Recommend a classical compilation

[vlad335]

Like the title says. I have DVD-A's and SACD's sounding pretty good on my system right now so it's time to get something to play in the classical realm. Unfortunatley, I am not very well versed in classical music and not sure of what to buy.

I would like to buy a compilation or two to start and go from there. Any recommendations for SACD's/DVD-A's that sound fantastic and are preferably multichannel.

I have a few purchases from Acousticsounds in the past month and would most likely buy from them as they are great to deal with and the stuff is shipped fast. They do list recommendations on their site but I don't have a clue of what the music/sound quality is like.

Very interested in what Audioholics members recommend.

 

[pzaur]

Not DVD-A or SACD, but well worth the listen.

These two would be my first recommendations for a new listener -

Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherezade
http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=3393751&title=Rimsky-Korsakov:+Scheherazade,+etc+/+Masur,+New+York+PO

Dopper Symphonies 1 & 2
http://www.chandos.net/details05.asp?CNumber=CHAN 9884

The Lt. Kije Suite is great on this recording. The rest of the music can be a little overbearing and intense.
Prokofiev - Scythian Suite and Lt. Kije Suite
http://www.iclassics.com/productDetail?contentId=1355

Mahler Symphony No. 5

This is also a great site to peruse when looking for classical music recordings or recommendations:
http://classical.net/

-pat

 

[vlad335]

Thanks Pzaur!

 

[muncybob]

Do you have a library nearby?? Our has a very large cd collection of classical music. I check them out for a week or two and if I like them I look for them online...I'm not well versed in classical music either so this works well for me!

 

[captain_tinker]

vlad335,
I have also gotten quite a bit into classical music since I started on the SACD/DVD-A path a few months ago. In fact, most of my sacd's are classical so far. Some of them were recommended by the good folks here at Audioholics. Here are some that I have enjoyed so far:

Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture (Telarc)

Bach - The Four Great Toccatta's & Fugues (E. Power Biggs)

Orff - Carmina Burana (Telarc)

Telarc Sampler 4

The sampler is not an SACD or a DVD-A, but a regular CD. It has however an incredible sound on my system. They do have some sacd samplers however from Telarc that are also probably very good. Check them out at Telarc.com.

I really like the 1812 Overture album, not just for the actual 1812 Overture, but for some of the other music on it as well. The Marche Slave, and the Capriccio Italien were very well done, and sound great in an SACD setup. You can actually get that disc on DVD-A too, but it costs a little more than the SACD.

The Bach Toccattas and Fugues are amazing! The sound out of that disc even on my very simple and small setup is just incredible! I can only imagine how it will sound once I get a subwoofer in my home! Anyway, I hope that this is a good start for you. Just what kind of classical music do you like anyway? If you have some ideas as to what you want to look for on SACD or DVD-A, let us know, and I am sure someone will know where to look for that certain song, sonata, or concerto or whatever...

-capT

 

[pzaur]

Keep in mind with many of the SACD and DVD-A discs, they were not originally recorded in that format so the sound won't/shouldn't have a noticable difference between the regular CD and the "upgraded" one. The only real difference is that they remixed the CD recording to send the sound to the surrounds. I personally just use the ProLogic settings to send everything through all the speakers. Then again, my receiver doesn't do SACD or DVD-A

Carmina Burana - SanFran SO and Blomstedt is supposed to be great. I have the recording with Levine and Chicago and love it.

Sibelius is another composer to look at. Great stuff. I love the Valse Triste (Sad Waltz).
Also check out: Dmitri Shostakovich, Johannes Brahms (Symphonies 2 and 4), Aaron Copland, George Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris), Sergei Rachmaninov (Piano Concertos 2 and 3).

You can usually expect a good/great recording with Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic (Wiener Philharmonic - same thing) and so many others. Those tend to be groups the masses flock to for recordings. Of course, each of these groups has put out some real clunkers (Strauss Alpine Symphony w/Chicago - not good...actually...really bad...pathetically bad...painful in places...)

If you love and want to hear some of the absolute best brass playing you will ever hear in your life and can find recordings by this group, get them! Not even a second thought on this:
German Brass - Bach 2000

You will not be dissatisfied with the level of recording or playing. Amazing.
BTW - The group is called German Brass and the album is Bach 2000

A nice site to by classical music at great prices: www.broinc.com
There is a $15 minimum.

-pat

 

[Tod]

Keep in mind with many of the SACD and DVD-A discs, they were not originally recorded in that format so the sound won't/shouldn't have a noticable difference between the regular CD and the "upgraded" one. The only real difference is that they remixed the CD recording to send the sound to the surrounds. I personally just use the ProLogic settings to send everything through all the speakers. Then again, my receiver doesn't do SACD or DVD-A

Carmina Burana - SanFran SO and Blomstedt is supposed to be great. I have the recording with Levine and Chicago and love it.



-pat

Not quite so...when they make a SACD they go back to the master which is recorded at a higher bitrate than the CD transfer. So there will be a difference, although they may not be as high resolution as something recorded for SACD specifically. I don't know about that...

