A Blog

Key Recordings - based on 48 years listening

This is simply a list of the most outstanding recordings I know, in alphabetical order by composer and then opus number (or name if no opus number), updated periodically - last update 25 January 2012. In a some cases individual movements are outstanding and listed - that indicates some other part of the performance is not of the same standard. Links on the title mean a more detailed review has been given in another post. If a date is given it means that more than one recording by an artist is available and the date is the one referred to.

The aesthetic approach in selection is indicated in the quotation under the title of this blog.

Bach - Ich habe genug, Cantata 82 BWV 82 - Fischer-Dieskau/Ristenpart 1951

Bach - Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor BWV 903 - Alessandrini

Bach - Partita for solo violin no.2 in D minor BWV 1004 Ciaccona - Kogan

Bach - Harpsichord Concerto in D minor BWV 1052 - Alessandrini

Beethoven - Piano Sonata 14 in C sharp minor op.27 no. 2 'Moonlight' - Kempff 1956

Beethoven - Piano Sonata 14 in C sharp minor op.27 no. 2 'Moonlight' - Serkin 1951

Beethoven - Symphony 3 in E flat major op.55 - Toscanini 28 October 1939

Beethoven - Piano Sonata 23 in F minor op.57 Appassionata - Kovacevich

Beethoven - Piano Sonata 23 in F minor op.57 Appassionata - Richter 1959

Beethoven - Symphony 4 op.60 in B flat - Carlos Kleiber

Beethoven - Coriolan Overture op.62 - Furtwangler 30 June 1943

Beethoven - Coriolan Overture op.62 - Toscanini 14 December 1946

Beethoven - Symphony 5 in C minor op.67 - Carlos Kleiber

Beethoven - Symphony 5 in C minor op.67 - Klemperer 1955

Beethoven - Fidelio op.72 - Walter 22 February 1941

Beethoven - Piano Concerto 5 in E flat major op.73 - Michelangeli/Giulini

Beethoven - Piano Concerto 5 in E flat major op.73 - Serkin/Bernstein

Beethoven - Symphony 7 in A major op.92 - Carlos Kleiber

Beethoven - Symphony 7 in A major op.92 - Klemperer 1955

Beethoven - Piano Sonata no.28 in B flat major 'Hammerklavier' - Richter 1976

Beethoven - Missa Solemnis in D major op.123 - Toscanini 30 March - 2April 1953 (LP Version - Pristine Classical transcription)

Beethoven - Symphony 9 in D minor op.125 - Furtwangler 22 August 1954 (Pristine Classical transcription)

 

