Top 5 Classical recordings
5 top goto composers (for me): 1) Mozart 2) Beethoven 3) Bach 4) Tchaikovsky 5) Mahler Nothing too shocking there, right? Top 5 recommendations for a newbie: 1) any good compilation of Leroy Anderson tunes 2) Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Ballet 3) Beethoven Pastoral or Choral Symphony 4) Mozart Ein Klein Nachtmusik 5) Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor 6) Smetana "The Moldau" from Ma Vlast |
For a single recording to hook most newbies, the soundtrack to the original Disney movie "Fantasia" is still perhaps the single best place to start. Fantasia. |
My favorite Mahler is Symphony #3 (#4 is probably second). My favorite performance is one I recorded off radio back in the 80's by the Oslo Philharmonic. This is a recording one locks oneself away with for a while to soak in and truly experience. That may not be available on CD, not sure, but performance by Bernstein and NY Philharmonic as well as others more readily availble are also quite good. Mahler can be a tough listen at first. Often not for newbies but there is a lot to soak up and be affected by in his Symphonies over time. I am still in-process.... TO me, Leroy Anderson is the place to start for classical music. Mahler is at the other far end of the journey, which can be quite extensive. |
The 3rd was my incarnation with Mahler. I used to record 6 hour chunks of public radio to VHS Hifi back in the 80's. One day, I fell asleep while listening to 1 such tape but something I was hearing woke me up mesmerized in some kind of half dreamlike state. It was the opening movement of that Oslo Philharmonic performance of the Mahler 3rd I had recorded off of WLRH in Huntsville, Ala. I lay there mesmorized for a good 90 minutes or so and when it was done felt a spiritual cleansing of sort had occured. This was my conditioning to make a goal to soak in as much Mahler as I possibly can handle in my lifetime. Mahler is not something I would listen to regularly though in the same way that I would limit my time riding a roller coaster. Dvorak, Sibelius Shostokovitch and Stravinsky would probably be my personal 6-8 choices in my list of favorite go to composers. A lot of Dvorak and Sibelius is quite digestible for a newbie. Shostakovitch and other better known 20th century composers a bit tougher to digest often. |
A music server helps to keep track but getting metadata right for classical CDs specifically to facilitate ease of access is somewhat time consuming compared to other genres. Automated services often do not do a great job tagging Classical albums so manual effort is involved to keep things up to date and consistent. 90%+ of my non classical CDs get tagged automatically pretty well by Windows Media Player automatically prior to ripping whereas only a minority of classical CDs do not require any manual editing prior to ripping. Some do not tag at all and info must be entered manually. There are probably other tools/services that handle classical CDs better I believe. |
"One suggestion is the recent release of Mercury Living Presence: The Collectors Edition (Ltd. Edition). The sound is superb, the price is ridiculous, and there is a lot to like (or ignore). . . although early music is still not part of the package." YEs, I bought this recently and agree 100%. No better single place to dive right in for a better price! Dorian label is one of my prime gotos for quality early music recordings. |
I can't argue Bach as perhaps the greatest and most prolific composer in terms of quantity, quality, and mass appeal. A lot of lovely classical music up until the later 19th century tends to be somewhat homogenous, ie more similarities than differences. THings started to become much more differentiated around the time of Mahler (who has been an initially under-appreciated, belated trend setter in recent years) in the latter 19th century. Similar to the trend with jazz that started in the post WW2 era through today. Great for variety and art in general, bad for mass appeal, just like modern day progressive rock. |
