If you happen to not have Beethoven 1 in your collection, and do not want to spring for a set, there are literally dozens of options out there. I think the best bet would be the classic Szell/Cleveland release. Along with a great 6th, there is some great conducting, good energy and good sound.
James Levine had a good run of Mahler recordings in the late 1970’s to the early 1980’s, and even won a Grammy for the recording of the 7th. I also had the 5th, 9th and 4th for years, and have enjoyed these interpretations with the Chicago, London and Philadelphia Symphonies. Sony has issued a barebones box set of all of Levine’s Mahler recordings for RCA. Levine did not record the 2nd or 8th at the time for RCA, and since they…
Roy Harris’ works are not that well known, but as an American 20th Century composer, he created some great works. His Symphony 3 is by far the most popular, and there is a nice recording at Archive.org from 1939. Well worth checking out. There is a good Naxos album of Symphonies 7 and 9, and to be honest I prefer them overall to the more famous 3rd. Harris is somewhat similar to Copland but with a more modern outlook, not…
Russian composer Balakirev [1937-1910] may not be as famous as Tchaikovsky or Glazunov, but his works do have a certain charm to them. Symphony 1 is quite a good composition, with an almost sublime Adagio, and definitely shows the influence of Tchaikovsky. Well worth investigating. Vassily Siniasky and the BBC Philharmonic Orch on Chandos have a good 2 disc set with Symph. 1 and 2, along with the Piano Concerto and some other orchestral works. Basically this is a good…
RIAS: Radio in the American sector in Berlin [after the war] Starting in 1947, RIAS broadcast Furtwangler and the Berlin Philharmonic performing a variety of works until 1954. There were tapes made of these broadcasts, and Audite has made an arrangement to issue all of the available recordings, taken from the original tapes. This was released in 2009, and is by far the best sounding set of performances from Furtwangler from that era. Of course sound quality is relative,…
I seem to be on a Mahler kick these days. After recently getting the Levine and Abravenel Mahler sets I stumbled across another one of those mystery download sets of Bruno Walter conducting Mahler. Many of the older 1940’s-50’s classical recordings have gone out of copyright in the UK, and there have been some MP3 releases on the cheap as of late with sketchy details other than the works and orchestra. These are Walter’s Mahler recordings from the 1940’s and…
Here is another of those unbelievable deals from Amazon. The Bach Guild aka Vanguard Records has released the entire Mahler Symphony recordings by Abravanel and the Utah Symphony for the ridiculous price of $.99. Yep, 13 hours of Mahler for under a buck. If they do like some of the other sets that Vanguard has released, the price will go up to 7-8 dollars eventually, which is still a great deal. I had not heard some of these recordings in…
Symphony No. 1:A survey of the first symphonies of various composers that I have in my collection. While Russian composer Alexander Borodin’s Symphony No. 2 gets all the attention, and sometimes No. 3, the Borodin 1st gets short shrift on a lot of releases. Fortunately RCA put together a Borodin Orchestral set on LP years ago, and the 3 Symphony recordings from that set by Loris Tjeknavorian and the National Phil Orch have been compiled into one CD. Great playing,…
Symphony No. 1: A survey of the first symphonies of various composers that I have in my collection. Swedish composer Franz Berwald [1796-1868] composed 4 symphonies, and Symphony No. 1 Sinfonie serieuse is a pleasant romantic era work, and a good introduction to this composer. The Naxos release is coupled with Symphony No. 2. There are also some CD Set releases of all 4 symphonies that you may want to check out: the BIS release by Ehrling is older but…
Richard Strauss: Orchestral Works – Herbert von Karajan Amazon MP3 Download Version Karajan’s recordings from the 1980’s of Richard Strauss’ symphonic works ranks up there with the absolute best, and DG has put together a 5CD bargain set. All of the big works are here, recorded with ther Berlin Philharmonic. Pretty much every recording here is on my Basic Repertoire list, or as an alternate, so for around $25 you cannot go wrong. All of the major symphonic works are…
What can you get for around 20 Bucks? Well, you can build a great classical collection for that much a month if you know where to look. On occassion I will have a list of downloadable recordings to help you explore the world of classical music, featuring some essential collections and a few bargains. While I am partial to CDs, since you get better sound and liner notes, you can get a better deal most of the time with downloadable MP3s….
Boccherini is not as well known as Hadyn or Mozart, but he was an influential and popular composer of his time, and his set of Six Symphonies are a great find. Similar to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, but with a more classical flair, these works are a nice transition between the Baroque Bach and the classical Mozart. Leppart with the New Philharmonia Orchestra give a satisfying performance on the 2 CD Philips Duo set. Recorded in 1972, the analog sound is…