Your 5 most favorite albums in classical music

Any suggestion, would really appreciate your feedback.

For me it can be difficult to separate the disc from the music, but here goes.

Julian Bream playing Granados/Albeniz/Rodrigo on RCA Navigator.

Vernon Handley and the Liverpool Phil - Vaughn Williams Sea Symphony. Also Symphony 5 and Flos Campi.

Solti - Beethoven Symphony 8.

DuPre/Barenboim  - Elgar Cello Concerto.

Anybody playing the Bach Cello suites!

Do not buy the above on CD. It is the worst CD I've ever heard. I almost threw it out of the car window.

In a way this is more or less impossible, because classical music is only rarely conceived in album sized loaves. Elgar wrote some late Suites that were indeed conceived as albums of 78s as much as concert pieces, though they have continued in the concert hall long after the original recordings have almost completely faded into oblivion! Thjese have actually been re-released on CD this month on EMI, along with all of Elgars Electrical recordings made between 1926 and 1934 for HMV.

There are miscellanies or music that are assembled for LPs or CDs that constitute an album that is as memorable for itself as for the music that is contain.

There used to be an album on LP called Becham Lollipops, which contained about fifteen quite rare [some of them] favourites of Sir Thomas Beecham, and these are all given delightful performances, with the LP programmed as perhaps the first half of a nice concert.

As for any given recording of a classical piece, it is crucial to remember that none of them are definitive in any real sense, including those by the composer. On occasion the degree of authoritativeness is easier to define. Performances by composers, or composer's close associates. Stuart ?Bedford is authoritative in the Music of Benjamin Britten for example as is Britten himself, though others are just as persuasive.

But if I say Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, then anyone is at liberty to choose from perhaps fifty great performances in recordings, and probably 200 very fine ones.

We all have our favourite performers, and our favourite music, but answering this is next to impossible as such, for me at least for the reasons mentioned in this post.

ATB from George

Off the top of my head -

Ben Britton - Ben Britton War Requiem (Decca)

Beethoven - Klemperer/Philharmonic Orchestra Symphony No 6 (Pastoral) (EMI)

English String Music (Elgar and Vaughan Willams) - Babirolli/Sinfonia of London )EMI)

Schoenberg/Webern/Berg - 5 Pieces for Orchestra - Dorati/London Symphony (Mercury)

Josquin Des Prez - Masse Pange Lingua Phillips/Tallis Scholars (Gimmell)

Tomorrow It could be Baudo's Orchestral Debussy works, Karajan's Mahler 9th, Klemperer's Schubert 9th, Hoeprich/Bruggen Mozart Clarinet Concerto, Aldo Ciccolini's Satie...

Too many choices...

regards,

Giles

Starker, Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello (Mercury)

Heifetz, Bruch Scottish Fantasy (RCA Living Stereo)

Maag, Mendelssohn Midsummer's Night's Dream (Decca/London)

Cantelli, Beethoven Seventh Symphony (EMI)

Solti, Wagner Das Rheingold

All on vinyl. It's hard to pick just five.

Here's a top 5 five, all classical albums I love and hopefully some accessible but less "obvious" choices that will enrich your journey.

Olly

F

Can't fix five most favorite, but can definitely suggest five of my favorites ... enjoy!

Fred, you've mentioned un coeur en hiver before so I've just ordered it seeing that Amazon marketplace has a copy. 

Nice to see you are still partaking in the forum, I have many a prized album in my collection thanks to your good self. 

My pleasure, Mr. Sloop. I think you're gonna really love those late-period Ravel pieces ... more austere than, say, Daphnis et Chloé. Not that there's anything wrong with Daphnis et Chloé! (insert emoticon here)

Kathleen Ferrier singing arias from Bach and Handel (Decca) vinyl

Janos Starker playing Kodaly cello sonatas (Delos) CD

Macolm Arnold conducting his own dances (Lyrita) vinyl / CD

Pau Casals Bach cello suites (Naxos have done a good job) CD (old LP too worn and irreplacable)

Clifford Curzon playing Schubert piano sonatas (Decca) vinyl

Hmm, this actually quite hard.

Lynn Harrell - Cello Concertos on the Angel label from the mid 80's (fabulous LP, great recording)

Motets of Thomas Tallis - The Clerkes of Oxenford (Seraphim LP), the Spem in alium for 40 voices (8 choirs of 5 voices) is quite well done.

Robert Shaw - The Stowkowski Transcriptions (Chandos LP), the Bach Tocata and Fugue in D is like no other.

Felix Mendelsohn - Fingal's Cave and Hebrides Overture on CD

Julian Bream & John Williams - Together, simply great classical guitar from the two Masters.

Well, despite having a lot of valuable early Decca SXLs, EMI ASDs, Columbia SAXs, Mercurys and RCA Living Stereos, this one would be the one I would save from the fire.  A definitive performance of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and the classical LP that hooked me into everything else;

But then again, there's always this one.  Monteux's mastery of ballet music comes into it's own here with perhaps the most sublime rendition of Dorabella.

Not 5 choices, but too many other close candidates for me to make any definitive choices.