And yes Blomstedt's Carmina Burana is an incredible recording. I've got a couple others and none of them come close. The London/SF Symphony pairing was a wonder of our age. Buy all the recordings with them.

 

[Rob Babcock]

Do you have a tolerable sound system hooked up to your computer? If so I advise you to go to the Minnesota Public Radio website and click to listen online. I'm sure there's other good internet radio, but MPR is stellar and free. I can't think of any compilations off the top of my head because that's not the way I listen to classical.

What MPR will do is educate you. Listen for awhile and you'll hear a wide variety of composers and eras, and the on-air personalities will discuss the music and give you insights. Most importantly you'll discover which classical styles move you the most. Perhaps you'll find baroque (eg. Bach, Vivaldi, Telleman) to by your favorites. Maybe you'll find the classical era (eg. Mozart, Hydan) more compelling. It may be that the Romantics are more your cup of tea (Rachmaninov, Holst, Dvorak). Are you interested in the Impressionists (eg Debussy, Ravel). Then there are modern styles, like Atonalism.

Do you like orchestral music? There are symphonies and chamber peices. What are your favorite instruments? Violin? Classical guitar? Organ? Or do you prefer voice?

Ah, the human voice...a wonderful instrument. It's hard to listen to somone like Maria Callus or Anna Netrebko and not be moved. Of course, opera isn't easy, it takes some effort to understand. And of course not all classical vocal music is opera. There's a wealth of classical vocal tradition ranging from Gregorian chant to relative modern Leider songs.

I've been in love with classical music for most of my life, but I've only scratched the surface. You're talking centuries of Western musical tradition. I envy you the chance to hear it all with fresh ears!

 

[ruadmaa]

Classical Music Musts

Like the title says. I have DVD-A's and SACD's sounding pretty good on my system right now so it's time to get something to play in the classical realm. Unfortunatley, I am not very well versed in classical music and not sure of what to buy.

I would like to buy a compilation or two to start and go from there. Any recommendations for SACD's/DVD-A's that sound fantastic and are preferably multichannel.

I have a few purchases from Acousticsounds in the past month and would most likely buy from them as they are great to deal with and the stuff is shipped fast. They do list recommendations on their site but I don't have a clue of what the music/sound quality is like.

Very interested in what Audioholics members recommend.

You should most certainly get all of the Beethoven 9 symphonies. Just about any of the Mozart symphonies are terrific, I would recommend 38, 39, 40, 41, but I very seldom hear a Mozart symphony that I don't like.

 

[Tod]

Do you have a tolerable sound system hooked up to your computer? If so I advise you to go to the Minnesota Public Radio website and click to listen online. I'm sure there's other good internet radio, but MPR is stellar and free. I can't think of any compilations off the top of my head because that's not the way I listen to classical.

What MPR will do is educate you. Listen for awhile and you'll hear a wide variety of composers and eras, and the on-air personalities will discuss the music and give you insights. Most importantly you'll discover which classical styles move you the most. Perhaps you'll find baroque (eg. Bach, Vivaldi, Telleman) to by your favorites. Maybe you'll find the classical era (eg. Mozart, Hydan) more compelling. It may be that the Romantics are more your cup of tea (Rachmaninov, Holst, Dvorak). Are you interested in the Impressionists (eg Debussy, Ravel). Then there are modern styles, like Atonalism.

Yes yes yes yes yes!!!! God, I miss MPR. I don't listen to much streaming content online, but if I do it's MPR. I lived in MN for a while and have never seen anything approaching their equal on radio. Not even anything that can be compared. There's MPR, and then there's everyone else.

If you're not strictly classical, try the entertaining and ridiculously eclectic Morning Show. It's on in the morning. No, really. I'm not joking. It is.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/morning_show/

Anyway MPR kicks butt.

 

[captain_tinker]

Folks,
Don't you mean NPR? (National Public Radio)? We have the NPR station here in Sacramento too, pipes in from California State University, Sacramento & University of the Pacific. I like to listen to it periodically on the way home from work to just calm down. Sometimes the NPR news will be on, and that's always interesting to hear.

-capT


EDIT: Doh, I'm a dork, I just noticed, it says Minnesota Public Radio - MPR... oy vey... sorry. -capT

 

[Tod]

Folks,
Don't you mean NPR? (National Public Radio)? We have the NPR station here in Sacramento too, pipes in from California State University, Sacramento & University of the Pacific. I like to listen to it periodically on the way home from work to just calm down. Sometimes the NPR news will be on, and that's always interesting to hear.

-capT


EDIT: Doh, I'm a dork, I just noticed, it says Minnesota Public Radio - MPR... oy vey... sorry. -capT

Actually, I did spend most of my life in the Capitol Public Radio listening area in California. Considered attending CSU Sacramento. The station is OK, good music selection and radio people at least. Better than for instance the ones in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas that I could pick up during a couple of my midwestern years. Tucson's not quite as good as CA either.

