Three Classical Sacd's on a desert island


If you could only take 3 Sacd's or 3 Cd's to a desert island for the rest of your life what three would you take?
zilla
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Only 3? Very difficult and unfair. I guess it would be:

1. Mahler Symphony no.2, probably the Bernstein version, though on SACD it would be Litton/DSO or Tilson-Thomas/SFO

2. Bach--Brandenbergs, as Warren--probably Pinnock's version. Always need Bach.

3. Durufle and Faure Requiems (Shaw's old Telarc version, which has both of them).

This list could change daily, of course.
For the sake of tossing three out there which I think are great and are currently at the top of the "recently played" pile (and which have tended to stay up there despite owning them for a few years...)

Classical
1) Benjamin Britten - Suites for Violoncello, played by Peter Wispelwey (Channel Classics)

2) Prieres sans Paroles - French Music for Organ and Trumpet Hardenberger & Preston (Bis)

3) Bach's Goldberg Variations, played by Glenn Gould (Sony)

And Three Jazz Favorites (I know, I'm cheating)
5 By Monk By 5, Waltz for Debby, Cookin', and all the others I can squeeze into 3 jewelcases after I take the innards out...
Rcprince:

I have Litton's Mahler 2nd. Tell me about MTT's. How does it compare to Litton, performance- and sound-wise ?

Steve O.
Sonically, I think the SFO recording is a little more focused in its image specificity and clearer sounding, particularly the chorus--more a matter of the recording engineer's mike placement and Delos' mixing in of the ambient channels, possibly? I feel, in the two-channel mix, the offstage brass and percussion sounds better, more like it's offstage, in the Delos recording. Dynamics are about equal, though in the "cries of anguish" in the third and final movements the Delos sounds a little compressed compared to the SFO recording. I don't have a surround processor, so can't comment on multi-channel. Interpretively, I guess it's a toss-up. I do like a good deal of the Litton quite a bit, particularly the third and last movements (and the organ pedals at the end of the piece are more noticeable in the Litton); other movements maybe the Tilson-Thomas is more to my liking. Soloists are about equal, I think the SFO chorus is a little better, particularly in the high womens' voices. I think that the clearer sound on the SFO recording makes the smaller, less loud wind and string passages that are under the main melody a bit more noticeable, which I think is important to get the full context of Mahler's music. Tempos are similar, though Tilson-Thomas does the first movement faster at the start. I'm glad I have both to listen to, ultimately, as well as the old Bernstein.