Wondering what your favorite live cd's are? Sonic wise....
Interestingly, in classical music, some live recordings are not done in front of an audience/concert. Off top of my head.
in front of audience, I think of
Shostakovich 5th, Bernstein/NY in Tokyo I think*
Stavinsky stuff, M.T. Thomas/SF in SF.
something I lost a long time ago, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3 Horowitz/Ormandy/Philly, but they actually edited.., my guess is that the virtuoustic cadenzas were part of that... but who knows!
not in front of audience
Bunch of Beethoven sym's Gardiner/O.R.R.
Brahms' 4th, Bernstein/Berlin
I think all above are excellent sonic wise, mebbe the Brahms not up to par. Maybe I should delete that.
Jazz is real tough to find excellent sonic-wise, live, at least for me.
Only one with good SQ I can think of is Stephane Grappelli's 85th bday concert at Carnegie Hall.
cheers.