# Favorite Recordings



## Sofronitsky

This thread is simple and most likely there have already been variations of this.

Post your favorite recordings, not ubiquitous great recordings which everyone feels obligated to love. You may also want to give a little description as to how this recording has affected you. In this way, we will see everyone's unique tastes and also have some nice new listening on Spotify or whatever you all use to listen to new music 

I'll start with one of my favorites, and probably chime in with a few more later. I am eager to see what you all post!

*Sviatoslav Richter: Liszt, Transcendental Etude No. 11; Urania*
_To me, this recording represents Sviatoslav Ricther's art perfectly. There is no injected emotion in the pianisimo first minutes of the piece, just a natural structure and a humble, yet beautiful tone. The passages leading to the climax are expertly navigated with reverence to the score. At the climax, an intimidating but not inappropriate earth shaking sonority is delivered carrying the piece to it's resolve._


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## science

I'm sorry this thread didn't take off. Hopefully more people will wander over and notice. Meanwhile, I'll contribute one too.










I worry that this is a bit cliche, but I'll put it up here anyway. I heard this when I was first beginning to listen to classical music, and it was new. The Crumb blew my mind. I had not imagined that music could be that way, and it has had an affect like that for many other people. It was also my first Shostakovich, who became one of my early favorites, and his chamber music remains probably my favorite of any 20th century composer's - the 8th string quartet in particular. This may not be the "best" recording of either work in some people's opinion, but they are both played undeniably well, and even if you prefer another recording this one is indispensable. Finally, the transposition of Tallis' Spem in Alium for string quartet is worthwhile. I sometimes prefer it to the original, but I know that is heresy. If I ever get to hear the original live in a cathedral, I'm sure I will not be tempted by the string quartet version!


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## Ukko

Another Richter, this one from the Spring in Prague set/series. November 1956, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. An exquisitely controlled buildup of tension, in which the promenades are not interludes but rather parts of the process. The climax doesn't occur in the 'Gate', it is reached earlier (you will know when you get there). This climax doesn't end abruptly, as it would it were during the Gate, it is prolonged, spreading and in a way going 'into solution' in the mind, remaining there well beyond the end of the performance.


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## Taneyev

Tchaikovsky's piano trio by Gilels, Kogan and Rostropovich, live in the 50s. Each time I listen to it, it move me to tears. I try not to do it too often. It's too strong emotionally. Can't listen nothing more that day.


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## Sofronitsky

Hilltroll72 said:


> Another Richter, this one from the Spring in Prague set/series. November 1956, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. An exquisitely controlled buildup of tension, in which the promenades are not interludes but rather parts of the process. The climax doesn't occur in the 'Gate', it is reached earlier (you will know when you get there). This climax doesn't end abruptly, as it would it were during the Gate, it is prolonged, spreading and in a way going 'into solution' in the mind, remaining there well beyond the end of the performance.


If some other people don't start posting, this might turn into a Richter appreciation thread... I just acquired that recording of 'Harmonies Du Soir' on vinyl by the way!! I am so excited to listen to it when I can afford a record player.

Also, Shostakovich 8 is one of my favorites too, but by the Emerson Quartet. They're one of the best quartets of all time!


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## bigshot

What if our favorite recordings actually include the ubiquitous recordings we're all supposed to love?


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## Taneyev

Horowitz's Pictures live, 1950. Nobody can better that, and nobody can play like him. Absolutely extraordinary.


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## Ukko

bigshot said:


> What if our favorite recordings actually include the ubiquitous recordings we're all supposed to love?


Means your tastes are 'common' (or maybe 'unsophisticated', if the writer/speaker favors the extra syllables). I don't listen/read any further, but it's possible that there are exceptional instances, maybe if the work is performed by gerbils?


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## Sofronitsky

Throwing out Horowitz bootleg of Scriabin's 5th Piano Sonata. Raw and brutally powerful playing of this sonata, almost terrifying!

56:52


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## abel

I try not to do it too often. It's too strong emotionally. Can't listen nothing more that day.


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## Ukko

Sofronitsky said:


> Throwing out Horowitz bootleg of Scriabin's 5th Piano Sonata. Raw and brutally powerful playing of this sonata, almost terrifying!
> 
> 56:52


I think there is also a bootleg cassette recording of the work (in rather desperate sound) from one of his recitals, famous among the Horowitz buffs.

When mini-disc digital recorders came out, from-the-audience bootlegs gained a lot in quality - too late for prime Horowitz though.


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## Fiorentino

Ignaz Friedman's performance of Chopin's Nocturne in E flat, Op.55 no.2.






I have never found words to express the elegance, sincerity and poetry in his playing. If there's any recording which exemplifies what I love most about music making, this must be it.


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## bigshot

Odnoposoff said:


> Horowitz's Pictures live, 1950. Nobody can better that, and nobody can play like him. Absolutely extraordinary.


That's a phenominal performance, but that's one of those ubiquitous classics we're all supposed to love!


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## Taneyev

OK, what about Oistrakh's recording (1947) of Ernst's Othelo Variations?


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## abner

I think there is also a bootleg cassette recording of the work (in rather desperate sound) from one of his recitals, famous among the Horowitz buffs.


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## Sofronitsky

Odnoposoff said:


> OK, what about Oistrakh's recording (1947) of Ernst's Othelo Variations?


That's fine! And that Horowitz isn't really uncalled for anyway, though this threads purpose is to either share favorite performances by little known musicians or little known favorite performances by famous musicians.

Rachmaninoff's recording of the Beethoven C minor Variations! A few variations are missing, but it is still one of my favorite Beethoven interpretations of all time.


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## Taneyev

"Kreutzer" Heifetz-Moiseievitch
Brahm's third sonata, Milstein-Horowitz
Brahm's the 3 violin sonatas, Boris Goldstein
Paul Ben-Haim solo violin sonata, Francescatti
Hidemith's third SQ, Amar-Hindemith quartet
Brahm's third sonata: Paul Kochanski-Rubinstein
Schubert's Death and the Maiden, early original Budapest (before the Russian invasion)
Sergei Taneyev's piano quintet; Rosa Tamarkina and Bolshoi Theatre quartet
Josef Holbrooke's clarinet quintet: Reginald Kell-Willoughby quartet...
Can go on for hours.


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## Rangstrom

The Pears, Tuckwell, Britten Serenade and the Barbirolli Mahler 6th are two recordings that I've revisited lately that I find overwhelming.


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## Badinerie

Horowitz in Moscow. The Rachmaninov an Scriabin pieces just...even now just writing about them makes me a little Breathless...and speaking of breathless...Nilsson Salome Solti....Decca FFSS. The first time I heard this through changed my whole world musically speaking. I was 24 and recently divorced when I was introduced to Strauss Opera's The memory of the beautiful music and a woman wearing nothing but white cotton gloves to turn the LP's over will stay with me forever.


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## realdealblues

These are the recordings that I always come back to and have probably listened to more than any other.
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