Classical Recording Recommendations?

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shrink

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is there any definitive source of information regarding recordings, labels and performances that give some kind of idea of whats worth buying.

Im trying to get back into classical, and want to start buying a lot more, but find it incredibly confusing trying to pick stuff.

For example. I wanted to buy the complete beethoven sonatas. Which is typically spread over 9 discs. But there are perhaps 5-6 different major label versions, from varying performers and covering different prices.

Same going for many other pieces i would like to buy.

Any information would be very useful.
 
shrink said:
is there any definitive source of information regarding recordings, labels and performances that give some kind of idea of whats worth buying.

Im trying to get back into classical, and want to start buying a lot more, but find it incredibly confusing trying to pick stuff.

For example. I wanted to buy the complete beethoven sonatas. Which is typically spread over 9 discs. But there are perhaps 5-6 different major label versions, from varying performers and covering different prices.

Same going for many other pieces i would like to buy.

Any information would be very useful.
Click to expand...

Oh dear!
Almost impossible question. In music, there is no such thing as definite. Because, in the end, only your own personal taste is decisive. :)

Let's try something, though:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/publications_detail.asp?pub=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Guide_to_Compact_Discs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Grove_Dictionary_of_Opera

Hope this can be of any help!
Good luck!
 
shrink said:
is there any definitive source of information regarding recordings, labels and performances that give some kind of idea of whats worth buying.
Click to expand...

Definitive? No. Marc is quite right though - the various CD guides are good places to look. Compared with the Penguin Guide, the Gramophone book features longer, more in-depth reviews, but of a much more limited range of recordings. It depends what you're after - I tend to be a bit of a browser / bargain-hunter, rather than going out to buy the best recording of a particular work, and generally I find the Penguin Guide much more useful because once you've found a cheap CD you're much more likely to find information about that particular recording in Penguin.

The other thing about Penguin is that, because it's the work of a small group of people, it's got a reasonably consistent editorial style and you'll find that after a while you tend to realise where and how your opinion will diverge from that of the authors. Gramophone has a much larger range of reviewers who all have different tastes and prejudices.

Gramophone also has an online archive, which is free to use (or it was the last time I checked, anyway!).
 
shrink said:
is there any definitive source of information regarding recordings, labels and performances that give some kind of idea of whats worth buying.

Im trying to get back into classical, and want to start buying a lot more, but find it incredibly confusing trying to pick stuff.

For example. I wanted to buy the complete beethoven sonatas. Which is typically spread over 9 discs. But there are perhaps 5-6 different major label versions, from varying performers and covering different prices.

Same going for many other pieces i would like to buy.

Any information would be very useful.
Click to expand...

For an objective view of the sonatas I'd go for Pollini; a much more expressive set is Brendel's first version for Philips. But then this an opinion. My favorite version is perhaps Kempff's mono set.

You might, say get the Brendel 'favourite sonatas' or the 'late sonatas' records (Philips duo) and see if you like it; then if the style suits you, go for the entire set. There often is no such possibility of trying with many major players.

Most people I know like Brendel. Less people like Kempff; perhaps still less like Pollini... Difficult choice.
 
I ended up with the Brendel 2 disc sonatas set on philips...

I like many of the pieces, but theres an extremely high degree of background hiss on some of the sonatas, thats makes the piece come across slightly muffled.

I actually had a Barenboim set of Sonatas which i wanted to replace for the same reason.
 
I think I have the Moonlight sonata single somewhere, beautifully played by Walter Gieseking.
 
Arrau is slow and seemingly very deep. Very interesting, very moving, but a somewhat reducing view of Beethoven. That's what I think, but if you favour the deep, distant roaring of a thunderstorm in Beethoven (which I think is quite alien to his music), Arrau is your best bet.

Beethoven was a vulgar man, I often think of him as having dirty nails, a sharp comment, and a mean personality. And yet he could, better than any other post 17th Century composer, see into the infinite. A genius in every sense of the world. But too much of his vulgar personality appears through his music for my taste.

This has to be the most inflammatory post ever in this forum...

Now shoot at me. :rds2::gatling:
 
Glenn Gould recorded many Beethoven sonatas, that could be an interesting combination. I intend to check them out. Has anyone heard them?
 
bat said:
Glenn Gould recorded many Beethoven sonatas, that could be an interesting combination. I intend to check them out. Has anyone heard them?
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He did it by contradiction: he played them awfully because he did not like them :rolleyes: Typical spoilt brat behaviour.

No one took my offensive remarks about Beethoven seriously... :(
 

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