dans Le Ciel

• John Cage & Maryanne Amacher: Empty Words/Close Up

[porcy62]

Now and then I bump into this thread...

And every time I think it's beyond my capability to narrow down to five...

Edited June 15, 2010 by porcy62

[thedwork]

Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis - Ralph Vaughan Williams (Slatkin/Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra)

Fratres - Arvo Part (Kremer and Jarrett)

Unaccompanied Cello Suites - Bach (Rostropovich)

Images - Debussy (Paul Jacobs)

Henri Dutilleux - L'Arbre des Songes/Concerto for Violin & Orchestra (Orchestre National de France

with Isaac Stern, Conducted by Lorin Maazel)

the last piece on my little list by dutilleux i first heard while driving. it was so intense and demanded my attention so totally i had to pull over and just listen. awesome piece of music and amazing performance.

lots more to mention here of course: Reich, Sor, Gershwin, etc... But the above were definitely the first that came to mind.

Edited June 16, 2010 by thedwork

[king ubu]

Bach - Violin Sonatas & Partitas (Szigeti, Szeryng*)

Bach - Cello Suites (Casals)

Mozart - Piano Concert K 491 (Rubinstein/Krips)

Mozart - Don Giovanni (Krips)

Mozart - Le nozze di Figaro (hard-pressed between Kleiber, Giulini and Böhm)

Puccini - La Bohème (Beecham)

Puccini - Tosca (Callas 1953)

Bizet - Thaïs Méditation (Milstein, maybe?)

Brahms - Violin Concerto (Neveu)

Beethoven - Violin Sonata No. 9 "Kreutzer" (Szigeti/Bartók, Szeryng/Rubinstein)

Beethoven - Violin Sonata No. 10 Op. 96 (Szigeti/Arrau)

Mozart - Clarinet Concerto (Portal)

Enescu - Violin Sonata No. 3 (Haendel/Ashkenazy)

Mozart - Violin Sonata K 304 (Szigeti/Horszowski)

Chopin - Préludes, Nocturnes (Arrau, François)

Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto (Rabin, Heifetz, Hahn)

Bach - Inventions & Sinfonias (BWV 772-786) (Gould, Meyer)

Rameau - Pièces de clavécin (Meyer, Rannou)

Scarlatti - Sonatas (Horowitz, Hantaï, Meyer)

Mozart - Sinfonia concertante K 364 (Heifetz/Primrose, Stern/Zukerman)

Schubert - Die schöne Müllerin (Wunderlich)

Schubert - Winterreise (Hotter, Schäfer)

Bach - Cantatas/Arias (Janet Baker, von Otter, Ameling)

Mozart - Opera Arias (Popp)

Mozart - Exsultate, jubilate (Popp)

Strauss - 4 letzte Lieder (Janowitz, Popp)

Monteverdi - Orfeo (Gardiner)

Monteverdi - Vespro della Beata Vergine (Gardiner)

Ockeghem - Requiem (Ensemble Organum)

Pergolesi - Stabat mater (Kirkby/Bowman/Hogwood)

Franck - Violin Sonata (Heifetz/Rubinstein, Ferras/Barbizet)

*) only know the DG recordings so far

some others that are easy to throw by lot in but I'd need to re-visit or listen more often first:

Beethoven - Cello Sonatas (Fournier/Schnabel)

Beethoven - Piano Sonatas (Schnabel, Kempff early fifties, Gulda, Solomon)

Beethoven - Violin Sonatas (yep, the whole bunch, in plenty of versions, Francescatti/Casadesus, Grumiaux/Haskil, Szigeti/Arrau, Ferras/Barbizet, Menuhin/Kempff, Kreisler/Rupp ...)