Beethoven - Symphony 9 in D minor op.125 - Toscanini 2 December 1939

Brahms - Piano Concerto 1 in D minor op.15 - Serkin/Szell

Brahms - Piano Quartet 1 in G minor op.25 - Stern/Laredo/Ma/Ax

Brahms - Piano Quintet op.34 - Curzon/Amadeus Quartet

Brahms - Symphony 1 in C minor op.68 - Szell 1 March 1957

Brahms - Symphony 1 in C minor op.68 - Toscanini 6 May 1940

Brahms - Symphony 4 in E minor op.98 - Carlos Kleiber

Brahms - Symphony 4 in E minor op.98 - Klemperer 1956-7

Brahms - Symphony 4 in E minor op.98 - Toscanini 3 December 1951

Brahms - Vier Ernste Gesange op.121 - Fischer-Dieskau/Klust 1949

Chopin - Piano Concerto 2 in F minor op.21 - Pires/Previn

Chopin - Nocturne 7 in C sharp minor op.27 no.2 - Rubinstein 1936

Chopin - Nocturne 13 in C minor op.48 no.1 - Pires

Haydn - Symphony 94 in G major 'Surprise' Hob. 1:94 - Karajan 1981

Haydn - Symphony 94 in G major 'Surprise' Hob. 1:94 - Carlos Kleiber

Mahler - Symphony 1 in D major - Horenstein 1969

Mahler - Symphony 2 in C minor - Klemperer 1951 Wiener Symphoniker

Mahler - Symphony 2 in C minor - Stokowski

Mahler - Symphony 3 in D minor - Horenstein

Mahler - Symphony 6 in A minor - Tennstedt 1991

Mahler - Symphony 9 in D major - Walter 1938

Mozart - Sinfonia Concertante in E flat K.364 - Mutter/Bashmet

Mozart - Piano Concerto 20 in D minor K466 - Curzon/Britten

Mozart - Piano Concerto 27 in B flat K595 - Curzon/Briten

Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet - Rozhdestvensky

Puccini - Madama Butterfly - Karajan/Callas

Puccini - Tosca - de Sabata/Callas

Schubert - Symphony 8 D759 - Mravinsky 1978

Schubert - Piano Sonata in A min D784 - Richter 31 March 1979

Schubert - String Quartet 14 D810 'Death and the Maiden' - The Lindsays

Schubert - Symphony 9 in C major D944 - Bohm

Schubert - Symphony 9 in C major D944 - Boult

Schubert - Symphony 9 in C major D944 - Toscanini 1941

Schubert - Symphony 9 D944 (Movements 1&2) - Sinopoli

Schubert - Schwangengesang D957 - Hotter 

Schubert - Standchen D957 - Volker

Schumann - Etudes Symphoniques op.13 - Richter

Schumann - Dichterliebe - op.48 - Fischer-Dieskau/Demus 1953

Schumann - Dichterliebe - op.48 - Hotter/Altman

Shostakovich - Symphony 5 op.47 - Mravinsky 1954

Shostakovich - Violin Concerto 1 op.77 - Batiashvili/Salonen

Shostakovich - Violin Concerto 1 op.77 - Oistrakh/Mravinsky 1957

Sibelius - Lemminkainen Legends op.22 - Franck

Sibelius - Symphony 2 in D major op.43 - Stokowski

Sibelius - Symphony 2 in D major op.43 - Szell

Sibelius - Symphony 3 in C major - Kajanus

Sibelius - Symphony 3 in C major - Kondrashin

Sibelius - Violin Concerto in D major op.47 - Batiashvili/Oramo

Sibelius - Violin Concerto in D major op.47 - Hahn/Salonen

Sibelius - Violin Concerto in D major op.47 - Perlman/Previn 1979

Sibelius - Symphony 5 in E flat major op.82 - Kajanus

Sibelius - Symphony 5 in E flat major op.82  - Kondrashin

Tchaikovsky - Romeo and Juliet - Kondrashin 1965

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake op.20 - Rozhdestvensky

Tchaikovsky - Francesca da Rimini op.32 - Rozhdestvensky 1961

Tchaikovsky - Francesca da Rimini op.32 - Rozhdestvensky 1991

Tchaikovsky - Symphony 4 in F minor op.36 - Mravinsky 1960

Tchaikovsky - Symphony 5 in E minor op.64 - Mravinsky 1960

Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker Excerpts op.71 - Mravinsky

Tchaikovsky - Symphony 6 in E minor op.74 - Furtwangler

Tchaikovsky - Symphony 6 in E minor op.74 - Mravinsky 1960

Tchaikovsky - Symphony 6 in E minor op.74 - Rozhdestvensky 1987

Tchaikovsky - Symphony 6 in E minor op.74 - Toscanini 1942

Verdi - La Traviata - Carlos Kleiber/Cotrubas/Domingo

Wagner - Lohengrin, 'In fernem Land' - Tietjen/Volker 1936

Wagner - Die Walkure - Furtwangler 1954 (Pristine Classical transcription)

 

 Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen - Krauss 1953

Wagner - Gotterdammerung - Keilberth 1955 (Bayreuth, 2nd cycle of Der Ring des Nibelungen)

 

Beethoven - Piano Concerto 5 op.73 - Michelangeli/Giulini

Beethoven - Piano Concerto 5 op.73 - Michelangeli/Giulini

Orchestral contribution by Giulini slightly underpowered in the 1st movement - undermining slighly the 'heroism' and power of the piece. But Michelangeli's playing in that movement is mesmeric in its nuance, length of line and detail. In the 2nd movement Giulini and Michelangeli gell for purity of line and depth of feeling for a truly great performance with the unique profound sentiment of power and repose in Beethoven.

