# Pick ONE CD



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

I've been thinking about the optimum length of lists people should be giving in the "favourite recordings" and "favourite composers" threads and I have come to the conclusion that the best number would be _one_.

Why? Because those threads don't actually achieve much other than light-hearted conversation. They don't actually educate us about the _best_ because it's all a matter of taste. But the pretence is there.

So I want to try a different kind of discussion with you lovely folks. I want to dig deep into your little brains and find a musical experience that actually _means_ something to you, rather than ask you for some heartless list.

So, I'm asking you to pick just _one_ CD. I want it to be a CD that is close to your heart. An album that you had a special experience with, or an epiphany, or some other magical moment that you'll never forget. It doesn't have to be your favourite, it doesn't have to be the best, it just has to tell a story that means something to you.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Well it was year 2000 and my friend had lent me a CD he had of some pornography he ripped off the internet. Now, at age 10, I had never seen it before and it was quite a life chang-...OH! you meant MUSIC CD! oh god I'm terribly sorry for that. I'm going to have to think about this a little more.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

An eye-opener for then-new (to me) aesthetic, magical experience which draw me deeper into opera and started my great love for my favourite tenor, Franco Corelli - from the first time I've heard him at his first aria in this opera: _Meco Altar di Venere_, I knew this was discovery.






Yhe aria starts at 3:14


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

violadude said:


> Well it was year 2000 and my friend had lent me a CD he had of some pornography he ripped off the internet. Now, at age 10, I had never seen it before and it was quite a life chang-...OH! you meant MUSIC CD! oh god I'm terribly sorry for that. I'm going to have to think about this a little more.


I've only seen two posts by you so far today, violadude, and I am already convinced that you have been possessed by Aramis.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Never mind, forget it.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)




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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Polednice said:


> I've only seen two posts by you so far today, violadude, and I am already convinced that you have been possessed by Aramis.


I have been possessed by the gods of sugar intake! It should wear off in a few hours and I will indeed be back to type some more lucid answers.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


>


I'm glad to see that you finally came to your senses and joined the dark side of the force, HC :devil:


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

I'm kinda torn between Bernstein's first New York Mahler 2, Berglund's first Sibelius 3, and this one, but I think this one slightly edges out...










...purely because it continues to amaze me in the same way it did well over a year ago. It was my second real experience with Bruckner (the first being Klemperer's record of the same symphony), and it opened up a completely new way of conceiving music for me, the details not only being important but an integral part of the entire large structure. But the first thing I remember of this CD was the extraordinarily rich sonority of that orchestra. Several moments individually left me awestruck, but the real epiphany was at the end of the whole symphony, which was absolutely staggering. The way I was used to codas working in symphonies--that is, the Mahler/Beethoven way of a furious, triumphant, mercurial explosion--was completely overturned in its patience and level-headed intensity, culminating in the return of the first theme in such a way that I realized it was the only way the symphony could end, the only way the overall structure could justify itself.

So yeah, fun times with Bruckner.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Ho-Hum. Another day, another post plugging 1966 Böhm.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I think no matter what CD you pick, you're eventually going to want something different sooner or later.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

violadude said:


> I think no matter what CD you pick, you're eventually going to want something different sooner or later.


Doubt it. I've been breathing air for many years now, and it has never occurred to me to want something different.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

I've listened to most tracts of that version of _Tristan_. Damn fine.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Couchie said:


> Doubt it. I've been breathing air for many years now, and it has never occurred to me to want something different.


You might if there were any other reliable source of oxygen available to us.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Any CD I hold against my left breast is close to my heart.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

violadude said:


> You might if there were any other reliable source of oxygen available to us.


But there isn't.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Since some people have posted complete operas - which I assume is more than one disc? - this double album below recently paid no small part in opening up guitar repertoire, esp. for the solo instrument, in a big way. I can go into it in depth, but I plan to write about it soon somewhere else, eg. the solo guitar music thread. Suffice to say that it's given me the guitar bug quite a bit, & I've gone back to a composer that influenced Castelnuovo-Tedesco a lot, who was none other than Luigi Boccherini...










A bit of a side comment below, but I'm not ranting (for once!) -



Polednice said:


> ...
> So, I'm asking you to pick just _one_ CD. I want it to be a CD that is close to your heart. An album that you had a special experience with, or an epiphany, or some other magical moment that you'll never forget. It doesn't have to be your favourite, it doesn't have to be the best, it just has to tell a story that means something to you.


I like that open kind of flexible, natural question. Much more inviting than the usual "what's THE BEST recording of xyz?" Those kinds of questions often end up not being a real question at all, or at least more like rhetorical questions, asking something where you already have a set answer. What's the point of that? No point in that for me, anyway...


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I do not think our Count Schwein is saying you can only listen to that one CD hypothetically, but only list one CD in our list of favorite, best, recommended, memorable, favorite underrated work by an Antarctic composer in Cb minor, or whatever.

Very well. Mine would not be a classical CD.

But assuming it had to be classical, I would choose Volume 8 of Andras Schiff's recent settings of the Beethoven piano sonatas. Vol. 8 contains the last three, the greatest in my opinion, of Beethoven's output, and Schiff's interpretation does not get in the way of hearing these masterpieces. The No. 31 with the astonishing fugue movment never fails to raise goose bumps on my arms and send a chill up my spine.


