Hi all,
Interested on your thoughts on this one, spurred on by a recent discussion with a fellow forum member. I suppose I should begin by defining historical. I would take historical to primarily mean recordings made upwards of 30 years ago. Recordings made in an era where we didn't have days of recording and re-recording, where music with all its technical flaws but artistic merit was released, often recorded live. A time of passion and emotion, that I feel (with numerous notable exceptions) is perhaps lacking in a day and age where technical brilliance and finding ever diverse ways to interpret existing classics is all the rage. Many historical recordings are also important not just for the recording itself - but the context it was recorded in.
I would however like to clarify this definition by noting that I think a historical recording can be one that was made last week - if the impact of the recording and what it achieves is such that we will still be talking about it in 50 years. By all means, please mention these.
I'll start off with a few:
Dvorák Cello Concerto - Karajan/Rostropovich (1969). This is a personal favourite - I am a huge fan of Rostropovich, and I feel the orchestra under Karajan, who I don't always agree with, really got this one right.
Dvorák Cello Concerto -Svetlanov/Rostropovich (1968). This is a very different recording of the Dvorák. Made on the very same day Soviet tanks rolled into Prague, it can be read as a personal music protest by Rostropovich, and testament to the strength of emotion music is able to convey.
Beethoven Symphony 3 - Toscanini (1939). This is my favourite Beethoven 3 recording. The sound quality is very average, but the emotion and excitement conveyed is unparalleled in my view!
Shostakovich Symphony 8 - Mravinsky (1982). For the extremes of emotion, this recording cannot be overlooked! A live recording by Mravinsky who premièred Shostakovich 8 when it was first written.
This is a very basic list, and I have only mentioned a few pieces that I feel I know well enough to write on! I have recently begun listening to the Furtwangler 1942 Beethoven Symphony 9 which I am sure qualifies here - but I don't know it quite well enough yet!
I would be very interested to hear your thoughts.
Cheers