# Best Romantic period recordings?



## doriangray (Jun 5, 2008)

Hi all, 
I just started listening to classical music quite recently and am quite stymied by the depth and breadth of recorded classical works. One piece will have some three to five recordings and I can't afford more than two of them if I want to listen to more than just the one piece! 
So, with that in mind, what are some of the best recordings of Romantic and post-Romantic era music? Particularly those of Chopin compositions? I considered simply buying a few "complete works" box sets but considered that, if better recordings were out there, I wouldn't be able to afford those in addition to the box sets.
Thanks for your help.


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

the 'brilliant classics' label has very affordable box sets.
naxos also has great recordings at fine prices.
chopin? i really like the preludes. you can get them on one disc. mine is ashkenazy.

dj


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Get Rachmaninoff's recordings of him playing his own music. It's inspirational and not as far removed from Chopin as it could have been.


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## Rachovsky (Jan 5, 2008)

IMO, Rachmaninoff's own recordings aren't as good to me as the Ricther, the Horowitz, or the Bronstein... It's probably the sound quality that really annoys me the most though..

I own Maurizio Pollini's recording of Chopin Etudes, but the same etudes by Andrei Gavrilov cost like $6.00 and are just as good. It's all on iTunes. iTunes sells everything cheaper than Amazon and especially the stores, so I will recommend downloading iTunes [for free] and sampling through their 30 second samples of each piece. Check out Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 (coupled with Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1) by Sviatoslov Richter. You could also look at Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, performed by Anton Rubenstein. Both are good recordings.


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## opus67 (Jan 30, 2007)

Hello, doriangray. Welcome to TC!



doriangray said:


> Particularly those of Chopin compositions? I considered simply buying a few "complete works" box sets but considered that, if better recordings were out there, I wouldn't be able to afford those in addition to the box sets.


I think most will agree that, given your situation, you can't do better than buying this
http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Collec...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1212651916&sr=1-1


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## BuddhaBandit (Dec 31, 2007)

Welcome to TC, doriangray! I hope you're not as totally narcissistic as your namesake 

I definitely second Opus' recommendation for Rsubenstein Chopin set. It's really great.

If you want to focus on piano works, I would highly recommend one of Alfred Cortot's Schumann discs, Alfred Brendel's recording of the last three Schubert sonatas, Horowitz's recording of Mussorgsky's _Pictures at an Exhibition_, and Krystian Zimerman's recording of Liszt's B Minor Sonata. You might also want to get a copy of some of Rachmaninoff's works for piano and orchestra (the concertos, Rhapsody, etc.); Vladimir Ashkenazy is good with these.


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## CML (Sep 10, 2006)

Hello Dorian Gray, 

I like Artur Rubinstein for Chopin.

I have a recording of Rachmaninov's third piano concerto with Andrei Gavrilov on piano,
conducted by Riccardo Muti with the Philadelphia Orchestra that knocks my socks off. 
The same team made a recording of Rachmanincov's second piano concerto. Just as good.
Also, Eugene Ormandy did a great job with Rachmaninov's symphonies ( also conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra ). 

I could go on and on but I'll leave you with that for now.
Good luck and good listening !


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## YsayeOp.27#6 (Dec 7, 2007)

CML said:


> I have a recording of Rachmaninov's third piano concerto with Andrei Gavrilov on piano, conducted by Riccardo Muti with the Philadelphia Orchestra that knocks my socks off.


Gavrilov is amazing!. During a performance, if he feels like speeding up, he is just unstoppable.






(Take a look at how André Watts plays the same piece, also in Youtube).


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