Thanks, science, for your contributions thus far.
I have a few observations upon what you've written, and, if you'll permit me to offer some feedback, I hope you'll accept my thoughts in the spirit in which they're given...
... namely, you sound apologetic about some of your selections, such as 1) your preference for one composer's piano quintets over his string quartets, or 2) writing something like "enough of that snobby stuff" after stating the beauty of a Takemitsu piece.
No need for apologies ... just keep postin' about what you love most, right?
Of course I am apologetic - I realize that almost no matter what albums I choose, someone is going to find a way to criticize them. So my defense mechanism is to be critical first. I'm going to continue to do that. My experience of online classical music discussion is that it is one huge contest, everyone looking for a way to put each other (and their music) down. The presence of mods forces us to be subtle about it, but it's not much different.
One person says you don't listen to enough choral music, another that you don't listen to enough symphonies, or solo keyboard, or organ music, or opera, or Baroque opera, or HIP Baroque opera, or classical guitar, or classical lute... another says you don't listen to enough early music, another one says you don't listen to enough Baroque, others that you don't listen to enough Bach or Haydn or Mozart or Beethoven or Schubert or Schumann or Liszt or Wagner, another one says you don't know enough of the obscure romantics, another that you're too focused on romanticism, another says you don't listen to enough of the Second Vienna School, another says you don't listen to enough Scandinavians, or enough Russians, or enough Italians, or says you're stupid if Takemitsu is the only Japanese composer you know, another says you don't listen to enough music of the past 40 years, another says it's not enough of the past 10 years, another that you don't listen to enough of the really old recordings from the 1920s and 30s and 40s, another that you don't listen to enough new recordings, another that you don't listen to enough HIP recordings, another that you don't appreciate the Titans of Early Stereo, and if you please any of those people the others will double down in their criticisms, and of course it's got to be on vinyl, or at least lossless files, and through at four thousand dollar home stereo, and even then it's not enough unless you hear live music every night, following along with the score, critiquing the tempo selections and analyzing the harmonies, and others will criticize you if you don't know the biographies of the composers in detail and what they felt when they made the music, and others will criticize you if you take any of that into account, and I hate everyone, everyone, everyone. Really, I do. I'm not just saying that. Just thinking about this makes me want to get the nuclear suitcase and figure out how to put the universe out of our misery.
I really am apologetic about it all. If I could just humble myself enough not to be a target, and thereafter be allowed just to like what I like without facing unending criticism, I would eagerly do so. I'm sorry that my tastes and listening habits - no matter what they are - bother so many people, I'm sorry that I can't please everyone. I still hate everyone for having such ridiculous standards, but I'm genuinely sorry about my inevitable failure to live up to them.
Another observation is that the bulk of your entries are albums from the "major player" labels: lots of Deutsche Grammophon, a number of EMI titles, a pair of Telarcs, here a Sony - there a Philips ... etc.
So far, what intrigues me the most from your postings is the Harmonia Mundi disc of Byzantin chant.
What are your feelings towards lesser-known talents and independent record labels?
As someone who loves democratic protest songs and dreams about trampling regimes, you nonetheless lend your support to the corporate giants in classical music recordings.
It turns out one thing I should've apologized for is the labels! I'd forgotten about that, but you've got to get your "Indie" labels in too.
But I don't think I have any feelings about particular labels, large or small. I do have a fondness for the "Titans of Early Stereo," so that puts a lot of my selections in the golden ages of DG, EMI, and so on. Those labels have made good impressions on me. Right now my favorite label is probably Hyperion/Helios, though. That just means that there's a lot of stuff by them on my wishlist. In terms of my favorite stuff that I already own, DG/EMI/Philips are going to continue to be represented really strongly in my list. I'm sorry about that, but that's how my top 100 is. One reason it's like that is that I've tried to learn about the most famous musicians of the mid-20th century. Somehow I really enjoy knowing my Karajan, Rostropovich, Oistrakh, Heifetz, Richter, Pollini....
I should explain that better. With something like, say, Beethoven's symphonies or string quartets, there are so many options out there, right? Now in the old days I was - I consider it "duped" but anyway, one way or another I had received the opinion that the essence of classical music listening was comparing recordings. So at that time I bought multiple recordings of the same works. I have five Brahms 1s, five Brahms 4s, seven Tchaikovsky PC 1s, five Tchaikovsky VCs, five Brahms VCs, five Beethoven 9s, five Mozart Requiems, and so on.
Later I decided that was meaningless to me because the differences were usually too small to matter much to me, and there was so much other music to get to (as you can see from that list, back then I'd barely even started to explore early music or modern music), and therefore (even worse) it was a waste of money and time for me to spend so much time comparing nearly identical recordings....
So then the issue became, if I am only going to have one or two sets of, say, Brahms' piano quartets, then which ones am I going to get? For awhile I just got whatever was cheap and convenient - often Naxos. So I have Naxos recordings of a lot of stuff.
But I found that, after reading people's comments online, I'd worry that I was missing something if I didn't have one of the famous, highly regarded recordings. And I'd wind up buying that. So I had Naxos' recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, but later I still got Gardiner's; Naxos' recording of Haydn's Creation, but later I still got Karajan's; Naxos' recording of Monteverdi's Vespers, but later I still got Parrott's, and so on.
So I decided the cheapest, most direct thing is just to start out with the most famous recording, and after that if I want another one for some reason, I can do it. But I always start with the most famous one. And my favorites tend to be those, in part because those are the main or only ones I've heard, and in part because I usually enjoy listening to the recordings that have been loved for decades. (I think that historical interest is really what draws me to classical music in general, not just to particular recordings.)
I'm surprised by your characterizations of Harmonia Mundi and Telarc. I would've thought Harmonia Mundi a bigger label than Telarc. Maybe it's just the places I shop, or perhaps the paragraph thing is confusing me.
Probably not very many lesser-known talents will get in my top 100. I've figured out about 70 of my selections, and I guess Apex or Gimell will be the smallest label.
I don't actually want to trample down most regimes, and I'm a friend of capitalism. I don't feel any animosity toward corporations in general; only the ones that really do nefarious things. I am grateful to "corporate giants" like DG for giving me so much of the music that I love.
Also, it might be preferable to include the label names on all your album selections (as I had done within my listings), because, if any given JPEG happens to be sucked into a black hole in cyberspace, TC members reading this thread may have no idea you are referring to Fischer-Dieskau's Schubert or Schubert's late string quartets. :tiphat:
I'll do that! Good idea. When I've figured out my top 100, I'll just make a list.