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for ken

15th March 2004 permanent link

Ken of Alien Landscape, who I linked to last week, says in an email “I’ll be checking your site for more classical music pointers”. I have no idea what Ken already likes or listens to, but if he wants recommendations I shall now reveal my utterly boring and predictable immaculate taste in Classical Music Recordings I Would Not Want To Be Without.  Expect no surprises.

  1. Beethoven: Symphony no.3 "Eroica". Furtwängler/Vienna Philharmonic 1944 recording
  2. Beethoven: Symphony no.7. Carlos Kleiber / Vienna Philharmonic (their recording of no. 5 on the same CD is more famous but I prefer the 7th)
  3. Beethoven: complete string quartets. Hungarian Quartet 1950s mono recordings
  4. Beethoven: String Quartet no.9, Rasumovsky 3. Smetana Quartet 1960s recording
  5. Mozart piano concertos. Alfred Brendel /  Neville Marriner / Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields
  6. Mozart Requiem Mass. Neville Marriner / Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields
  7. Schubert String Quintet. Stern / Katim / Schneider / Casals / Tortellier
  8. Brahms Violin Concerto. Kremer / Bernstein /  Vienna Philharmonic
  9. Shostakovich String Quartets. Original Borodin Quartet recordings
  10. and, since we might as well have ten, I have the feeling there must be a recording of the Bach cello suites out there somewhere that I would really, really love but I haven’t found it yet. (*)

UPDATE: I can’t believe I forget to mention the Elgar cello concerto (du Pré / Barbirolli).

The astute reader will have noticed that I know nothing about opera and very little about Romantic music. I don’t care. Here’s an attempt at a couple of fractionally less obvious picks:

  1. Haydn Seven Last Words. Borodin Quartet
  2. Smetana String Quartet  no. 1. Juilliard Quartet
  3. Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures At An Exhibition. Fritz Reiner / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

(*) of course, a half decent classical search engine, given the first 9 on the list and the fact that I’ve listened to Casals, Fournier and Tortellier and they haven’t blown me away, would be able tell me which recording of the Bach cello suites I actually would like.

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