Recommended Classical?

[BusinessEvolution]

The ABC classic 100 20th Century CD was quite a good buy, lots of great highlights. Mainly use Australian orchestras but do include London and Boston Symphony Orchestras too.

This isn't a classic, but are some of by favorites, no wonder the tv series ran out of budget half way through, they were using a full orchestra for the music lol.
The older movies in the series used an orchestra half the size of that used for the tv series, I found that rather funny.

[daystrom_matthew]

Slowly making my way through this: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Works-Jo ... 612&sr=8-1 very good so far.
So the Mahler equivalent from Hanssler is probably worth a shot: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00026 ... PDKIKX0DER

Right now I'm trying to find this: http://www.amazon.com/111-Years-Deutsch ... 806&sr=1-1 at something approaching it's RRP (~150USD), so if anyone has any ideas that would be awesome. Even $300 would be a damned sight better than the $500 it's going for atm :S

[BusinessEvolution]

The second edition is going for $200.

http://www.amazon.com/111-The-Collector ... pd_sim_m_3

The first edition part 2 is going for $20-30
http://www.amazon.com/111-Classic-Track ... pd_sim_m_4

Thats pretty darn good value for 6 cds XD.

The problem if I buy large collections is the overlap with my current recently re-acquired collection of about 50 cds.

[daystrom_matthew]

The second edition is a different collection of CDs. You can get if from JB HiFi for less than Amazon:
http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/music/cl ... n-2/467499


I'm not interesting the in 6CD sets, given how much good stuff I'd be missing out on. As for doubling up, unless it's the same recording you aren't. Each performance of a piece, even by the same orchestra, is usually quite different from one to the next.

[dc]

The ABC classic 100 20th Century CD was quite a good buy, lots of great highlights. Mainly use Australian orchestras but do include London and Boston Symphony Orchestras too.

goodness, the classic 100 must be making them a bit of money

I remember it being years between releases. now it seems I'm already behind 2 sets! Unless every single track is a newer, modern recording the 10 years on is a bit of a copout. However 20th Century sounds interesting...

[BusinessEvolution]

The ABC classic 100 20th Century CD was quite a good buy, lots of great highlights. Mainly use Australian orchestras but do include London and Boston Symphony Orchestras too.

goodness, the classic 100 must be making them a bit of money

I remember it being years between releases. now it seems I'm already behind 2 sets! Unless every single track is a newer, modern recording the 10 years on is a bit of a copout. However 20th Century sounds interesting...

It even says that unlike the other releases, this one includes 8 Australian recordings, three of which are newish (5 recordings were actually voted into the top 100), the top Australian work is outside the top 100 though. Its interesting that they don't tell you which pieces are Australian and which are classic performances on the outside jacket or on the website lol. Ten years on looks a bit bodgy, doesn't have any Australia pieces its just a newer survey so the track list is a bit different.

It raised my opinion of Australian Symphonies a bit, I thought that the recording of Rachmaninoff Concerto for piano and orchestra No.2 was the same as my London Symphony Orchestra disk but it was actually recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

its a bit annoying that they don't list the orchestra's and conductors for the complete listing of he top 100 list, which would facilitate acquiring recordings other than their own CDs I imagine.

looking at the dates for the actual recordings. Most of the Australian recordings are from 2000-2011, whereas the others are somewhat older 1969-1993,

[Blobby]

........Currently on my list to look for is:

Dmitri Shostakovitch and Peter Tchaikovsky, which I think I saw there thought they were recorded by the USSR Symphony Orchestra (how random old are these recordings lol)
Dvorak (my father was listening to a few of these cds... 6 years ago, so possibly they are there)
Mahler
Franz Schubert
Brahms

Someone recommended Haydn but I don't think i've ever seen any of those cds in the collection.........

From my experience with classical I find to appreciate the newer stuff such as Shostakovitch you really have to go through it in historical order. But that's just my opinion of course. What you've got listed there is roughly in reverse order (you can go further back to baroque and further to renaisasance) but starting at the bottom of your list, give Hyden a wide berth (boring as bat shit) and go for his pupil, Mozart. I'm sure there will be something in the collection but on the whole I found his later stuff to be the best. He wrote an unbelievble amount and it does get very samey after a while. His later piano concertos, violin concertos, wind concertos if you're after orchesteral stuff. His most amazing misic I find to be his last three string quartets.

Brahms is one of my favourite composers. His piano concertos and string concerto are amazing. His chamber music is fantastic too. While you're there in that time period (Romantic) try some Beethoven. Piano concertos, string concerto and of course his symphonies (no 8 is my favourite). His string quartets, particularly his last ones are the most amazing bits of music ever written.

Don't know much about Shubert. Mahler is huge, not my cup of tea but highly regarded. Everything he wrote was three hours long and very loud and heavy.

I've got a fair amount of Dvorak, mainly his string quartets. His cello concerto is stunning.

I have to be in the right mood to listen to Shostakovich. In a way, for a modern composer he's pretty old fashioned in that he'll have easily recognised themes and movements going through his compositions but at the same time it's discordant and complicated which makes it hard to listen too. Thaivosky's a bit meh in my opinion.

As for the age of your recordings, that's a bonus. I gave up trying to find stuff that was recorded in the last 30yrs. If I'd present the dude at the counter of the classical CD shop (alas there are none left here in Perth) with three recordings of a piece and plead with him to recommend me something recent he'd just smile, shake his head point to the 1954 recording. In the end I just gave up. A lot of stuff I've got sounds like it was recorded in a brick shit house with a microphone strapped to the toilet bowl but it doesn't matter. On the other hand some recordings even the 1950 ones sound absolutely flawless. Good luck and have fun. You've got at least a decades worth of listening to do.