In contrast to others, I feel that a good (emphasis good) complilation is wonderful means for introducing beginners to any musical genre. For classical, there are two fine recordings from the RCA Red Seal series: Romantic Violin and Romantic Cello. Don't let the title fool you, this is not shmaltzy stuff but rather classical music from the 'Romantic' period. Great perfomances from the likes of Perlman, Ma, Starker, Zukerman, etc. including excerpts from the works of Brahms, Dvorak, Saint Saens, Mendelssohn, Bruch, etc.
Good Classical discs for "beginners"
While i'm far from being knowledgable about Classical music, i just picked up a disc from Best Buy on RCA Victor / BMG entitled "The Only Classical CD You'll Ever Need!". This has 13 different selections from Mozart, Bach, Pachelbel, Vivaldi, Beethoven (2), Mozart, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Rachmaninoff, Wagner and Rossini. The various "tunes" are performed by Artur Rubinstein, Zubin Mehta / NY Philharmonic, Arthur Fiedler / Boston Pops, Eugene Ormandy / Philadelphia Orchestra, Fritz Reiner / Chicago Symphony and Erich Leinsdorf / Boston Symphony.
Quite honestly, it is truly a well put together disc. There isn't one bad cut : ) To top it off, the sequencing of the selections is quite tasteful and lends an overall "flow" to the disc as you listen. I would think that this would be a great intro if someone wanted to investigate various Classical artists and at the same time, listen to the different Conductors / Orchestra's / Symphony's. For those that are interested, it is catalogue #09026-62665-2. Actual selling price was $9.99 + Uncle Sam's cut : )
How about those of you that are well versed in Classical recordings throwing us a bone and pointing us to some other discs that are worth checking out ? Individual performances are good but it would be great if we could get some "samplers" listed also. Sean
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Quite honestly, it is truly a well put together disc. There isn't one bad cut : ) To top it off, the sequencing of the selections is quite tasteful and lends an overall "flow" to the disc as you listen. I would think that this would be a great intro if someone wanted to investigate various Classical artists and at the same time, listen to the different Conductors / Orchestra's / Symphony's. For those that are interested, it is catalogue #09026-62665-2. Actual selling price was $9.99 + Uncle Sam's cut : )
How about those of you that are well versed in Classical recordings throwing us a bone and pointing us to some other discs that are worth checking out ? Individual performances are good but it would be great if we could get some "samplers" listed also. Sean
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