An analogy of Bach and Spinoza

Bach believed his music dealt with God. For an athiest this is of course not possible objectively. But Spinoza believed that God and the structure of reality were the same thing - by analysing God one was therefore analysing the structure of reality. There is of course no evidence (I know of) that Bach was influenced by Spinoza - although Spinozist concepts became highly influential in late 18th century Germany, particularly via Goethe, and therefore must have been 'in the air' of Germany in this period. Bach's development of the implications of musical elements is simultaneously, in that Spinozist sense, an analysis of the nature of God and of the structure of reality.

Mahler's symphonies 2 & 3

Mahler's symphony no.2 is his symphony of death - funeral march to resurrection.

Mahler's symphony no.3 is his symphony of life - the different aspects of life starting with nature and finishing with love.

Maybe his symphoy no.1 is the symphony of the hero? And symphony no.4 the symphony of the child?

Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings at the British Museum | By Richard B. Woodward - WSJ.com

'Vasari claimed that the aging Michelangelo burned most of his drawings so that his oeuvre would be "nothing less than perfect."'

via professional.wsj.com

Another sign of the fact that Michelangelo was an obsessional neurotic - unable to tolerate anything other than 'perfection'. Evidently an 'imperfect' drawing by Michelangelo would have been a great masterpiece compared to almost anyone else. It is like Mravinsky who cancelled a public performance on the grounds that the rehearsal had been so perfect it would be impossible for the concert to equal it

Shostakovich - Symphony No 8 | The Sunday Times

'For the great pianist Sviatoslav Richter, Symphony No 8 was “the most important work” of Shostakovich’s life'

via www.thesundaytimes.co.uk

Highly interesting observation by Sviatoslav Richter on Shostakovich reported in a Sunday Times CD review by Hugh Canning on 27 June - Richter is one of those artists of such calibre their opinion on anything is important to have,

BBC Record Review's reply on Horenstein's Mahler

Sometimes one reads an article that is really infuriating from the point of view of its lack of argument. One that I came across recently was 'The Death of the Horenstein cult?' This claims 'Listeners who take the time and trouble to make the necessary comparisons may well come to the conclusion that [Jascha] Horenstein’s work is simply inferior.' It claims: 'The point is not to dump on Horenstein; he was one of many mediocre conductors who did some good work, and lots of bad, as evidenced by far too many surviving recordings.'

No serious argument is made for this in the article, which has an unusually high ratio of unsubstantiated assertions to facts, except that: 'performances of the Third such as Levine’s, Haitink’s, and Mehta’s offered a level of sheer technical mastery, whatever one thought of interpretative details, that Horenstein couldn’t approach. When his rendition finally was transferred to CD, listeners discovered that its sonics were quite inferior (as opposed to Bernstein’s Sony recording, for example, which sounded better than ever).'

So apparently inferior recording quality may damn an interpretation - which certainly puts Toscanini or Furtwangler in their place. Or perhaps it is less polished orchestral performance which is involved? And few would claim that the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, with which Horenstein made his first recording of Mahler's 9th Symphony for example is on the level of the Berlin Philarmonic.

But Horenstein's Mahler, and indeed most of the regrettably far too few recordings he left of other composers, is outstanding for its clarity and articulation - at the opposite end of the spectrum to Karajan's moulded textures for example. In a composer who utilises counterpoint as much as Mahler this is a vast advantage. Similarly Horenstein has the ultimate ability of a great conductor to integrate the long line of a work - that is to see the relation of the details and the whole. Listen to the first movement of his Mahler 9th to get the point, or the last movement of his Mahler 1st and 3rd symphonies.

