Classical Music - Where do you look to find the best recordings?

[kfr01]

Originally Posted by jprice

You want to find the best recording of a particular piece of classical music.

Where do you look?

Julian, I ask you and the other wonderful participants in the 'classical' thread on audioaficionado.org.

[Still-One]

Originally Posted by jprice

1. I usually just enter the name of the piece into Amazon - but dozens of selections may come up - and you have to look through the user reviews for each recording. Effective but takes time.

2. Stereophile and The Absolute Sound have extremely good reviews and you can find many of their recommendations on line.

3. The HP/TAS lists - great recommendations, but many are years out-of-date and won't include recent recordings.

4. Dozens of great books (guides) on Classical Music. Many are frequently updated and are a good source for recommendations. The Penguin Guide to Classical Music is particularly good but is expensive. It is updated every year and you can pick up a year old copy on Amazon for about 15% of new cost.

5. And my favorite source for "professional" recommendations is the British on-line shop "Presto Classical". Includes mostly British magazine and book reviews, but the Brits do love their classical music and have excellent magazines covering the stuff. Their website is Presto Classical - Buy classical CDs, opera CDs, & DVDs online . On the upper left column is the heading Browse. I usually click "Composers and Works" and you will be directed to world of reviews for almost everything you want to find.

Julian, I would add Hi Fi Plus and Hi Fi News out of the UK to your list. I must say that since Hi Fi Plus was purchased by TAS the magazine which was the best English language audio magazine available is slowly going down hill.

Jim

[bart]

Originally Posted by tima

One of the many inputs I use is the ArkivMusic Web site. In general I've found recordings they label at least to have decent and sometimes excellent sonics and often satisfying performance. Sometimes they will have quotes or annotations from various music reviewers (eg, ClassicsToday, Gramaphone, etc.). Of course there is no assurance I will like the music or performance, but I have found recordings so identified more likely to please than not. Again - one of many inputs - if I hear or read 'good things' about a recording and see a 10/10 label on Arkiv that ups the odds. Arkiv has the best interface for locating records I've used.

SA-CD.NET is another such site. They do not sell, but do point to Web pages across the world - often to various country specific Amazon sites - where a recording can be found for purchase. (Can save alot of time for a hard to find disc.) And they have reviews from people who have heard the recording and rate both performance and sonics. As an example, I would give this Reference Recording 5 stars all around - possibly the best demo/compilation I've heard in terms of selection, performance and sound. Check out Matthew Arnold's Padstow Lifeboat - a tune Arnold wrote for the commissioning of the boat in 1967 - what a wonderful little ditty - love the trombones and the attempt to recreate a foghorn. (I don't have the SACD, but have used the CD/HDCD dating back to when I had a Parasoundf HDCD capable unit.)

I admit (confess?) to being 'enough of an audiophile' that top quality sonics are important to me and likely to increase my enjoyment of any recording, so I appreciate comments about that as well as conductor, musicians, performance, history, etc.

Recommendations from my fellow classical lovers on this forum - thank you so much - are a wonderful resource!

More great tips!
Thanks!

[AudioNut]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Julian, I would add Hi Fi Plus and Hi Fi News out of the UK to your list. I must say that since Hi Fi Plus was purchased by TAS the magazine which was the best English language audio magazine available is slowly going down hill.

Jim

Thanks very much, Jim.

I heartily agree with the HiFi News - a great source for both music and equipment reviews - usually with an honest sense of credibility.

HiFi + . . on the other hand. . . I used to subscribe to the print version and enjoyed it's honest appraisals. Stopped subscribing because it was too expensive for what I received.

I currently have a "download" subscription and often forget to even download it because I no longer find it very "interesting". Too bad, it was a great magazine.

[AudioNut]

Originally Posted by tima

One of the many inputs I use is the ArkivMusic Web site. In general I've found recordings they label at least to have decent and sometimes excellent sonics and often satisfying performance. Sometimes they will have quotes or annotations from various music reviewers (eg, ClassicsToday, Gramaphone, etc.). Of course there is no assurance I will like the music or performance, but I have found recordings so identified more likely to please than not. Again - one of many inputs - if I hear or read 'good things' about a recording and see a 10/10 label on Arkiv that ups the odds. Arkiv has the best interface for locating records I've used.

SA-CD.NET is another such site. They do not sell, but do point to Web pages across the world - often to various country specific Amazon sites - where a recording can be found for purchase. (Can save alot of time for a hard to find disc.) And they have reviews from people who have heard the recording and rate both performance and sonics. As an example, I would give this Reference Recording 5 stars all around - possibly the best demo/compilation I've heard in terms of selection, performance and sound. Check out Matthew Arnold's Padstow Lifeboat - a tune Arnold wrote for the commissioning of the boat in 1967 - what a wonderful little ditty - love the trombones and the attempt to recreate a foghorn. (I don't have the SACD, but have used the CD/HDCD dating back to when I had a Parasoundf HDCD capable unit.)

I admit (confess?) to being 'enough of an audiophile' that top quality sonics are important to me and likely to increase my enjoyment of any recording, so I appreciate comments about that as well as conductor, musicians, performance, history, etc.

Recommendations from my fellow classical lovers on this forum - thank you so much - are a wonderful resource!

Thanks very much Tim.

I have often found myself on both of these sites; but failed to look any further than the information I was seeking.

Needless to say, I'm surprised and pleased to find, thanks to you, that both offer a lot of in-depth information, and are great resources for identifying the best in recorded music.

Julian

[Robert_Anderson]

Sometimes, Julian's reccomendations, and I have yet to be disappointed......

[AudioNut]

Originally Posted by tima

I admit (confess?) to being 'enough of an audiophile' that top quality sonics are important to me and likely to increase my enjoyment of any recording, so I appreciate comments about that as well as conductor, musicians, performance, history, etc.

Tim, I think I said something similar to this earlier in this thread, and I am in complete agreement with you on this point.

I know in my heart and soul that many of the very best conductors, orchestras, singers, and performances were from the days before High Fidelity Stereo was even invented.

I am absolutely sure that some of the very best performances ever recorded were conducted by Arturo Toscanini, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Serge Koussevitzky, Artur Rodzinski, Albert Coates, Felix Weingartner and many others from the first half of the 20th century, but the old monaural recordings, many made with very basic recording techniques, just don't sound very good to me on my modern equipment, so I don't and won't play them.

And, I also know that the greatest operatic tenors ever were probably Enrico Caruso and Jussi Björling, but I can't make myself listen to them because the fidelity of their recordings is so poor.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I, too, am an audiophile who loves classical music and want whatever I buy to sound good as well as be good.

And, good reviewers can help me to weed out things that I just wouldn't enjoy listening to.

[miziq]

What about this one:

BEST SOUNDING RECORDINGS

Almost all are classical records.

[radio times]

There are always the standout recordings which everyone knows, most of which are on Miziq's list; The Solti Ring, Karajan's Beethoven symphonies, not to mention his Madame Butterfly with Pavarotti and Freni, and many others. The hardest thing is choosing opera DVD's, unless there is a standout director, like Ponnelle. With piano concerto's, you can trust the Russians, and a host of others, so it's an easier choice.

[Pider]

Miziq? Looked online, but got confusing replies. Is this person someone at Head-Fi?