Your top ten Decca CDs for your personal Decca box

[Dave2002]

The Decca Sound box has some good stuff, though many of us have already got some of the CDs or LPs already - http://www.deccaclassics.com/cat/sin...UCT_NR=4782826

It has been suggested (see Bargains thread) that we can compile our own box. A complication is to know whether the issues for Decca also include some which are on related labels, such as RCA, DG, Philips, or whether to stick only to original Deccas. What about Oiseau Lyre?

Anyway, here goes:

1. Mahler 8th, Solti
2. Britten, War Requiem
3. Mozart, Clarinet Concerto, De Peyer
4. Beethoven, 9th Symphony, Schmidt-Isserstedt (or Ansermet, SRO)
5. Mozart, Marriage of Figaro, Te Kanawa, Solti etc.
6. Ravel, Daphnis and Chloe, Dutoit
7. Beethoven, String Quartets - various, Takacs Quartet
8. Brahms, Piano Concerto 1, Curzon, Szell
9. Haydn Masses (e.g Nelson), Willcocks, Guest
10. Mozart, Wind music (various) London Wind Soloists, Jack Brymer

If allowed Oiseau Lyre as well I'd have Mozart operas from Drottningholm (Cosi, MoF, Don G, Magic Flute)

If allowed RCA then Monteux Dvorak 7, Levine Brahms 1st, and Levine Mahler 1.

Over to you.

[VodkaDilc]

Solti Ring?

Peter Grimes?

[Chris Newman]

Janacek: Complete Operas; Sinfonietta; Taras Bulba [Box Set]
Wiener Philharmoniker, Sir Charles Mackerras (Conductor).

Er....that makes 9 CDs already.

[makropulos]

The Decca Sound box has some good stuff, though many of us have already got some of the CDs or LPs already - http://www.deccaclassics.com/cat/sin...UCT_NR=4782826

It has been suggested (see Bargains thread) that we can compile our own box. A complication is to know whether the issues for Decca also include some which are on related labels, such as RCA, DG, Philips, or whether to stick only to original Deccas. What about Oiseau Lyre?

Anyway, here goes:

1. Mahler 8th, Solti
2. Britten, War Requiem
3. Mozart, Clarinet Concerto, De Peyer
4. Beethoven, 9th Symphony, Schmidt-Isserstedt (or Ansermet, SRO)
5. Mozart, Marriage of Figaro, Te Kanawa, Solti etc.
6. Ravel, Daphnis and Chloe, Dutoit
7. Beethoven, String Quartets - various, Takacs Quartet
8. Brahms, Piano Concerto 1, Curzon, Szell
9. Haydn Masses (e.g Nelson), Willcocks, Guest
10. Mozart, Wind music (various) London Wind Soloists, Jack Brymer

If allowed Oiseau Lyre as well I'd have Mozart operas from Drottningholm (Cosi, MoF, Don G, Magic Flute)

If allowed RCA then Monteux Dvorak 7, Levine Brahms 1st, and Levine Mahler 1.

Over to you.

That's a very nice list. Here's mine (though I could easily produce another completely different list).
Britten War Requiem (Britten)
Britten Noye's Fludde (Del Mar - originally Argo, but it was a Decca subsidiary by the time this was issued)
Janacek Sinfonietta/Taras Bulba (Mackerras)
Janacek From the House of the Dead (Mackerras)
Mahler Symphony 2 (Solti/LSO)
Brahms Violin Sonatas (Suk/Katchen)
Holst Planets (Karajan/VPO)
Ravel Gaspard/Debussy L'Isle joyeuse/Chopin Scherzo No. 4 (Ashkenazy, rec. 1965)
Verdi Aida (Solti, Rome Opera)
Strauss Elektra (Solti/VPO)

[VodkaDilc]

Nice to see that Noye's Fludde is remembered. I can't over-estimate the influence that participating in that piece had on my future when I played a minor part in my school's performance at the age of 12. Would state schools be able to mount such a piece by a major composer today? And one which had only been written two years previously? And would they want to anyway? (Sounds a bit elitist??)

