Trout

Now that I have reached a point of relative familiarity with the "standard repertoire," I have started to look more closely at recordings. Recently, there have been some instances of performances that significantly elevate my opinion of the corresponding works, such as Kondrashin's Dvorak 9 and Hill's Intimations of Immortality (as opposed to the Hickox one that I found bland). It is for this newfound pleasure that I am now fairly interested in performances, especially of the repertoire that has not caught my attention quite yet.

So what will happen here? I will be posting a list of around 6-10 great and (hopefully) diverse recordings of each piece in the repertoire, using the order of the Classical Music Project. (Now obviously some pieces will have very few recordings available so there is no strict minimum; however I try to have a maximum of 10 since it may otherwise become less discerning a list.) For operas, I will try to add between 1 and 5 DVD recommendations. These recordings will be chosen by you, the TCer... well, sort of. I have perused many threads and internet forums (probably cannot mention them here, except for TC, but I can provide more details in private to anyone that happens to be reading this and is curious) that discuss these works and their recordings. I used a very simple formula: +1 for every time a recording was mentioned positively, -1 for a negative mention, and made sure to the best of my abilities each user was only counted once. Of course, with the human element involved there will almost certainly have been errors, but the general idea is that (with a large enough sample size) these recordings are still among those held in the highest regard. They will also be ranked by how well they scored, but I don't think the ranking means much for some of the aforementioned reasons (errors in data collecting, imperfect numbering system, etc.). Just know that you hopefully won't go wrong with any one of these recordings.

I hope that maybe this quasi-guide may benefit some listeners who happen to stumble upon it in the future. I think I have rambled enough about it and the various caveats (now that I mention it, the system also discriminates against very recent recordings so don't let this detract from any current or recent releases), so let's jump right in shall we?


Links to the completed entries:

1. Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV 232
2. Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
3. Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, op. 115
4. Beethoven: Symphony #5 in C minor, op. 67
5. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, K. 492

6. Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps
7. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 846-893
8. Mahler: Symphony #2 "Resurrection"
9. Schubert: Winterreise, D. 911
10. Dvořák: Symphony #9 in E minor, op. 95 "From the New World"

11. Mozart: Piano Concerto #20 in D minor, K. 466
12. Beethoven: Symphony #9 in D minor, op. 125 "Choral"
13. Tchaikovsky: Symphony #6 in B minor, op. 74 "Pathétique"
14. Bach: St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244
15. Brahms: Symphony #4 in E minor, op. 98

16. Brahms: Piano Concerto #2 in B-flat, op. 83
17. Beethoven: String Quartet #14 in C-sharp minor, op. 131
18. Mozart: Symphony #41 in C, K. 551 "Jupiter"
19. Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 54
20. Schubert: String Quintet in C, D. 956

21. Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem, op. 45
22. Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
23. Beethoven: Symphony #3 in E-flat, op. 55 "Eroica"
24. Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
25. Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen (individually: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung)

26. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64
27. Debussy: La Mer, L 109
28. Chopin: 24 Preludes, op. 28
29. Mozart: Requiem Mass in D minor, K. 626
30. Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge, BWV 1080

31. Beethoven: Piano Sonata #29 in B-flat, op. 106 "Hammerklavier"
32. Bruckner: Symphony #9 in D minor
33. Haydn: Symphony #104 in D "London"
34. Handel: Messiah, HWV 56
35. Strauss, R.: Vier letzte Lieder

36. Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
37. Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, op. 34
38. Beethoven: Piano Sonata #32 in C minor, op. 111
39. Schumann: Fantasie in C, op. 17
40. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas

41. Shostakovich: Symphony #5 in D minor, op. 47
42. Schubert: Piano Sonata #21 in B-flat, D. 960
43. Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D, op. 35
44. Fauré: Requiem in D minor, op. 48
45. Mozart: Don Giovanni, K. 527

46. Bach: Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor, BWV 1043
47. Verdi: Otello
48. Britten: War Requiem, op. 66
49. Bartók: Violin Concerto #2, Sz. 112
50. Mozart: Symphony #40 in G minor, K. 550

(more in the comments below due to hitting the maximum number of characters for this post)

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