Classical Music - Check this out!!

Amazon reviews can be like Yelp restaurant ratings -- all over the place.

What is "best" always has a subjective element. You’ll find plenty of disagreement among Classical music lovers. 

I’m not a serious classical fan but for decades I undertook an exploration of Jazz.  

I bought a guide to Jazz CDs then proceeded to use spotify to listen to what was recommended to see what I wanted to purchase. 

With Classical, where you will encounter multiple recordings of single composer’s work, you’ll want to listen to several versions to discover what you like. I’ve done this with a handful of Classical solo piano recordings I own.

A quick Google search on "Classical CD buying guides" brought up numerous books. 

Not sure if they’re available online, but both Stereophile and The Absolute Sound rate all types of music by both performance and recording quality (or I know at least Stereophile rates recording quality), which I find to be super helpful.  They also have some special features like “Records to Die For” and others that I’d think would be well worth searching out.  Hope this helps. 

Thanks guys!

I'm most interested in Bach recordings. Classical is the highest form and Bach is  the tops.

Any recs would be greatly appreciated.

I'll check it on spotify.

Goldberg Variations by Beatrice Rana is my go-to Bach. Music choice, performance and SQ. It has gotten some great reviews as well. 

Hi Klimt,

There are many of us here who also like Bach. I like his keyboard music on piano. Murray Perahia playing the Goldberg Variations is my favorite. In fact, Perahia playing any Bach is good. My choice for the Well-Tempered Clavier is Angela Hewitt. I'm also a big fan of Vikingur Olafsson's playing. He has a recording of the Goldbergs, but I suggest you also look for his recording of Bach's shorter works. Olaffson's recordings by DG are excellent. Finally, I especially like Gavrilov playing the French Suites.  Good luck and happy listening!