February 09, 2010
 
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| The Ten Greatest Musical Recordings |
| by Robert R. Reilly |
| 11/08/08 |
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In the recent Gramophone magazine awards issue, their critics undertake the "hunt for the Gold Disc: the greatest recording since CDs began." They have narrowed it down to ten. Okay, I thought, I can do that too. Therefore, I offer my very eclectic list of what I think are the ten greatest recordings. I warn beforehand that I am not an audiophile. I enjoy good sound, to be sure, but I am mainly a content man, not a medium maven. I also confess that these recordings had an enormous personal impact on me at some point in my long listening career.
1. Of course, we have to begin with Bach. I pass reluctantly by the B Minor Mass and the St. Matthew Passion, and choose the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, as sublime and concentrated a meditation for one instrument as has ever been written. On LP, my favorite version was by the great Henryk Szeryng. The transfer to CD by Columbia Masterworks gave it a steely sound, so I now prefer the version by Nathan Milstein on Deutsche Grammophon. These two CDs in DG's "Originals" series (at budget price) are the desert island discs.
2. Herbert von Karajan was a controversial and much idolized conductor. He made four recorded traversals of the Beethoven Nine Symphonies. I am not going to cheat by selecting a complete set. Rather, I choose his 1963 recording of the Seventh Symphony with Berlin Philharmonic as one of the greats. Wagner said the Seventh was "the apotheosis of the dance." I find it to be rather an outpouring of unmitigated, almost terrifying power. Von Karajan captures and exults in this energy. It turns out this recording is available on an SACD paired with his Eighth Symphony; since you can buy all Seven symphonies new for under $20, think of what else you will be getting. (Really, I'm not cheating.)
3. Günter Wand's recording of Anton Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, captured live on June 24, 1979, with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, is an exhilarating, titanic, visionary interpretation of this work (Profil PH 04058). Wand, one of the great Bruckner interpreters, called the concert "one of the most memorable in my life." When you listen to this, you will know why. Very few things have ever been recorded that capture the kind of profound spiritual communion that is achieved here. This is art serving its highest hieratic purpose -- to make the transcendent perceptible. This is, in many ways, a shattering experience. Few things I have heard or experienced in my life have brought me closer to the awesome sense that God in all His majesty and power is near.
4. I have some very simple but sound advice. When seeking out recordings of Edward Elgar's music, go first to Sir John Barbirolli. No one understood Elgar's music better. I am tempted to choose his sublime recording of Gerontius as one of my ten, but I turn instead to his glorious performance of the Cello Concerto, with Jacqueline du Pré. This is generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest concerto recordings ever made. Du Pré's playing is exquisite, and the emotive warmth of Barbirolli's accompaniment is nonpareil.
Also on the disc is one of the finest vocal recordings: Janet Baker singing the Sea Pictures. If her singing does not send chills down your spine, you probably do not have one. The 1965 sound with London Symphony Orchestra leaves nothing to be desired. Believe it or not, you can buy a 30-CD EMI box of Elgar, with many of Barbirolli's definitive interpretations, including this one (and Gerontius), for around $50 on Amazon.
5. If you want to hear blood pulsing in the veins of music with an unquenchable passion for life, listen to the wild music of Leos Janácek, the greatest Czech composer of the 20th century, and perhaps of any other. On the title page of his Missa Glagolitica, Janácek wrote "God is gone up with a shout." He said, "I depict in it, to a certain extent, the legend which says that when Christ was hanged on the cross, the heaven was torn asunder. Well, I am making both roar and lightening."
The result is a volcanic masterpiece of choral music. If there is divine madness in music, this is it. The finest interpreter of Janácek was undoubtedly Karel Ancerl, with the Czech Philharmonic. His galvanizing recording of the Missa, with the Czech Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, won the 1964 Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros. It was initially issued by Supraphon and has since been licensed to other labels. Snatch it if you can find it.
6. Mozart was a composer of preternatural gifts. It is extremely hard to narrow down the field of great Mozart pieces to a single recording of a single work. Perhaps because I have just seen a Mozart opera, I am going to select Don Giovanni -- certainly on anyone's short list of greatest operas ever written -- in the 1936 recording of the Glyndebourne production, conducted by Fritz Busch. I am not being deliberately antiquarian here, and I am not an especial fan of historical recordings. However, Busch, with John Brownlee as the Don and Salvatore Baccaloni as Leporello, magnificently captured what is most important in a Mozart performance -- his spirit. The sound on this re-mastered recording on Naxos is startlingly good. This is one of the great opera recordings.