The thing about MPR though is that they produce a large number of nationally syndicated classical and other shows, something virtually no other regional NPR affiliate except Boston can compare to. The downside (as some would see it) is that unlike CA, where you can drive a couple hours and be in a different listening area, in MN the radio is statewide with a bunch of repeater stations. Sort of totalitarian in a way, but a very kind beneficious and creative way.

 

[vlad335]

WOW!

I haven't logged on for a couple days... I come back to this thread and what do I find? An absolute wealth of information!

Thanks everyone.

 

[Resident Loser]

Do you have a...

Like the title says. I have DVD-A's and SACD's sounding pretty good on my system right now so it's time to get something to play in the classical realm. Unfortunatley, I am not very well versed in classical music and not sure of what to buy.

I would like to buy a compilation or two to start and go from there. Any recommendations for SACD's/DVD-A's that sound fantastic and are preferably multichannel.

I have a few purchases from Acousticsounds in the past month and would most likely buy from them as they are great to deal with and the stuff is shipped fast. They do list recommendations on their site but I don't have a clue of what the music/sound quality is like.

Very interested in what Audioholics members recommend.

...Wal-Mart, K-mart, Target or any other music retailer near you...I know Rolling Rock makes its' brew down there...

Many classical labels have budget lines which are usually compilations of a specific type, say arias, overtures, marches or segmented by era or instrument...some even packaged as mood music...and there are others like the X amount of "best loved melodies in classical music" that sorta' thing...Also SONY (I think it used to be a Columbia property) has a series called "Great Performances", basically classics of the classics...noteworthy performances from a bygone era performed and conducted by some of the greats in the field.

If you are really serious about getting into classical, do a Google on "the basic repertoire" as there are a number of sites that can aid the novice in making smart choices in beginning a collection and understanding the genre...here's one link:

http://www.classical.net/music/rep/top.html

jimHJJ(...aside from porn and bad recipes, this is one case where the net can actually be worthwhile...good luck and good listening...)

 

[vlad335]

...Wal-Mart, K-mart, Target or any other music retailer near you...I know Rolling Rock makes its' brew down there...

Many classical labels have budget lines which are usually compilations of a specific type, say arias, overtures, marches or segmented by era or instrument...some even packaged as mood music...and there are others like the X amount of "best loved melodies in classical music" that sorta' thing...Also SONY (I think it used to be a Columbia property) has a series called "Great Performances", basically classics of the classics...noteworthy performances from a bygone era performed and conducted by some of the greats in the field.

If you are really serious about getting into classical, do a Google on "the basic repertoire" as there are a number of sites that can aid the novice in making smart choices in beginning a collection and understanding the genre...here's one link:

http://www.classical.net/music/rep/top.html

jimHJJ(...aside from porn and bad recipes, this is one case where the net can actually be worthwhile...good luck and good listening...)

Thanks!

I went to Walmart and picked up a couple compilations. Never knew they even carried these. $5.00 apiece.

I have alot of listening to do.

 

[tomrowe125]

A Beethoven/Minnesota recommendation...

As a Minnesota fan, you may appreciate this... The classical label Bis is about 2/3rds of the way through a Beethoven symphony cycle with Osmo Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra. It's exclusively on hybrid multichannel SACD; and from the reviews I've seen in Gramophone and on ClassicsToday.com, it has been very well received. So far, they've released symphonies 4&5; 3&8; and 9 (which I plan to buy after Christmas). They're priced at $14.99 each on ArkivMusic.com, the outstanding classical-only website where I buy most of my CDs... As a side note, we get a fair amount of programming from Minnesota Public Radio on our classical station, WUOL-FM (Louisville, Ky.). Most of the weekend concerts come from MPR, not to mention the Beethoven Satellite Network overnight with Peter Van De Graff.

 

[allsop4now]

Péter Tóth - Sinistre: FRANZ LISZT - late piano works

This is a hybrid multi-channel SACD released by Stockfish Records:

Stockfisch-Records and Péter Tóth are proud to have been awarded with the Grand Prix International Liszt du Disque 2006 by the International Liszt-Society. The jury elected the SACD Sinistre as the best Liszt-Recording of the year. Péter Tóth, Hans-Jörg Maucksch from Stockfisch, and Dr. Attila Bardosi went to Budapest on Oct. 22nd for the award ceremony.

From the laudatio of the jury: "The art of Péter Tóth is not only characterized by virtuosity, but also by an intelligent process of musical construction, which is the result of a deep spiritual insight in the great masters music. Besides one can enjoy the poetry of music and the large palette of colours and characters obtained through the subtility of his touch."

Edit: Should mention that I have the CD and likes it.

 

[skizzerflake]

I suggest checking into the classical section of www.allmusic.com. They have recommended recordings in lots of types of classics and scads of info on all things musical.

In regard to SACD-DVD-A reissues, I very much recommend the better ones. H-res remasterings of old analog stereo tapes are often much better than the CD versions of those. In some cases (Marcury comes to mind), originals were recorded in 3 channel stereo and mixed to 2 channels for vinyl disks. Those are now available in their 3 channel glory, thanks to SACD and are sonically wonderful.