Of course it depends on your musical taste, but both are excellent labels.

Chandos: Hummel Piano Concertos; Haydn Masses; Delius: Florida Suite; North Country Sketches/Handley and Vocal orchestral works/Hickox; Bax series/Thomson; Respighi: Belkis Suite/Simon (on you-t also); Grainger orchestral works; Nørgård series (etc.)

BIS: Tubin: symphonies (no.5 for a start); Sumera: symphonies; Kokkonen: Durch ein Spiegel + String Quartets/Piano Quintet; Holmboe Symphonies; Sibelius series; Beethoven symphonies/Vänskä; Jon Leifs series (Saga Symphony); Sorabji 100 Etudes (a landmark); Skalkottas: Piano works + Violin Concerto; CPE Bach Harpsichord Concerti/Spanyi (a long series) (etc.)

 

The BIS label has served Schnittke especially well, I'd say. What comparatively few Chandos/Chaconne recordings I own are from more across the board but none of them displease.

 

joen_cph gives a good overview, and I second the Schnittke series on BIS. Also Gubaidulina on BIS. I would add Alwyn (symphonies, orchestral works. chamber music) to the earlier list re Chandos.

 

BIS has the best recording of Mozart's music for violin and orchestra (including the Sinfonia Concertante) performed by Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra with Christopher Moore on viola.

BIS also has the most incredible recordings of Bach's cantatas, passions, Brandenburg concertos and orchestral suites performed by the Bach Collegium Japan directed by Masaaki Suzuki. I don't think there is ever going to be better recordings than those.

 

I have Sibelius's lemminkainen suite on BIS. (BIS CD 294)Superb it is too. the very first classical CD I ever bought in the eighties wonderfull disc! as I remember the early ones came with a warning sticker, ie "This cd could damage lesser systems! Lol...

 

I agree with the Bis specifics above. The label has introduced (to me anyway) several fine musicians as well, including Fröst and Mustonen, and a cellist whose name...

[b'god, senility really is gaining on me. I was never good with names, but jeez.]

 

BIS:
Excellent Bach from Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan
Excellent C.P.E. Bach solo keyboard works and keyboard concertos by Miklos Spanyi
Excellent Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart piano sonatas on fortepiano by Brautigam
And so much more . . .

 

Forgot to mention the excellent Beethoven symphony cycle by Osmo Vanska on BIS.

 

Chandos has got Shostakovich SQ 1-13 performed by the original members of the Borodin Quartet and recorded somewhere during the 60's. Great performance.

 

For over 25 years, BIS has been crucial in expanding the discographies of many composers' works via multiple volumes.

Speaking for myself, BIS has been instrumental in introducing me to "obscure" composers and/or works.
Their cycles of albums on Tubin, Segerstam, Holmboe, Leifs, Skalkottas, etc. are examples of their leadership in repertoire off the beaten path - how far along would these composers' discographies be without labels such as BIS to champion their works?

I should think anybody serious about classical music would already have a significant number of albums from BIS, Chandos, Ondine, the defunct Koch Schwann/Koch International label, and so on ...
... I'm curious as to why the OP would need further reasons to warm up to labels like these? The vastness of their catalogues speak for themselves, IMHO.

Surely, the quality of the sound recordings are not an issue ... are they?

 

Surely, the quality of the sound recordings are not an issue ... are they?

BIS Super Audio CD.

 

Here's a useful link:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Label?album_group=5&label_id=73

I've got lots of these, not least because good-quality downloads were available for quite low prices (I think BIS was recently bought by Naxos, by the way). Highlights include the Villa-Lobos and Rimsky-Korsakov series, as well as various Vanska. Sudbin also.

The same link for Chandos:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Label?album_group=5&label_id=45

I have less Chandos, mostly because of the higher prices. I find the Chandos catalog a little less appealing and adventurous. I quite like Jean-Efflam Bavouzet though.

 

....I think BIS was recently bought by Naxos, by the way....

That's most interesting, considering the protectionist nature of Sweden. Any references?

I know Naxos and BIS have had a long-term relationship, regarding Naxos distribution and downloading.

 

Two of my favorite labels, although BIS CDs are pricey. Chandos has a fine Schnittke series, but not as extensive as BIS.

 

Currently listening to The Planets by Holst. A Chandos label. BBC Philharmonic conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier. Enjoying it.

