Recommended Classical Recordings

morris_minor wrote: No Beethoven mentioned yet . . . Symphonies No.5 and No.7 - Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic (DG 'Originals' - the CD is like a little LP ). This is music making of the highest order.

Agreed Bob the vinyl is also excellent.
Beethoven Violin Concerto Berlin Philharmic Von Karajan Anne-Sophie Mutter (vinyl)
New Philharmonia   Otto Klemperer Yehudi Menhuin     (cd)
This is a no brainer Anne -Sophie wins hands down its exciting well recorded and everything you
expect from Beethoven the Menhuin is the complete opposite in fact it is a dirge and you quickly lose interest.

The Beethoven violin concerto seems to be one to inspire collecting performances, I will not admit to how many I have collected.

The one I seem to visit most often is Wolfgang Marschner with the Sudwestdeutsche Philharmonia under Gunter Neidlinger.

Not quite sure why I like it, although it seems to be a smaller orchestra and perhaps more intimate and concerto like than when played by a full symphony orchestra.

I will go with the Kleiber 5 & 7 recommendation above too.

Edited by tg - 01 May 2015 at 2:26pm

Now that I have my Gram Amp 2 SE installed (with a nice enough 1 meter Supra RCA connect), I am finally able to enjoy in all its glory the legendary live recording of Mahler 8 conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos (Everest 3189/2 two LP set). While the recording itself is technically speaking nothing really special - and sometimes even rather bad - (the box says 'electronically enhanced for stereo effect'), the music making is excellent. And the LPs I have are for as far as I can tell in very good condition, so that does help too. Somehow these older recordings feel and listen nicer on LP than CD (the latter version I do not possess).