Spectacular Classical Recordings

tkingen

tkingen

Djembes Rock
Not sure if this is posted in the correct forum, but it seemed like a good bet... I'm looking for classical CD's that sound spectacular. Great performance, great recording, any period, but mainly interested in late romantic and 20th century. So many of them sound like you're a mile away from the source - it would be great to hear superb recordings from the director's perspective, or at least from the front row.
Any recommendations are appreciated.
 
tkingen said:
...I'm looking for classical CD's that sound spectacular. Great performance, great recording..
.. So many of them sound like you're a mile away from the source - it would be great to hear superb recordings from the director's perspective, or at least from the front row..
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'Subscribing by way of joining in here, with interest.
One of the things that throws me with a lot of recordings is in the desire for a portrayal of realism (the illusion of it at least). They seem to mix the image of an orchestra –at a reasonable distance perspective, yet there include, are the sounds of close detail.
It doesn't work for me. My ear says 'which is it?
 
One of my favorite classical recordings is the Telarc Digital recording of Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, with Joseph Silvertein featured at first chair, and doing an absolutely incredible job of it. It's an early 80's CD release that tends to sound more analog than digital (I'm not sure if it was released on vinyl first or not), so it doesn't have quite the sharpness and digital transparency of today's best digital classical recordings, but it's still a trademark Telarc release, and the combination of incredible performance and Telarc "digi-log-ish" sound makes it a must-have in any classical catalog IMHO.
 
For choral everything by the Tallis Scholars is great, check out Allegri Miserere, amazing. They have a video called Live in Rome, mostly Pallestrina, you can get it on DVD, hopefully one day on BD, it's incredible for sound.
 
Great suggestions guys, thanks. I recently picked up Valery Gergiev's interpretation of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring with the Kirov Orchestra. Very detailed and finely recorded performance. Also enjoying Zappa's Yellow Shark with Ensemble Modern. He must have had mics all over the stage for those performances.
Buzzard, the choral works sound interesting. I love the sound of blended voices and reverb hanging in the air like a halo.
Southside, I'll definitely check into Ozawa's Vivaldi interpretation. Amazing how different conductors can make a well known piece sound different.
mixsit - you are funny! I like all the approaches and view them as a different animals. For now I do want the up close clarity of individual instruments, or sections of instruments, so am looking for those type of recordings. The 3-D effect of standing directly in front of the musicians rather than the blending of distance listening.
 
tkingen said:
Southside, I'll definitely check into Ozawa's Vivaldi interpretation. Amazing how different conductors can make a well known piece sound different.
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Ozawa has been one of my favorite conductors for a while now. And he doesn't miss with Vivaldi. But the real star in this recording is the featured first chair violin by Silverstein; the guy just rocks it.

And if you like the early 20th century stuff, there's a DVD that's fantastic of Ozawa with the Berlin Philharmonik doing "A Gershwin Night" in an outdoor venue, with Marcus Roberts on piano and Jason Marsalis on drums. The ultimate combination of jazz and classical that Gershwin dreamed of, and a great Ozawa performance.

G.
 
Jaqueline Du Pre doing Saint-Saens's Cello Concerto #1 Op33 with The Philadelphia waved at by her old man in 71 is a fav for me from the Teldec CD (857385340-2). The same disc also has her under Celibidache & the Swedish Radio Symph doing Dvorak's Cello Con Op 104 which is a much older recording at 1967 but quite lovely.
By the '71 she was beginning to suffer so it's also a snap shot before the decline which has an impact on my imagination that influences my ears.
I particularly enjoy the brief moments when her cello almost has a distorted guitar tone she's wailing at it so hard.
I'd love to find a good recording of Schoenberg conducting his own Pierrot Lunair - I had it on LP in the late 70's & I loved it. I think it was a DG release - regardless sounded pretty fabbo on our old Chrysler stereo/livingroom furniture system.
Vic's Req is swamped in room sound & Hilde's a reverb junky!
Sorry - had to HR a bit. They both sound ethereal, lush, and I'd love to bung them on the CD player for a serious listen.
I do enjoy the aggressive passion in the pieces and playing on the JDP Cd though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ijSrsu8aMs
Around the 2.15 to 2.40 mark & again at about 5.04.
Not a GREAT capture but a performance that steps beyond the limitations.
 
