I don’t know terribly much about orchestras, but as far as pianists go, there are a few that generally stand out above the rest. The artist can make a HUGE difference, even for the same song
Martha Argerich (see Valarking’s post)
Artur Rubinstein (especially for Chopin, Schumann, and their contemporaries)
Alfred Brendel (especially for Beethoven and Mozart and their contemporaries)
Vladimir Ashkenazy (especially for Chopin)
Glenn Gould (very unique Bach renditions)
Emanuel Ax (very good at collaborating with Yo Yo Ma)
Vladimir Horowitz
Andras Schiff (especially Bach)
Evgeny (sp?) Kissin (especially for Chopin)
Of course, there’s more, this is just people off the top of my head in the order they came in. Often for more contemporary stuff, you can sometimes find recordings of the composers themserlves playing, which usually turns out fairly well.
One composer that I didn’t see (then again I was reading pretty fast) is Brahms. Check out some of his cello sonatas performed by Yo Yo Ma+Emanuel Ax, its really good.
If you’re looking for something a little older, Palestrina is excellent. He was a master of counterpoint and composed mainly religious music. It’s a fantastic sound.
I know you asked for composers, but if you’re looking at piano music, Artur Rubenstein does an amazing job playing just about anything.
I have to disagree about not buying ultra-cheap stuff. I’ve got some great recordings of Beethoven’s symphonies and piano sonatas that I picked up for for £1. Probably wouldn’t have bought them if they were more expensive either. Most of my 100+ CD collection is made up of NAXOS CD’s which cost £5, or less. Absolutely no point whatsoever in buying really expensive discs. Artists and orchestras don’t generally make a huge difference, I find (admittedly with some dire exceptions, got a version of Beethoven’s 5th, 1st movement, over 8 minutes long… urrrgghhhh…so… sloooww…).
Nobody’s mentioned Ludivico Einaudi or Michael Nyman, both modern composers. Einaudi is almost entirely piano, Nyman is mostly film.
Try listening to classic FM ! They play a huge variety of stuff - musicals, opera, soundtrack, basically anything orchestral (though mostly proper classical stuff). The more well known pieces tend to be played in the morning through lunch and 4-6 GMT. The rest of the day is given to boring relaxing stuff. Evening concert from 9-11/12 can be good though. No idea what they do late at night.
YES, there are huge differences between good performers and bad ones.
That doesn’t mean that inexpensive CDs are neccesarily worse, but you’re more likely to get the crappy performances.
Take Naxos that Rhysy mentioned. Some of their stuff is good, but they have some terrible performers too. Like Idel Biret, who does 90% of their Chopin stuff. She’s absolutely horrendous.
I’ll upload some of the stuff I’ve been listening to recently… Prokofiev’s 3rd Piano Concerto 1st mvmt - Starts off pretty slow and then immediately picks up.
Two pieces from Ravel’s Gaspard de le Nuit: Scarbo - DAMN hard to play, but sounds really cool Ondine - Also tough, sounds cool in a completely different way
Both of those last 2 are Martha Argerich recordings
Classical FM is ok. Sometimes they play some cool stuff, but most of it is the conservative ultra-boring put-you-to-sleep crap. It’s for people to play in their offices to look smart.
I also have a recording of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring conducted by himself if anyone wants it.
YES, there are huge differences between good performers and bad ones.
That doesn’t mean that inexpensive CDs are neccesarily worse, but you’re more likely to get the crappy performances.
Yes and no. Good performers are better than bad ones by definition. The only expensive CD’s I have were bought as presents. I can’t honestly say that any of them are so much better than the cheap CD’s that I’d want to spend more on them. Not that the artists aren’t good… it’s just I see no reason at all why people make such a fuss over some artists. Hell, I have a really awful Beethoven’s 6th on Naxos, but a really good version on a £1 CD (totally unknown orchestra) I bought in a newsagent. I must have at least a dozen ultra-cheap CD’s and I haven’t regretted buying a single one.
Classical FM is ok. Sometimes they play some cool stuff, but most of it is the conservative ultra-boring put-you-to-sleep crap. It’s for people to play in their offices to look smart.
Well, if for some bizzare reason you actually like Chopin and -even more strangely- find Mozart overthetop, (???) Classic FM might seem boring. Why you would do this is a mystery to me though. %|
I disagree it’s ultra-boring (though that is obviously subjective so not worth debating) and it’s certainly not conservative. They play a lot by modern composers as well as the old ones. On the other hand I would conceed that their “relaxing classics at 2” and “smooth classics at 7” are just plain boring (and they do repeat the popular stuff quite a lot). Good background music for working to though.
EDIT :
Beware of LaserLight brand … music on the cheap!
I have some of them - Holst’s The Planets and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Nothing wrong with either.
wow alltaken you really inspired me to get back to listen more to Classics… yesterday I found my self watching “mezzo” - somthing quit rare. I think I’ll buy me a ticket to the philharmonic… I wonder what are they playing this month… maby Perlman is doing a homeland visit… anyway here is another pice of music I really like: “Bachiana brasilerias” by “Heito Villa Lobos”.
Where did I say Mozart was over the top?
Most of his stuff is ok, with some (a few scattered symphonies and concertos) being excellent, but he also had a lot of really dull stuff that he cranked out to put food on the table.
Yes, Chopin is VERY over the top. I don’t like all of his stuff, some of it is just fluff. Sometimes a little campiness is nice. That’s where Mendelssohn comes in.
The only composer that I can honestly say I like 100% of his output is Ravel.
I wish I had your Classical FM, because mine just plays that “relaxing” stuff over and over. It’s one Baroque chamber piece by some noname composer after another.
PlantPerson:
Yes, some of the Naxos stuff is good. They used to let you listen to EVERYTHING they did completely free. Now you can only listen to 25% of the track. It’s only like $25 a year for complete access though. Some of their performers are good some aren’t. That Mussorgky recording you posted btw is not the original. The original was for piano by the composer, and it was good but pretty soon it was forgotten because he wrote terribly for piano. Then Ravel comes in and makes far superior orchestrations using his super human orchestration technique and now everyone knows about them. This is where your recording comes in. Horowitz (a very popular pianist) made a revision to the original piano version taking in elements from Ravel’s version and adding in plenty of his own. Horowitz’s version is imho just as good as Ravel’s. The sheetmusic for the Horowitz version is extremely rare and hard to come by, but of course, I’ve hunted it down, so I can show you the sheetmusic if you would like to see the difference: Original Ballet of Unhatched Chicks Horowitz Version (starts on pg 8 )
The first page looks the same, but he changes it up after that.
I don’t have the original score for it, but he changed Catacombs to be far superior. The original was the weakest portion of the set and Ravel’s was one of the strongest.
About the whole inexpensive CDs thing…
It’s all about the CD label. You have the high priced CDs by Hyperion with performers like Marc-Andre Hamelin and Angela Hewitt, you have middle-ranged labels like Deutche Grammaphone and ECI, and you have low-priced labels like Naxos. I would suggest listening to samples on Amazon of the CD you want to get and base purchases on that and not the price.
Or you can get REALLY inexpensive and just download them off of eMule.
