Favorite All-Time Recordings

[allegroamabile]

Nash Ensemble (Michael Collins- clarinet) playing Brahms's Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115: The interpretation in this performance is impecable.

Aline Kutan- saprano, Andre Moisan- clarinet, and Louise-Andre Baril- piano playing Schubert's The Shepheard on the Rock: Andre Moisan has a really sweet tone that is very idiomatic for this piece and Kutan's voice is fantastic.

Niels Thomson- clarinet with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under Michael Schonwandt playing Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto: I have many recordings of this piece and this sticks at the most due to its energy and liviliness.

London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras playing Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 in D major: The musicianship of the LSO's players is wonderful and Mackerras's interpretation of this piece is impecable as well.

Ricardo Morales- clarinet, Jasper Wood- violin, and David Riley- piano playing Bartok's Contrasts: The technique and musicianship of Ricardo Morales is astonishing.

Sabine Meyer playing Weber's Clarinet Concertos, Concertino, and Quintet: Sabine Meyer has great technique and is musical but takes some parts way too fast.

Ronald van Spaendonck- clarinet and Alexandre Tharaurd, piano playing Poulenc's Clarinet Sonata: This performance has a great deal of intensity and energy.

Sharon Kam playing Spohr's Clarinet Concerto No. 4: Kam's flexibility as a clarinettist is very apparent here.

and more...

[sbeckmesser]

I have literally hundreds of all-time favorite recordings. But off the top of my head one that is both a favorite and nearly perfect in all the principal criteria -- interpretation, sonics, production -- is Solti's recording of Der Rosenkavalier, one of my favorite operas. It also has the inestimable advantage for the IMSLP score reader of being note-complete. There are only three other uncut commercial Rosenkavaliers (conducted by Haitink, de Waart and Erich Kleiber), all of which suffer in at least one of the criteria above. The original LP issue of the Solti was worth purchasing for the elaborate libretto alone: it featured full-color reproductions of the original 1910 set and costume designs and an outstanding essay with musical examples cued to the libretto. If you can find the LP cheap with an intact libretto, it is well worth buying. All the graphics and text have been unfortunately abandoned in the recording's various CD reincarnations (there have been three at least).

--Sixtus

PS: Just checked on Abebooks.com and there's some bookstore in England selling just the libretto of the Solti recording for more than $30. Copies of the original 50-page 1910 publicaiton of the Roller costume and set designs are selling for more than $8000. At around $160/page, THAT is a prime candidate for uploading to IMSLP. It is certainly PD in the USA.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchR ... er&x=0&y=0

[Melodia]

I have literally hundreds of all-time favorite recordings.

Me too.

And none of them are of music by Spohr.

[vinteuil]

My sentiments exactly, no offence.

If there had to be one, it would be easy: DFD and Gerald Moore doing Schubert Songs (Starting with Die Schoene Muellerin, then Winterreise, Schwanengesang, etc.)

[allegroamabile]

And none of them are of music by Spohr.

What's wrong with Spohr? He is much better than Mahler, huh Perlnerd666?

[sbeckmesser]

And none of them are of music by Spohr.

And none of mine are of music by Rachmaninoff, my bête noire. That said, there are several recordings of the Symphonic Dances that I do like. But they don't meet my all-time-favorite criteria.

--Sixtus

[Sergeï]

My sentiments exactly, no offence.

If there had to be one, it would be easy: DFD and Gerald Moore doing Schubert Songs (Starting with Die Schoene Muellerin, then Winterreise, Schwanengesang, etc.)

Those are indeed fabulous. Off the bat, a few of my all-time favourite recordings of all time would be:

- The Barenboim/Klemperer interpretations of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto and Fantasia for piano, choral and orchestra
- Giulini's Don Giovanni
- Otto Klemperer's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
- Bach's Mass in B by Klemperer
- Brahm's 4th Symphony and German Requiem by Klemperer (you'll have guessed by now I'm something of a Klemperer fan)
- The Solti/Katchen interpretation of Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto
- Fedoseyev's Boris Godunov
- Maurizio Pollini's interpretation of the Sonata Appassionata (the studio recording, not the live one)
- Karl Böhm's Requiem of Mozart


I could go on forever, but those few are really, to me at least, all as close to musical perfection as one can get.

[juleswinger]

How Do I Live, Trisha Yearwood
I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston
You Light up My Life,Debby Boone
My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion
Will Always Love You,Dolly Parton

I hope you like one of them..

[sbeckmesser]

I've always had a soft spot -- in my heart -- for Dolly Parton.

--Sixtus

[Lyle Neff]

I've always had a soft spot -- in my heart -- for Dolly Parton.

--Sixtus

Just a week or so ago I was listening to her early album Just Because I'm a Woman. Some great stuff there.

[Philidor]

This always hits the spot.