7. In his Symphony No. 4, "The Inextinguishable," Carl Nielsen captured the human spirit rising against all odds to prevail. This work is a towering masterpiece of symphonic drama, visionary music of apocalyptic power. Nielsen wrote: "In case all the world was devastated . . . then nature would still begin to breed new life again, begin to push forward . . . . These forces, which are 'inextinguishable,' I have tried to represent." No one has captured the enormous excitement and drama of this music as did Jean Martinon and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in this RCA recording from 1966. It is paired with an excellent performance of Symphony No. 2, conducted by Morton Gould.
8. All ten selections of the greatest recordings could easily be made from Schubert's music alone. However, I choose the great German pianist Wilhelm Kempff's recording of Schubert's last Piano Sonata, D 960. I have this disc as part of Kempff's integral recordings of all of Shubert's sonatas -- one of the truly significant recording landmarks. You can buy Sonata D 960 separately on DG for around $14, but the budget box ( 7 CDs) containing all of the sonatas can be had for a mere $50, an astonishing bargain. Kempff's playing is completely unaffected and highly lyrical. He is a true artist whose humility allows him to enter the spirit of Schubert -- cor ad cor loquitor. This is heart-piercingly pure playing of the music of paradise lost.
9. As he was composing his Fifth Symphony, Jean Sibelius wrote, "I begin to see the mountain that I shall surely ascend. God opens his door for a moment and His orchestra plays the Fifth Symphony." When I first heard Leonard Bernstein's recording of this work with the New York Philharmonic many years ago, that is what I thought I heard. It changed my life. It lifted me so far outside of myself, I would never be the same. I was staggered. I had not known human beings were capable of such things. Sibelius grasped the harmony of the spheres and played it for us. I wept for joy. I still can hardly contain myself when I listen to this performance on the re-mastered Sony release of the original 1961 recording. Bernstein never did anything finer than this; he really did not have to. (Do not confuse this with Bernstein's remake of the Fifth with the Vienna Philharmonic, made in the later years when he had become too emotionally self-indulgent.)
10. I see that I do not have any chamber music here. That was not by design. And I am not recommending Sergey Taneyev's Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 30, simply to fill in an omission. It completes the list because it is a great piece of music -- as great, I would hazard to say, as Schubert's Piano Quintet. If you do not believe me, listen to the Taneyev Quartet, with pianist Tamara Fidler, play this supremely passionate work from 1911 on the Northern Flowers label. It comes in a two-CD pack with Taneyev's complete quintets. This is a Soviet-era recording from 1968 in perfectly good sound. I thought that I surely would be recommending the superstar DG recording with pianist Mikhail Pletnev, which has superb sound. However, the Russians on Northern Flowers won me over with the sweep, commitment, and tremendous character of their playing. This is an enormously exciting performance of a neglected masterpiece.
This top-ten list exercise is somewhat ridiculous, but I hope it provokes in readers a response as to what they have on their list of greatest recordings. This is, after all, about sharing the treasures.
Readers have left 14 comments. I am fortunate to have the complete 1963 cycle of Beethoven's Symphonies from von Karajan, and it is easily one of my most cherished recordings. Or favorite set of recordings, as the case may be. (Unlike yourself, I'm not above a bit of cheating.) Your mention of Beethoven's 7th reminded me of what is probably my favorite "single symphony" recording: Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic's interpretation of Beethoven's 5th. Maestro Kleiber uses tempos that rush the music along right at the edge of insanity, but if one can just hang on, it's really a fantastic ride. The fact that it is paired with a recording of the 7th that is nearly as much fun is just icing on the cake. Another favorite is Andras Schiff's set of Bach's French Suites. The fifth, in particular, has been a long-time favorite of mine, do in no small part to the fact that I listened to that CD religiously throughout my college years. The Sixth French Suite and the Italian Concerto are part of the same disc, as well. And if I allow myself to talk about sets again, the first CD - with the remaining four suites - is only the barest notch below the second. (Much as I would like to say that I prefer Gould's interpretations, I simply can't. Too idiosyncratic for me, despite their technical brilliance.) Written by Joseph Susanka Let me second Joseph's recommendation of the Beethoven 5th by Carlos Kleiber on on the old "yellow label," DG. Another DG recording