Ten Classical

Ten Classical Selections No One Should Miss

If you a ready to start a disk library, Ted Libbey, of National Public Radio's classical music broadcast. “Performance Today”, suggests these recordings for the beginning collectors:

Bach: B-Minor Mass. Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists – John Eliot Gardiner, Deutsche Grammophon Archiv. This is the best of Bach, the best of the baroque era, and one of the greatest works in all of music. Gardiner's magnificent period-instrument account is colorful and light on its feet, yet it conveys the lofty grandeur of Bach's musical conception. 

Mozart: Piano concertos Nos 23 et 24. Clifford Curzon, piano; London Symphony Orchestra, Istvan Kertesz, London Weekend classics. Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit once said of Mozart's operas and concertos that they are the summit of creation. Here, two musicians with remarkable insight into Mozart team up to scale the heights.

Haydn: Symphonies #92 (Surprise) and 104 (London). Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra., Sir Colin Davis, Philipps Insignia. Two of Haydn most brilliant symphonies – full of wit and wisdom, and, yes, surprises – from the set of 12 he wrote as a capstone to his career as an orchestral innovator. They receive sparkling performances from Davis and the Dutch orchestra. 

Beethoven: Symphony #6 (Pastorale). Colombia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter, Sony Classical. A recollection of Beethoven's happy thoughts on visiting the country, this is one of the most profound and appealing works in the symphonic literature. Walter's wonderful, youthfully fresh, and exuberant performance has the glow of deep spiritual maturity.

Schubert: Trout Quintet; Mozart: Clarinet Quintet. Rudolph Serkin, piano; Harold Wright, clarinet; with string players from the Marlboro Festival, Sony Classical. Mozart's radiant quintet is full of gentleness and pathos.  Schubert wrote his Trout on a summer vacation, and its sunny informality makes it the perfect counterpart. In these loving performances, the recording offers a wonderful introduction to the realm of chamber music.

Chopin: Ballades and Scherzos. Arthur Rubinstein, RCA Red Seal. These are the most substantial single-movement pieces Chopin wrote. They are notable for their wealth of content and formal command. If there is one sure bet in the repertory, it's Rubenstein, whose fiery readings combine drama and poetry with mesmeric effect.

Musicians, photo by Elena

Bizet: Carmen: Baltza, Carreras, Van Dam, Picciarelli, Chorus of the Paris Opera, Berlin Philarmonic/Herbert von Karojan, Deutsche Gramophon. If you're going to start with the opera, make it Carmen, which is one of opera's greatest achievements. Completed by Bizet when he was only 36, it's full of memorable melodies, fascinating situations, and gripping drama. Karajan and his colleagues give a polished account that revels in the beauty and color of the score.

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto #1, Rachmaninof: Piano Concerto #2: Van Cliburn, piano; RCA Symphony Orchestra/Kirill Kondrashin, chicago Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Reiner, RCA Read Seal. Thrills abound in these evergreen performances of two spectacular Romantic piano concertos. Riding these warhorses for all they are worth, the young Van Cliburn shows why he is one of the greatest virtuosos this country has ever produced. Since they were first issued many years ago, these accounts have never been out of print.

Debussy: La Mer; Saint-Saens: Organ Symphony. Boston Symphony Orchestra/Charles Munch. RCA Victor “Living Stereo”. Debussy's majestic portrait of the sea, the greates work of musical Impressionism, is paired with Saint-Saens's block-buster symphony. This is French music at its best, passionately performed by Munch and the greatest “French” orchestra ever assembled.

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris; Bernstein: Candide Overture, Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Leonard Bernstein, pianist and conductor; Columbia Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic, Sony Classical. The classic of 20th-century American music. Bernestein lead a sultry, ideally jazzy performance of Gershwin's “Rhapsody”, and gives a bracing account of An American in Paris. No one compares with him as an interprter of his own music.

What Jazzes Wynton Marsalis

Jazz, with its mix of bracing intellectuality and moving lyricism, has long been known as America's classical music. Few have done more to foster that reputation than trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who is renowned both for his classical and his jazz playing. As the artistic director of Jazz at the Lincoln Center, Marsalis has been at the forefront of creating a jazz “canon”, music that is undeniably classic, if not indeed classical. Here, the master trumpeter picks his 10 favorite jazz albums by the great who inspired him.

Louis Armstrong: The Hot Fives (any recording)

Louis Armstrong: The Hot Sevens (any recording)

Count Basie: The Original American Decca Recordings

Ornette Coleman: The Shape of Jazz to Come

John Coltrane: Crescent

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue

Duke Ellington: The Far East Suite

Thelonious Monk: It's Mon's Time

Jelly Roll Morton: The Pearls

Charlie Parker: The Complete Dial Recordings.