Mozart - Violin Sonatas (Szigeti/Horszowski [szell on two], Grumiaux/Haskil, Zimmermann/Lonquich)

Schumann - Violin Sonatas (Ferras/Barbizet)

Brahms - Violin Sonatas (Ferras/Barbizet)

Mozart - Piano Concertos (Perahia, some by Haskil, Edwin Fischer, Gieseking, Gould w/K 491)

Mozart - Piano Sonatas (Gould, Pires, Gulda)

Mozart - Violin Concertos (Grumiaux, Szeryng, Julia Fischer)

the Rubinstein/Heifetz/Feuerman and Rubinstein/Szeryng/Fournier trios

[StarThrower]

Ligeti-violin concerto, cello concerto, chamber concerto, sonata for solo cello

Alban Berg- Three Orchestral Pieces

Prokofiev-piano concerto no. 2

Varese-Deserts

William Schuman-Symphony no. 7

Alfred Schnittke-concerto for piano and strings, concerto grosso no. 6, string quartet no. 3

Honegger- the 5 symphonies

Ravel-Le tombeau de Couperin

Debussy- just about everything

Schoenberg-chamber symphony no. 1

Ives-symhonies 1 and 4

Lutoslawski-symphonies nos. 2-4, cello concerto, livre pour orchestra

Penderecki-Polymorhia, Dimensions Of Time And Silence, Devils Of Loudun

[Stefan Wood]

I keep coming back to these, time after time.

Ansermet's conducting of the Rites of Spring

All of them, actually, but in particular, the first one.

Timeless.

Black Angels, but Unto the Hills is spectacular.

[J.A.W.]

Beethoven - Violin Sonatas (yep, the whole bunch, in plenty of versions, Francescatti/Casadesus, Grumiaux/Haskil, Szigeti/Arrau, Ferras/Barbizet, Menuhin/Kempff, Kreisler/Rupp ...)

Stumbled upon this post and also read your personal introduction on Mike's Prospero site and was wondering what you like about Francescatti's interpretation. I often find his tone uneven (Menuhin has the same problem as far as I'm concerned), and he throws in a lot of vibrato now and then. On the other hand Casadesus is wonderful, a great pianist. The Grumiaux/Haskil set is a golden standard for me, despite the not very good, hard sound.

A great "older-style" interpretation of Beethoven's cello sonatas is the Fournier/Kempff set - in my opinion, of course

Edited May 13, 2013 by J.A.W.

[king ubu]

Beethoven - Violin Sonatas (yep, the whole bunch, in plenty of versions, Francescatti/Casadesus, Grumiaux/Haskil, Szigeti/Arrau, Ferras/Barbizet, Menuhin/Kempff, Kreisler/Rupp ...)

Stumbled upon this post and also read your personal introduction on Mike's Prospero site and was wondering what you like about Francescatti's interpretation. I often find his tone uneven (Menuhin has the same problem as far as I'm concerned), and he throws in a lot of vibrato now and then. On the other hand Casadesus is wonderful, a great pianist. The Grumiaux/Haskil set is a golden standard for me, despite the not very good, hard sound.

A great "older-style" interpretation of Beethoven's cello sonatas is the Fournier/Kempff set - in my opinion, of course

I still find it very hard to talk sense as far as violinists go ... I've got no issues with tone or intonation of Menuhin or Francescatti. In fact I'd wish more of Francescatti's recordings were available! I've got both Music & Arts set (the 3CD compiling some Columbia studio recordings, mostly sonatas, and the 4CD set of live recordings of concertos), and I got the Masterworks 2CD set with some more concertos and I just love his overall feel, his touch, his way of approaching things in what to me seems to be a clean cut manner - "aufgeräumt", never pretentious, yet still rather "French" in feeling and tone.

Fournier/Kempff was not on my radar, but Fournier/Gulda has been in my shopping cart for months. Guess I'll go for both, eventually ... but then I might try and find some HIP version of those sonatas, too, who knows

[Larry Kart]

Fournier/Schnabel

[J.A.W.]

Fournier/Schnabel

On which label? There are various releases, official (EMI) and public domain.

[king ubu]

It's all in the EMI ICON by Fournier - very well worth buying, in my opinion!

Contents are listed here: http://emi-icons.com/5099962953924.php

Edited May 13, 2013 by king ubu

[J.A.W.]

It's all in the EMI ICON by Fournier - very well worth buying, in my opinion!

Contents are listed here: http://emi-icons.com/5099962953924.php

The problem I have with those EMI releases is that damned noise reduction they often used during mastering! It spoils the fun for me. Edited May 13, 2013 by J.A.W.

[king ubu]

I know ... is there no Naxos edition?

[J.A.W.]

No, and no Testament either.

[Larry Kart]

I have this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Cello-Sonatas-1-5-Beethoven/dp/B000007NKE

It's OOP and fairly pricey used. Can't vouch for the sound quality versus the EMI because I haven't heard the latter.