# The TC Top 100+ Recommended List of Classical Music Recordings



## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

The TC Top 100+ Recommended List of Classical Music Recordings (as inspired by TurnaboutVox's post on string quartets list)

Premise for this thread: Newcomers to the classical music world have a hard time figuring how what to start with when it comes to collecting. With thousands of recordings at hand, I figure that TC members here can collate a wonderful list of recordings that would be a good starter kit for people to begin their CD/vinyl/download collection.

- The TalkClassical members with a wide variety of interests and experiences can reach a consensus on the top recordings in the classical music world.
- This process should lead to some interesting debate and discussion regarding the performances and sonic quality of these recordings.
- This list is meant for both newcomers and long-time classical collectors who are looking for an extensive list of necessary recordings.
Note: These lists are not definitive or official by any means and please do not interpret them as such.

Those of us who run this project understand and respect the fact that not all of us enjoy lists and polls, but we ask that you refrain from criticisms here in respect for those of us who do.


Round 0 - Pre-Nomination Discussion

Before the nomination rounds begin, let's first start with comments, questions, and suggestions. We would like everyone to contribute to this process as all of your opinions are valuable to the end result of this forum recommended list and it is also an effective way to gauge expected participation for the remainder of the project.

We must agree on the requirements for works to be nominated. Here are the proposed requirements:

- Recordings which have classical music in its nature
- Recordings which are arguably classical (e.g. Terry Riley) are subject to further discussion here on TC.
- People should list their recordings by Title of recording, performer(s), label, and date if known.

Please feel free to comment on these requirements as they are not set in stone. Also the length of the list is usually determined by the interest and participation of TC members. If we reach 100 works, and enough people wish to continue, we can extend the number past 100 (hence the "100+").

Suggestions for works can be found here, however the works on those lists must still meet the above requirements to be eligible. If you are not sure if a recording is eligible, it is best to ask now.

Voting Process

To those new to the voting process, we normally do a two-step voting process and build up the list 10 works at a time. This allows people to continually review works as the project goes along instead of voting for everything in one shot.

First round is the nomination round where people can nominate up to 10 works. The top 10 works from the nomination round become the next 10 works on the list, though their final ordering is determined by the second round.

Second round is the voting round, where people vote for their five favorites of the top 10 works from the first round. This is so that all voters can have input in the final order.

The scoring method is as follows:

Nomination round:

The points are determined by the ranking of each work as it was initially nominated. 15 points for the work in first, 14 for second, 13 for third, and so on with the tenth work receiving 6. This method is to weigh in both the ranking and the number of times the work was nominated. So, a nominated work that appears first on three lists would beat out a work that is nominated tenth on 7 different lists.

Voting round:

The scoring is quite similar for the voting round with the works receiving 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3 points in the respective rank that they are voted in. The last work in the voting round will receive 3 points no matter what, so if a vote has only 3 works listed, than the works will receive 5, 4, and 3 points, respective to their order. Again, the reason behind this method is to create a balance between the number of times the work is nominated and its rank.

Honorable Mentions:

At the end of the project, we also like to keep a list of honorable mentions containing every work that was nominated but didn't make the final list. Hence in the very last nomination round we give people 20 votes instead of 10 to collect more recommendations. Even if some of your works do not make the final list, your input is valued.

The first round will start on Tuesday December 16, 2014 (Kandinsky's birthday) once everyone has had enough time to listen and brainstorm their selections.

And finally, all participants are welcome to join! Please don't hesitate to ask questions and let the fun begin! Big thanks to TurnaboutVox, Trout, mmsbls, and Air for establishing the standard format for this list, and to TurnaboutVox, pjang23 and arcaneholocaust whose introductory remarks I have adapted from their art song and chamber duo lists earlier this year.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

*Nomination Round 1 is now open. You may nominate up to 10 works in this round. Please list them in order of preference.

The first nomination round will close on January 31, 2015 during the evening at 24:00 Mountain Standard Time.*


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

A very ambitious idea, but may present some difficulties. One such issue is that a lot of recordings are more than one disc, but often purchased as a set - for example Karajan's '63 Beethoven Symphony Cycle do you consider that as 1 recording?


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

tdc said:


> A very ambitious idea, but may present some difficulties. One such issue is that a lot of recordings are more than one disc, but often purchased as a set - for example Karajan's '63 Beethoven Symphony Cycle do you consider that as 1 recording?


Yes, box sets are to be considered as a single recording. However, compilation albums should not be allowed. For example, the complete solo recordings of Martha Argerich on DG should be considered as its separate albums.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Well, I like this idea! But probably we should discuss a bit what to include or not. Re-issues are to be included?

For example, we had









and









Both out of print now, re-issued as:










I'd pick up the original recordings in that case, although they are no longer available


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

tdc said:


> A very ambitious idea...


Yes -- I'm not sure what the value of such a list would be, if intended for "newcomers" to classical. If such people are not yet familiar with the repertory, they most likely will not be all that concerned with recordings.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I like the idea, even though it is rather ambitious. And contentious.

I've got a CD of Jacqueline duPre performing the Elgar and Dvorak. I've seen other people here on the current listening display a disk, LP or CD I'm not sure, that has the Elgar performed by DuPre and Elgar's Sea Pictures. 

CDs get reissued with different pieces of music together on the disk. What do we do in this case? And as mentioned, LPs get reissued as CDs that can hold more music.

I suggest that a nomination could be for a particular piece of music performance. So a nomination is for half a CD in some cases. 

And in this new age of downloading, many people only download a piece of music, not everything on a CD.


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## Guest (Dec 18, 2014)

I will participate (if possible) for the heck of it if we ultimately decide to move forward, but I personally feel it this is too ambitious. On the performance end, you could at least narrow it down with top conductors, orchestras, or labels.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

arcaneholocaust said:


> I will participate (if possible) for the heck of it if we ultimately decide to move forward, but I personally feel it this is too ambitious. On the performance end, you could at least narrow it down with top conductors, orchestras, or labels.


I am of the opinion that this isn't too ambitious. Gramophone and Penguin used to have an yearly compendium of recordings so I feel that this can be done.

Plus this would be a wonderful guide for those starting out trying to find definitive recordings to listen and collect.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I thought it was a bit daunting suggesting Composer of the month and organising that, but that was child's play compared to this.
I will participate as it will make me think about what I nominate and perhaps listen again, which is never a bad thing. However I do take the points made above about discs with more than one composer, reissues and box sets.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Some possible alternate ways of doing this, that might make things easier would be either breaking down the list into eras - ie. Early Music recordings, Baroque, Classical etc. 

Or doing a preliminary vote on favorite composers and once we have a list of TC members favorite composers doing separate lists for each composer.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

tdc said:


> Some possible alternate ways of doing this, that might make things easier would be either breaking down the list into eras - ie. Early Music recordings, Baroque, Classical etc.
> 
> Or doing a preliminary vote on favorite composers and once we have a list of TC members favorite composers doing separate lists for each composer.


This would be a cool idea to have eras. Not sure how to execute it this way however. I am working on my personal top 10 recordings at the moment and will post it up hopefully by the end of this week after Xmas.


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