[makropulos]

Nice to see that Noye's Fludde is remembered. I can't over-estimate the influence that participating in that piece had on my future when I played a minor part in my school's performance at the age of 12. Would state schools be able to mount such a piece by a major composer today? And one which had only been written two years previously? And would they want to anyway? (Sounds a bit elitist??)

Absolutely agree with you Vodka - I had a similar life-changing experience when I was small and it's a piece that moves me greatly every time I see it (when the bugles or handbells come in, if not before).

As to your question, in my experience, the answer is yes, and yes - I'm happy to say. It was done several times by a state school in Peterborough a few years ago and worked wonderfully.

[Petrushka]

I'd say stick with the original Decca. Here's mine in no particular order:

1. Wagner: Ring VPO/Solti (can I count this as one please?)
2. Britten: War Requiem LSO/Britten
3. Mahler: Symphony No 8 CSO/Solti
4. Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra CSO/Solti
5. 1979 New Year's Concert VPO/Boskovsky
6. Strauss: 4 Last Songs Lisa della Casa/VPO/Bohm
7. Shostakovich: Symphony No 5 Concertgebouw/Haitink
8. Verdi: Requiem VPO/Solti
9. Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra VPO/Karajan
10. Janacek: Sinfonietta/Taras Bulba VPO/Mackerras

and I really can't do without Elgar 1 LPO/Solti

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Off the top of my head:
1. Tchaikovsky Symphony no. 4 VPO/Maazel
2. Tchaikovsky Symphony no. 5 VPO/Maazel
3. Verdi Requiem VPO/Solti
4. Mahler Symphony no 2 VPO/Mehta
5. Wagner Tannhauser VPO/Solti
6. Verdi Otello VPO/Karajan
7. Holst Planets VPO/Karajan
8. Beethoven Piano Concerto 4 Ashkenazy/VPO/Mehta
9. Beethoven Fidelio VPO/Maazel
10. Puccini Tosca Price/VPO/Karajan

Was there ever a greater partnership in the history of recording than the VPO/Decca exclusive contract?

[barber olly]

The Decca Sound box has some good stuff, though many of us have already got some of the CDs or LPs already - http://www.deccaclassics.com/cat/sin...UCT_NR=4782826
de by decca
It has been suggested (see Bargains thread) that we can compile our own box. A complication is to know whether the issues for Decca also include some which are on related labels, such as RCA, DG, Philips, or whether to stick only to original Deccas. What about Oiseau Lyre?

Good idea not to mess up the Bargains thread. I would restrict it to labels generated by the Original Decca Co but include RCAs made by Decca, so no DGG or Philips.

My 10

1 PCO Martinon - Saint-saens/Ibert/Bizet (Once SDD144)
2 LSO Monteux - Daphnis and Chloe
3 LSO Kertesz - Dvorak 8/Scherzo Capriccioso
4 LAPO Mehta - Also Sprach/Heldenleben
5 LSO Maag - Mendelssohn S3/Hebrides/MND
6 LSO Solti - Bartok C for O/Dance Suite
7 LSO Abbado - Hindemith Symphonic Metamorphoses/Janacek Sinfonietta
8 PCO Wolff - Glazunov Seasons
9 LSO Solti - Romantic Russia (Borodin/Glinka/Mussourgsky)
10 Panhoffer&Members Vienna Octet Mozart P&W Quintet K452

[VodkaDilc]

Absolutely agree with you Vodka - I had a similar life-changing experience when I was small and it's a piece that moves me greatly every time I see it (when the bugles or handbells come in, if not before).

As to your question, in my experience, the answer is yes, and yes - I'm happy to say. It was done several times by a state school in Peterborough a few years ago and worked wonderfully.

Perhaps we were in the same production. I was a squirrel!

Lots of sections move me: the appearance of Eternal Father against the Storm Passacaglia; the Kyries, as the animals enter the ark (especially where there's a sudden change of key); the scrunchy organ chords just before the last hymn - and many more.

Glad to hear it's still being done; though I particularly had in mind school performances of works by a living composer. Apart from Maxwell Davies, do any other contemporary composers write specifically for schools?