 

BIS

Scarlatti, D. - Sonatas for Keyboard - Sudbin
Bach, CPE - Cello Concerti - Suzuki
Haydn, FJ - Piano Sonatas - Sudbin
Saint-Saens - Violin Concerto 3, etc. - Kantorow
Britten - "Frank Bridge Variations" - Csaba
Rachmaninov - Piano Sonata 2, etc. - Kempf
Schnittke - Concerto Grosso 1, etc. - Markiz
Schnittke - Violin Sonatas - Wallin & Pontinen
Scriabin - Piano Sonatas, etc. - Sudbin
Sibelius - String Quartets, Vols. 1 - 3 - Tempera Qt.


Chandos

Haydn, FJ - Piano Sonatas Vol. 3 - Bavouzet
Mozart - Piano Concerti 9 & 17 - Shelley
Mozart - Piano Concerti 21 & 22 - Shelley
Tchaikovsky - Rococo Variations, etc. - Wallfisch
Arnold - Symphonies 3 & 4 - Hickox
Arnold - String Quartets 1 & 2 - McCapra Qt.
Bax/Bridge/Britten - Orchestral - Handley
Honegger - Symphony 5, etc. - Jarvi
Kabalevsky/Khachaturian - Violin Concerti - Mordkovitch
Ligeti/Norgard - Violin Concerti - Astrand
Martin - Orchestral - Bamert
Moeran - Symphony in G, etc. - Handley
Prokofiev - Piano Concerti 1, 4, 5 - Berman
Rachmaninov - Piano Trios - Borodin Trio
Rawsthorne - Piano Concerti 1 & 2, etc. - Tozer
Reger - Brocklin Suite, Hiller Variations - Jarvi
Resphigi - Church Windows, Brazilian Impressions - Simon
Schnittke - Cello Concerto 1, Symphony 7. - Ivashkin/Polyansky
Schnittke - Cto. Grosso 6, Symphony 8 - Rozhdestvensky
Shostakovich - Symphony 7 - Jarvi
Walton - Violin Concerto, etc. - Mordkovitch
Walton - Viola Concerto, etc. - Imai
Walton - String Quartets 1 & 2 - Gabrieli Qt.

 

You can get BIS recordings from eClassical.com, in both mp3 and FLAC. The mp3 bitrate is 320 kbit/s (near CD quality), and there are two bitrates for FLAC - 16-bit (CD quality) and 24-bit (studio quality). FLAC is a lossless codec. They even allow for purchasing by track in many cases. The 16-bit FLAC is the same price as the mp3, so if you like FLAC, and have a player that can play FLAC files, that is the way to go (although the files are larger). My ears aren't quite good enough to tell the difference between 320 kbit/s mp3 and 16-bit FLAC, let alone 24-bit FLAC.

Just checked - they also offer Chandos albums.

 

Also, they will often have the complete booklets as pdf files for downloading for free - even if you don't buy the actual music. At least for BIS releases.

I downloaded a few albums from eClassical and Classicsonline last year, and while the latter has much more to offer, I preferred eClassical when they had what I was looking for - the FLAC files, the booklets, and shorter albums/tracks are cheaper since they seem to charge by length. I haven't tried the 24bit FLACs, though, but I'm certain that I wouldn't hear a difference to 16bit or even 320kbps (and I normally burn to CDR anyway).

There are lots of free FLAC players out there; I use Foobar2000 myself, also for converting FLAC to other formats.

 

Oh, wow! I've got probably half of the classical cd's Chandos has released...I guess I have noticed that not many of us listen to them but they have some wonderful releases. I most recently got a cycle of Beethoven piano concerti by Howard Shelley and they are great. I have so many of their releases because this older dude I made friends with back in the day at my local record store, well...he had a friend who had a friend or something like that,...at Chandos. He would literally get 'care packages' and the dude liked jazz, so he would flip a lot of these classical discs right over at me. They were all Chandos and this went on for over ten years. That's not how I was introduced to them, however...I actually just simply picked up a two cd set in '93 after hearing the Rach 2 for the first time...I was already quite familiar with Earl Wild and I was very happy to just see this sitting there, ready to be bought.

I was actually just busting out the Chandos recently, science, so if you just go back a few pages in the 'current listening' you should see some really good ones. I've got them all separated in one big cd rack so I'll pull stuff from there over the next couple of weeks...you certainly don't have to twist my arm for that.

 

Vaneyes - I'm still looking for backup. So far no luck. I don't know how I would have thought that without some basis. Hmmm.

If you're trying to keep me honest it won't work!

 

I've noticed that BIS also has a nice array of works conducted and works composed by Leif Segerstam.