Thread: Your Desert Island Discs- but in a different perspective

Hey! People should keep posting here (but not ridiculous amounts because that spoils it!) - I like browsing this thread when I feel like listening to something new or searching for better recordings

As promised, I'm back with a bit of Brahms!

Brahms: Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2

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Bernard Haitink and Vladimir Ashkenazy, with the Royal Concertgebouw and Wiener Philharmoniker.

This is truly a great set if you want a stunning performance of the pair of concertos. I'm always impressed with the way that Haitink conducts Brahms, and Ashkenazy's playing is both powerful and lyrical in the right places without taking it to extremes. The highlight of the disc is really the Second Piano Concerto, though the First is almost as good. If you don't mind listening to a slightly older recording and want to sample another great version of the First, you should look for Leon Fleisher, George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Also, as it's been on my mind, I thought I'd throw in some Tchaikovsky!

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4

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Gennadi Rozhdestvensky with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5

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Vasily Petrenko with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony

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Vasily Petrenko with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

Rozhdestvensky gives a performance of the 4th that is utterly devastating in the extreme - it's almost unbeatable. There are obviously a myriad of recordings of the 5th, Petrenko's being as good as any other, with the bonus of a great recorded sound, but another splendid version is Mariss Janson's with the Oslo Phiharmonic.

However, if you were only allowed to have one Tchaikovsky symphony and only one recording of it, then you must get Petrenko's Manfred Symphony!!! It's the best performance of it that I've ever heard and it's one of my all-time favourite symphonies. GET IT NOW!

These would be my desert island picks:


Incredibly moving performance of one of the greatest choral works of all time:




My favorite rendition of the Passacaglia. Biggs' choice of stops is superb:




Gergiev's Firebird recording still blows me away:




And these Boulez recordings of Stravinsky and Debussy are still my faves:

This is not an easy task but here you go

I don't know how to post album covers, but these are some recordings I really like:

Brahms: Piano Concerto #1: Zimerman/Bernstein/Vienna Philharmonic (DGG)
Barber: Complete songs (Secrets of the Old) Studer/Hampson/Browning (DGG)
Mahler: Symphony #5: Solti, CSO (London)
Rachmaninov: Symphony #1: Ashkenazy/LSO (London)
Brahms: The 4 Symphonies/Tragic and Academic Festival Overtures: Solti/CSO (London)
Copland: Symphony #3: Bernstein/NYPhil (DGG)
Strauss: Four Last Songs: Janowitz/Von Karajan/Berlin Phil (DGG)
Albeniz: Iberia: deLaRoccha (London)

Tom

Shostakovich (Violin Concerto No.1)/Prokofiev (Violin Concerto No.2) - Repin/Nagano (Erato)
Bartok (Complete String Quartets) - Vegh String Quartet (Naive)
Bartok (Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta) - Reiner (RCA, Living Stereo)
Brahms (Symphony No.4) - C. Kleiber (DG)
Beethoven (Symphonies Nos. 5&7) - C. Kleiber (DG)
Beethoven (Late String Quartets) - Lindsay String Quartet (ASV)
Shostakovich (Symphony No.8) - Previn (EMI)
Vaughan Williams (Symphony No.4) - Bernstein (Sony)
Ravel (Daphnis et Chloe) - Monteaux (DECCA)
Schubert (Arpeggione Sonata) - Rostropovich/Britten (DECCA)
Walton (Cello Concerto) - Piatigorsky/Munch (RCA)
Bruckner (Symphony No.9) - Giulini (DG)
Sibelius (Violin Concerto) - Heifetz/Hendl (RCA)
Mahler (Symphony No.3) - Horenstein (Unicorn)

Originally Posted by Polednice

Hey! People should keep posting here (but not ridiculous amounts because that spoils it!) - I like browsing this thread when I feel like listening to something new or searching for better recordings

Definitely!

Originally Posted by Polednice

As promised, I'm back with a bit of Brahms!

That's good... but Ashkenazy for the piano concerti? Why bother with him when we have pianists like Gilels, Rubinstein, Curzon, and Fleisher I'm a little curious, that's it.

These are some of my favourites (7 for the days of the week):

1. Benjamin Britten War Requiem - Britten/Fischer-Dieskau/Pears
2. Schubert Hyperion vol 11 - Bridgette Fassbaender
3. Berg Lieder - Jessye Norman
4. Schoenberg Gurre Lieder - Boulez/Napier
5. Tippet Child of our Time - Baker
6. Elgar violin concerto - Yehudi Menuhin
7. Skalkottas Largo Sinfonico, (Bis records)

First off I'd just like to say Hi, since this is my first post here.

