[20centrfuge]

Perfection is an ideal, perhaps not truly attainable, but some recordings come :devil: devilishly close to it. I won't define for you what a perfect recording is. I'll leave that up to you, but I would like to know which recordings you consider to be sooooo good, you truly cannot imagine finer.

 

[brotagonist]

Schoenberg, Berg, Webern
Karajan, Berliner Philharmonker

I have a number of recordings of most of the material on these three discs, but these were the first I heard, so are they the best or just my favourites?

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Elgar - Cello Concerto - Jacqueline du Pré / Barenboim / Philadelphia Orchestra

Sublime perfection.

 

[Templeton]

Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is my all-time favourite, with Carlos Kleiber's recording with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra being as close to perfection, as is possible, in my eyes. His DVD performance of the same symphony, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is also up there.

I am also very partial to Wilhelm Furtwängler's recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Lucerne Festival, in 1954, although many prefer Karajan's 1963 recording, which is also very fine.

 

[ArtMusic]

 

[Heliogabo]

Haydn, piano sonatas
Alfred Brendel

 

[david johnson]

Pines of Rome, Reiner/CSO

 

[Celloman]

Wanda Landowska - Scarlatti keyboard sonatas

Is this perfect? Close enough.

 

[hpowders]

Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring Suite, Leonard Bernstein, NY Philharmonic. Definitive.

 

[elgar's ghost]

I'll nominate Boulez's recording of Berg's Lulu. OK, there haven't been too many recordings of it and I confess to not having heard them all but I've a gut feeling that the Boulez could be something of a yardstick and not just because he gives us the Cerha completion of the third act in the wake of the death of Berg's widow.

Concurrence would be welcome and disagreement equally so.

 

[hpowders]

Charles Ives Concord Piano Sonata, Easley Blackwood. Definitive.

 

[brotagonist]

I'll nominate Boulez's recording of Berg's Lulu.

Concurrence would be welcome and disagreement equally so.

I concur :tiphat: Verily, there aren't many options with Cerha's completions, but Stratas is perfect! I used to have the old Böhm recording on LP (an incomplete version), but the characters didn't come to life for me until I heard the Boulez recording.

 

[hpowders]

Brahms Symphony No. 1 Charles Munch/Boston Symphony. Perfect.

 

[hpowders]

So how is "perfect" different from "definitive"? Seems like we've done this recently already, but no worries, as you can see above, I'm playing!!!

 

[brotagonist]

I usually stay out of discussion about definitive recordings, because you get the usual politics about all the legendary greats that cannot ever be surpassed, eg., piano has to be Gould or Perahia or Argerich, etc. It is a dominating conservative taste that bulldozes any other options into insignificance. Others don't know what they're talking about. Okay, it's true, I'm not a musician, but I do have decades of listening experience based on discovery, not on toeing the line. I think (most of the time) there are many great performances that all have something to offer.

Perfect sounds more subjective, with room for opinion and personal taste.

 

[hpowders]

Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony. Boston Symphony/Charles Munch. Perfect/Definitive.

 

[Woodduck]

I hate to admit it, but I can find nothing lacking in Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and George Szell doing Strauss's Four Last Songs. If there is anything to criticize, I don't want to know about it.

 

[Pugg]

​

Puccini : Turandot
Soloist, orchestra, recording, second to none

 

[brotagonist]

Gasp! Mehta did another Puccini!? I just got a Fanciulla.

 

[aajj]

I don't know if one set of Mozart's symphonies can be called definitive but Walter & the Columbia Symphony Orchestra on nos. 35 - 41 comes pretty close.

I've read a quote from Schubert about the G Minor Symphony: "You can hear the angels singing in it." Whether or not this quote is accurate, it perfectly describes the Andante of Walter's interpretation.