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## DavidMahler (Dec 28, 2009)

have to go with 2 (sorry to break the rules)


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

starthrower said:


> Any CD I hold against my left breast is close to my heart.


...or maybe same could be said for the Ligeti recording on your avatar?...


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Tough question. Bach remains my absolute favorite composer... and the first classical composer by whom I purchased my own recordings. The first was a recording on LP of the Brandenburg Concertos performed by the Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra (no longer in print) and the second was a recording of the Cantatas no.s 140 and 57. I was absolutely enthralled with this record and it resulted in converting me into a Bach fanatic for life. It was the Cantata 140 that immediately drew me in. The opening choral was absolute splendor.















It was the duet between the Bride and the Bridegroom that completely seduced me. The interplay between the violin and the two vocal soloists was absolutely delicious. I find Koopman's version is a bit slow... lacking the fire... the urgency that I recognized in that first performance and which led me to clearly recognize how Bach had perfectly captured the erotic as well as the spiritual aspect of the narrative... rather like the Biblical Song of Solomon or Bernini's _Ecstasy of St. Theresa_... but it seems to be the best I can find on the net.















This was followed by the exquisite choral, _Zion hört die Wächter singen_ sung here by Peter Schreier, the singer by whom I first heard Schubert's _Winterreise_... another epiphany:






Much as I love Schreier's romantic version, this time Koopman's is much closer to the original intention IMO:






***********continued**********

(too many images/videos for one post)


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

The second duet was nearly as entrancing as the first... although this time more playful and joyful. Part of this was owed to the shift from the violin accompaniment to the oboe, no doubt:






And Bach knew fully well how to conclude such a work... with a powerful chorale for choir... brief... but just long enough to wrap up the entire experience and return it to the realm of the unquestionably spiritual.






As with the Brandenburg Concertos recording, this LP has been long out of print and now I swear by Gardiner's recording. If I were forced to select a disc that is actually still in print, I would need to second Couchie and go with Wagner's Tristan und Isolde... although I would be doing so so with Herbert von Karajan's recording:










Tristan und Isolde was the first opera I listened to in its entirety... on an LP borrowed from the library. I was immediately enraptured and captured by the icily sensual prelude and I could not get enough. I still can't.


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## Llyranor (Dec 20, 2010)

Henryk Szeryng performing Bach's partitas and sonatas for solo violin. There's just something about them that just opens up another world for me, and introduces me to emotions I didn't know I had. Whether it's to wake me up in the morning, or to relieve stress at the end of the day, this really helps me forget about any worries I had. This would easily be my 'desert island' CD pick.

I guess it's cheating because it has 2 CD's, but then I'd just have to make do with whichever one has the 2nd partita on it.


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## pjang23 (Oct 8, 2009)

Nänie and Symphony No.4. Especially Nänie.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I listened to it many times before we were forced to part. Now a compressed version of it exists on my hard drive. After taking a few exciting months to get to know William Schuman's 3rd symphony on a later Bernstein recording, I discover this one, crisper, more powerful and altogether more direct and coherent. Came along with an improved version of the String Symphony(from the Gerard Schwartz recording I knew), and the dark, dark, and nebulous 8th symphony. The third symphony was my life in August.

Alright, back to being away.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I'll go with this one. I've mentioned it several times lately. The story is: I picked it up for some random reason in some CD shop somewhere. Had no idea what I was getting. Then I listened to it 3 or 4 times, and thought, "Meh."

Then one night it was on the playlist - I fell asleep but woke up in the middle of the night and there was this beautiful music playing. I stayed laying down for several songs, but they were so beautiful, finally I had to get up to see what it was. It was this, of course.

Since then I have loved it more every time I've heard it.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

science said:


> I'll go with this one. I've mentioned it several times lately. The story is: I picked it up for some random reason in some CD shop somewhere. Had no idea what I was getting. Then I listened to it 3 or 4 times, and thought, "Meh."
> 
> Then one night it was on the playlist - I fell asleep but woke up in the middle of the night and there was this beautiful music playing. I stayed laying down for several songs, but they were so beautiful, finally I had to get up to see what it was. It was this, of course.
> 
> Since then I have loved it more every time I've heard it.


What is it? Either I have gone half-blind through the night, or the image is too blurry for me to decipher the names.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Polednice said:


> What is it? Either I have gone half-blind through the night, or the image is too blurry for me to decipher the names.


You're right, the image is terrible.

The English title is "Savina Yannatou sings Manos Hadjidakis." I suppose it says something like that in Greek as well.


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

I can think of at least half a dozen albums that moved me emotionally to a very high degree at some time in the past, but I can't think of one that did it more times than this one.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I enjoy all the pieces on these recordings, but approximately half of these piano works effect me in a very strange way... moving my emotions profoundly and taking me far away to distant places and other times, its a hard thing to explain but Rodrigo's piano music hits me in a very deep way.


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## Rangstrom (Sep 24, 2010)

Bjoerling/Merrill duets (first on LP, later on cd)...so incredible that I try not to listen to it more 2 or 3 times a year.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I've always had a special place in my heart for the Vegh Quartet's recording of Beethoven's Quartet Opus 132. It's miked close to the cello, and I feel like I'm sitting next to him and eavesdropping in on four wise old men sharing their wealth of experience.


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## teccomin (Mar 21, 2008)




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