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rayc said:
Jaqueline Du Pre doing Saint-Saens's Cello Concerto #1 Op33...
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I'll have to look that up.

What is it, do you think, that makes a well-recorded cello so easily attractive to the human ear? Is it the lack of harsh midranges?

G.
 
There are many who believe that the cello is closer to the human voice than other instruments and that the attraction lies there. I wouldn't know - I'd be embarrassed to ahve to look at a freq. chart to find out - my ears should tell me but don't.
For me: I don't know. I'm primarily an electric bass player so perhaps it's the similarity in range. I do know that as a kid I liked the sound of cello as it appeared in a whole lot of Baroque psych pop from the late 60's. I really became interested when I saw a film concert of Du Pre, Pearlman et al doing Trout on the television.
 
rayc said:
There are many who believe that the cello is closer to the human voice than other instruments and that the attraction lies there.
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Hmmm...I've not heard or considered that before, interesting thought. I'll have to sleep on that (bedtime here.)

At the risk of over-repeating myself from another current thread, have you heard the recording of Yo Yo Ma on the soundtrack to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"? Just the sound of the recording itself is almost enough to put a lump in your throat.

G.
 
Photo Jan 08, 9 59 44 AM.jpg

I feel fortunate to have found this in a box in the back of a record store and in excellent condition.
The flute is sitting feet away to your left, but at the same time this is a very good recording of the room.
 
I thought it was some sort of backward engineered 4 channel/Quad thing.
I have a couple of JVC 4 channel amps & would love to find a 4/quad t'table some day & plastic to go on it!
When I was a teen a mate of mine had the quad Dark Side of the Moon - it spun me out.
I've recently acquired a DVD of the original Alan Parsons Quad mix (with a very minor tweak to put something in the sub being that most surround sound speakers don't cope with bass) which is pretty cool & only a little gimicky. I'll have to hook the DTS player up to one of the 4 channel amps and find out what it sounds like closer to the intended format.
 
Here's an interesting experiment.
CASALS BACH SUITES for CELLO Vol 1 MONO CDH-7 61028 2 & Vol 2 CDH-7 61029 2 EMI Great Recordings of the Century Series Made in USA.
I just recieved a pair of CDs I ordered at the end of 2010: Pablo Casals doing the Bach Cello suit.
2 discs built from the material recorded between 1936 & 38 in ABBEY ROAD Studios, London & Somewhere in Paris. I'll find out just where in Paris when I have a chance to read a litle more.
Mono recordings that were Digitally REMASTERED in 1988.
I look forward to hearing these 2 discs because a) they are the 1st recordings of the suite and Casals in renowned for his discovery of & defining interpretations of the suite. & because it was these recordings that brought about a reappraisal of Bach - previously considered an stuffed shirt, academic, serious, passionless composer better know for his organ playing.
Oh, because it's good music too!
I'm also interested in the SOUND.
1936 recordings for a start. Abbey Road pre Beatles & Martin for a follow on & the remastering done relatively early in the transfer of catalogues to disc to finish.
The levels of "loudness" will be interesting - how would it fair remastered today particularly if the RME were concerned to signal/noise ratio of the original source? Are these form the original tapes? The amount of incidental noise also - Casals referred to mics as metal mosters because of the "other" sounds they amplified.
I'm also interested in my reaction to the sound. I LOVE the folkways/Smithsonian recordings of Leadbelly & can't imagine him sounding any other way - ie: I forgive the actually poor sonics because of the nostaligia, limitations, appropriateness of the sound based on my listening history (78s, 45s, LPs miniLPs, R2R, Cassette, CD, various dig audio media).
Will I con myself on this one? Will the performance, as in Leadbelly, J Du Pre as mentioned previously, overcome the format problems? are there format problems - to NR or not to NR etc etc.
I'll let you know.
 
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