comes to mind, the Richard Strauss "Four Last Songs" recorded by Gundula Janowitz and conducted by Karajan, much better, in my opinion, that some of the more highly-touted versions, such as Jesse Norman. I would also put the Brahm's Requiem recording by Otto Klemperer on Angel/EMI in my top ten list, along with the "La Boheme" conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham with Bjoerling and De Los Angeles on Angel/EMI. While I am at it, I would also add the complete Haydn Piano Trios played by the Beaux Arts Trio on Phillips. Ah yes, there is the Brahm's Piano Trio #1 in C major played by the Stern-Rose-Istomin Trio on Columbia. Ok, there is also the Tchiakovsky Violin Concerto played by Nathan Milstein on DG, forget who the conductor is. Written by Deal W. Hudson No to Herbie K's Beethoven. Absolutely yes to the Kempf Schubert D960. Captures perfectly Schubert's darkness yet affirmation in the face of his impending death. Why is Wand's 9th better than Eugen Jochim DGG Bruckner 9th? Certainly Bruckner is the 19th C greatest consciously Catholic composer, as Messiaen in for the 20th. And why no pre-Bach early music? I pray Mr. Reilly isn't one of those pre 1980 types who thinks that music would begin with Back, then would pole vault to Mozart, with condescension to Haydn, and would really get underway a. D. 1800. Even before 1980 Monteverdi's Vespers, Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli, and Victoria's Requiem got some coverage. And Josquin belongs on the Himalayan heights. Written by Sid Cundiff Having never had the opportunity to watch Von Karajan conduct, I now have a greater appreciation thanks to YouTube.  Written by marc I agree with almost all these excellent recommendations. I almost included Strauss's sublime Four Last Songs. Certainly all the pre-Bach compositions mentioned qualify for inclusion. Also, some of Zelenka's Masses make the grade. I love Haydn as I love few composers. I almost listed his Creation oratorio, but then I saw I was over 10. 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death. I will do a major article on him then. I will certainly mention the terrific Haydn trios by the Beaux Arts Trio. As for Jochum's Bruckner -- I know it well. And no one has done the Bruckner Masses better than Jochum. Yet, Wand's 9th, recorded live, has that something extra that makes it so special. I urge Mr. Cundiff to listen to it, if he has not already. Written by robert reilly I'll make it a point to give Wand's Bruckner 9th a hearing! I thank the author. Written by Sid Cundiff As a new convert to classical music, I am thrilled that Robert Reilly chose to write this piece. I'll plan on using it for a guide and starting point. One challenge -- I buy and listen via iTunes. Does anyone know which of these are available in that format, or how to go about finding them? Thanks! Written by Nick Palmer Bob: As you know, my tastes in classical music are somewhat different from yours. Nonetheless, it is good to read your prose again (did you say you're now a full-time critic?) Here is my list of 10 great (not necessarily the greatest) recordings. Each is one that has special significance for me; these are recordings that I keep going back to, after 30+ years of collecting. In chronological order, they are: Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (Baker/ECO/Lewis), Decca 1961: A great performance in all respects; you cannot listen to Dido'd Lament without being moved. Bach: Ich Habe Genug, BWV 82 (Hans Hotter/Philharmonia/Bernard), 1950: One of the greatest cantata recordings ever. The richness and power of Hotter's voice are overwhelming. Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (BPO/Furtwangler), March 1942: Made as the first hints of untimate defeat seeped back from Russia into Germany, this is a remarkable document. Brahms: Symphony No. 1, Finale (BPO/Furtwangler), 23 January 1945: Furtwangler's last performance with the BPO for some years, steeped in anguish as the Russians drew ever closer and the certainty of retribution grew. Only the last movement was recorded; this is available on a Music & Arts box. Sibelius: Symphonies 3 and 6 (BSO/Davis), Philips, 1976: I agree with you on the merits of Davis' Sibelius performances. My favorites are these two. The complete set is a bargain beyond belief and should be in every library. Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle (Marton/Ramey/Hungarian State O/Fischer), CBS, 1987: One of the greatest 20th-c. operas, written when Bartok was deeply under the spell of Debussy. Ravishly beautiful and deeply moving. Bartok: Piano Concerto #2 (Weissenberg/Philadelphia O/Ormandy), RCA, 1970: Some balance problems, but this is a magnificent account. The mysterious, modal orchestral theme in the slow movement (one of the most luscious things written in the century) has never been better done. Hindemith: Symphony in E-flat (LSO/Boult), Everest, 1958. The first classical recording I ever bought, and still one of my favorites. Hindementh is grossly underrated today--he was the greatest musical polymath of the century, and one of its greatest composers. He solved the problem of finding a new sound that would nonetheless be listenable and accessible. Very few others have done as well. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 (Czech PO/Ancerl), DG, 1955: A combination of profound emotion and the most stunning virtuosity, recorded in the East during the brief thaw after Stalin's death. The second movement will blow you over. William Schuman: Symphony No. 3 (NYPO/Bernstein), Columbia, 1960. The greatest American symphony in its greatest recording. Happy listening. Written by Scott W. Stucky Shostakovich, String Quartets 3, 8, and 15 recorded by the Fitzwilliam Quartet. Shostakovich, Symphony No. 11 conducted by Andre Cluytens in 1957, recorded in the presence of Shostakovich. By the way, friends, Prof. Robert Greenberg has many excellent lectures on music at The Teaching Company site. I highly recommend, for example, his set on Shostakovich. Written by Augustine Intriguing list, Mr. Reilly. I own several of these myself and would grant them high status as well, especially the Bruckner Wand disc, which I bought based on your column of a couple years ago. I agree with you on the Elgar/Barbirolli/DuPre/Baker disc; however I think I'd have to give a slight advantage to another Elgar/Barbirolli disc, namely the one on EMI which features the Introduction and Allegro, Sospiri, etc., along with RVW's Tallis Fantasia. That is a desert island disc in my collection that could only be improved if it included The Lark Ascending. Although it's not a touchstone piece for me, I do like Nielsen's No. 4 and will have to check out Martinon. I have the Nielsen symphonies in a set by Ole Schmidt and the London Symphony on the Regis label, and the No. 4 in that set is quite exciting indeed (as are the others). Written by Rob G Scott, I love your selections. I agree that the Schuman Third is great, though I might select Harris' Third as the greatest -- also in a Bernstein recording, the first of the two he made. I also think Hindemith is underrated; his reputation will recover because his music is great. Ancerl was one of the great conductors, so I am not surprised by your Shostakovich pick. If I had to choose one Shostakovich composition, it would be his sublime Preludes and Fugues for piano. Written by robert Reilly I realize that I am coming rather late to this party, but I suppose a late comment can do no harm. I really enjoyed reading this article; you have made some interesting choices. I have only heard five of your selections, but I will certainly look for the others. Of the discs you have chosen, my favourite is Wand's Bruckner. Here is my own list of Top 10 recordings. Regrettably, there is no overlap with your list. * Mahler: Lieder (Janet Baker, John Barbirolli) [EMI] * Messiaen: Saint-François d’Assise (Hallé Orchestra, Kent Nagano) [DG] * In Paradisum: Music of Victoria and Palestrina (Hilliard Ensemble) [ECM] * English String Music (Sinfonia of London, New Philharmonia Orchestra, John Barbirolli) [EMI] * Mahler: Symphony No.2 “Resurrection” (Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle) [EMI] * Shostakovich: String Quartets (Emerson String Quartet) [DG] * Pärt: Kanon Pokajanen (Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tonu Kaljuste) [ECM] * Chopin: Nocturnes (Artur Rubinstein, 1965/8] [RCA] * Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata (Mstislav Rostropovich, Benjamin Britten) [Decca] * Bach: Suites for Solo Cello (Pieter Wispelwey) [Channel Classics] Surprisingly, no recordings from Hyperion or Harmonia Mundi -- my two favourite labels -- made my list. That's a little disconcerting. Written by cnb Although I am quite late to this discussion, I would like to comment on my first experience of the Bruckner 9th. I had gotten student rush tickets to see Seiji Ozawa conduct the BSO at Symphony Hall. I was in last row of the balcony on the side and by the end of the symphony I had crawled up my seat and was literally perched on top of the seat back, trembling. I swear the ceiling opened up and I saw God on his throne, with all the angels surrounding Him. It was an overwhelming experience. I love all music, but Bruckner holds a special place in my heart. His motets are another wonderful experience. Written by philosopherva Also worthy of note: 1 The Furtwaengler recordings of the Brahms Four Symphonies. Although not liked by some, this conductor had a way of playing with the tempi and isolating some instruments that made me feel I was hearing these magnificent works for the first time. 2 The von Karajan 1955 version of the Beethoven Missa Solemnis. 3 The Serafin recording of the Verdi Requiem. 4 Anything with Renata Tebaldi. 5 The Mackerris recording of the Berlioz Requiem, on DVD, recorded in Regensberg Cathedral. 6 The Malcom Serjeant recording of Messiah. Written by James Patrick Galivan |
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