As for orchestral sound it is one of the chief points expounded on this blog that a work of art exists only in its actualisation - there is no 'spirit' of a work of art separate from its actual existence. But Mahler is one of the composers for whom the realistic, which includes the grotesque and the badly formed as well as the beautiful and the sublime, is most present in the music. In line with the other composer who is increasingly regarded as Mahler's rival for the title of greatest composer of the 20th century, Shostakovich, biting scherzos, grotesque marches and the like are integral to the music as they are integral to life. There are certainly parts of Mahler in which beauty of sound is crucial but he is not a composer for which this is the most important feature.

As for the 'death of the cult,' just so people can see the above is not simply my opinion, in the last three years BBC Record Review has made three recordings by Horenstein its number one choice.These are Bruckner's 9th Symphony (13 January 2007), Simpson's 3rd Symphony (21 October 2006), and Mahler's Das Leid von der Erde.(26 September 2009). The BBC reviewers are scarcely a fringe cult - although actually my view is that there are superior performances of Das Leid von der Erde to Horenstein's and I would start with his Mahler 1st, 3rd or 9th Symphonies!

I get anything conducted by Horenstein available. He was one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. Anyone who considers he is just a 'cult' should see the BBC's recommendations. Or read the reviews on Amazon.

Szell's 1957 Brahms 1st symphony

One aim of this blog is to bring to attention extremely fine recordings particularly among those which are less well known or which are only available intermittently. One of these is Szell's 1957 recording of Brahms's 1st symphony which was issued by The George Szell Edition.

Brahms's 1st is naturally core repertoire and I have heard innumerable recordings. This is probably the finest and I certainly know none which is better.

The key to Szell's interpretation is the first movement. Its grim relentless power, maintained by a very fast tempo and tremendous rhythmic power displayed by the Cleveland Orchestra, is extremely special. In this case not even Toscanini, Furtwangler, Klemperer or Tennstedt match the feeling of savagery and struggle unleashed by Szell. A consequence is that the last movement, also taken fast, appears superbly triumphant because of the deep darkness out of which it has emerged. The symphony is therefore wonderfully bound together.

An incandescent performance. In the UK it is now only available on Amazon from secondary sellers which indicates it is being deleted. For those who appreciate Brahms 1st this is CD to acquire while it is still available.

It is still available from Amazon in the US as an MP3 download but this is significantly less good quality than the CD. 

Time to snap up Stokowski's superb Sibelius 2nd symphony?

Some CDs are simply outstanding and therefore command high prices on the second hand or 'rarity' market once they are no longer available new. One of these is Stokowski's performance of Sibelius's 2nd symphony on BBC Legends - coupled with Beethoven's Egmont Overture and excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.

This CD already costs £26.92 on Amazon UK. The reason is that the Sibelius performance is simply sensational. Raw, emotional - very probably the best performance I have personally ever heard with only Beecham's on BBC Legend standing as a rival. But for huge power the Stokowski has it.

Fortunately on US Amazon this CD can still be picked up new for $10.99 (slightly over £7). But that is unlikely to last as BBC Legend recordings are usually deleted fairly rapidly.

Anyone who likes Sibelius, and particularly those who like deeply emotional Sibelius performances, should consider snapping this up while it is still available at this price. In this blog's opinion a CD to be really prized.

Reiner's outstanding Shostakovich 6th Symphony available

This blog has previously previously mentioned Fritz Reiner's recording of Shostakovich's 6th Symphony.  Reiner's continuous tension creates a strikingly sinister and doom laden character to the symphony's long first movement - itself surely one of Shostakovich's greatest achievements. The two succeeding scherzos are equally strongly characterised.

Reiner's performance, precisely in this great tension, is equal to, if different from, the finest Russian performances - for reasons dealt with on this blog in general the distinctive sound of Russian orchestras gives them a head start in this repertoire.

Originally acquired as part of a CD paired with Mitropoulos's recording of Shostakovich's 5th Symphony the two together constituted an outstanding coupling - repeated listening confirming them as really classic Shostakovich performances. Unfortunately that CD is now deleted and both recordings are generally hard to obtain.

However, at present, a different coupling of the Reiner is available for £9.99 second hand on Amazon. Given it is generally difficult to buy snapping up this recording is highly recommended for anyone  interested in Shostakovich.