Anyway, I'll just make a short list. A couple classical CD's I couldn't live without:

Bach - Goldberg Variations - Gould on CBS/Sony 1981 Recording
Chopin - Piano Concertos #1 & 2 - Samson Francois/Louis Fremaux on EMI
Mahler - Das Lied Von Der Erde - Bernstein/VPO on Decca w/King & Dieskau
Mozart - Requiem - Marriner/ASMF on Philips w/McNair, Watkinson, Araiza & Lloyd
Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto #1 - Richter/Karajan on DG

The Mozart & Mahler albums especially. I've listened to each of those probably 500 times going to sleep at night. Those are my 2 I really couldn't live without.

Brahms -
Symphony no. 1, George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Symphonies nos. 2 & 3, Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Symphony no. 4, Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic.

More Brahms.


Piano Concerto no. 1, Rudolf Serkin/George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Piano Concerto no. 2, Emanuel Ax/Bernard Haitink and the Boston Orchestra.
Violin Concerto, David Oistrakh/George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Double Concerto, Gil Shaham/Jian Wang/Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic.

I'll just list 5 pieces I'd love to bring with me:

1) Liszt's Jeux d'eaux by Lazar Berman.

2) Chopin's Mazurka op. 17 #4 by Arthur Rubinstein.

3) Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto by Nathan Milstein.

4) Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune for flute & piano, by Bernold & Jacob (for some reason, this stripped-down version moves me a lot more than the usual one for orchestra).

5) Satie's 4th Gnossienne - as beautiful as Gymnopédie #1, but not overplayed - also, one of the first pieces I learned to play.

Mathieu

Which Milstein's Tchaikovsky?

The CD I have seems to have been recorded in 1973. Are there several recordings by the same violonist?

Interesting...i will pick

Schubert: The Hyperion Schubert Edition, Vol. 25 Die schöne Müllerin (Ian Bostridge -- soloist, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau -- reader, Graham Johnson -- piano, HYPERION)
Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (Levine/Philadelphia)
Walton Belshazzar's Feast - Previn/LSO (EMI)

New limited-edition CDs subscribers series (200 to be issued) "Bolshoi Theatre: Pages in History"

The Russian company 'Aquarius' is planning a subscribers only series of CDs
concentrating on those singers well-known and unjustly forgotten. There will
only be 200 copies of each disc printed.

The first disc will be dedicated to Nikandr Khanaev (tenor, 1890-1974):



1. Sadko’s Aria (N. Rimsky-Korsakov «Sadko», scene 1)
2. Sadko’s Song (Oh You, dark leafy grove...) (N. Rimsky-Korsakov «Sadko», scene 2)
3-4. N. Khanaev narrates…
4. Hermann’s Arioso (P. Tchaikovsky «The Queen of Spades», act 1)
5. Hermann’s Aria (P. Tchaikovsky «The Queen of Spades», act 3)
6. Scene near the Fountain (M.Mussorgsky «Boris Godunov», act 3)
7. A Knight’s Ballade (Yu. Shaporin «On the Field of Kulikovo»)
8. Kakhovsky’s Aria (Yu. Shaporin «The Decembrists», act 2)
9. Jose’s Recitative and Aria (G. Bizet «Carmen», act 2)
10. Samson’s Aria (C. Saint-Saëns «Samson and Delilah», act 3
11. Siegfried forges his magic sword (R. Wagner «Siegfried», act 1)

bonus tracks:

12. Am Sonntag Morgen (J. Brahms - P. Heyse) GPT Х2852
13. Hermann’s Aria (P. Tchaikovsky «The Queen of Spades», act 3) GPT 454а
14. Hermann’s Arioso (P. Tchaikovsky «The Queen of Spades», act 1) MT 1577
15. Hermann’s Aria (P. Tchaikovsky «The Queen of Spades», act 3) MT 1578
16. Sadko’s Song (Strike up, my Gusli) (N. Rimsky-Korsakov «Sadko», scene 2) MT 01580

GPT - Gramplasttrest; MT - Mustrest (Moscow)

Marina Mnishek - M. Maksakova (6), Mime - A. Peregudov (11)

Recorded in: 1931 (14-16), 1934 (13), 1935 (12), 1937 (4, 9), 1938 (12), 1940 (5, 7),

1946 (1, 2, 10), 1948 (6), 1951 (8), 20.04.1970 (3)

Future discs planned will include Mark Reizen (unissued opera recordings), A. Nezhdanova, Ivan Kozlovsky (rare early recordings), Elena Stepanova, A. Baturin, G.Bolshakov, D. Gamrekeli, X. Derjinskaya, P. Nortsov, V. Slivinsky, A.I.Alexeev (full assembly of records of this forgotten lyrical tenor, including live records from a stage of the Bolshoi theatre 1930 х), S.N.Streltsov, N.N.Ozerov, E.D.Kruglikova (the rare not
published records), E.F.Smolenskaya, E.K.Mezheraup, A.A.Byshevskaja,
O.J.Leonteva, N.D.Shpiller (rare, including live records), E.V.Shumskaja,
G.M.Nelepp, V.N.Lubentsov, V.I.Kilchevsky, V.I.Borisenko, M.P.Maksakova,
A.F.Krivchenja, V.A.Davidova