Great Recordings of 20th C?

[Gordon]

I'm not sure that we have done this before on these boards so apologies if we have.

If you had to make a list of the 20 greatest recordings [let's say in the electrical age since 1925] what would they be and why? One candidate might be Dennis Brain's Mozart concerti because it has never been out of the catalogue.

Looking through the Decca Legends and EMI GROCs etc gives their ideas from their own catalogues but what about us consumers' views? Are they all in the distant past? Will more modern ones pass the test of time?

[Dave2002]

Possible candidates

Elgar Violin concerto, Menuhin, Elgar

Mahler Das Lied von der Erde, Walter, Ferrier
Symphony 2 - Klemperer or Rattle
Symphony 8 - Solti

Strauss Die Frau ohne Schatten, Solti

Ives Symphony 4, Stokowski

Sibelius symphonies - maybe Vanska

[mathias broucek]

That's a VERY wide time period and I think it's hard to compare recordings from the 20s and 30s with more recent stuff. Is there a case for looking a the stereo and mono eras separately (recognising that within mono there are huge variations in sound quality).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If you had to make a list of the 20 greatest recordings [let's say in the electrical age since 1925] what would they be and why?

"20"?

A measly "20"?

I'd have difficulty restricting myself to 20 "greatest" Mahler recordings!* Mozart would need 50 at the very least!


EDIT: * = But, yes, the Ferrier/Patzak/VPO/Walter would be one of the first to go on this list!

[Osborn]

I doubt I've heard more than 0.1% of recordngs made since 1925. So no comment is possible.

[umslopogaas]

A pretty impossible task, but of the recordings I have heard, here a list of the first twenty that come to mind:

Messiaen. Turangalila Symphony. Ozawa
Mahler. Symphony 2. Solti (the LSO one)
Sibelius. Luonnotar. Jones, Dorati
Shostakovich. Symphony 10. Ormandy
Weill. Threepenny Opera. Bruckner-Ruggeberg (supervised by Lenya)
Verdi. Aida. Karajan
Wagner. The Ring. Solti
Schubert. Symphony 9. Klassiche Philharmonie Stuttgart, Munchinger
Stravinsky. Rite of Spring. Stravinsky
Busoni. Doctor Faust. Leitner
Berlioz. The Trojans. Davis
Berg. Lulu. Boulez
Busoni. Piano Concerto. Ogdon. Revanaugh
Brahms. Piano Concertos. Gilels. Jochum
Cherubini. Medea. Callas. Serafin
JS Bach. Harpsichord concertos. Kipnis. Marriner
Wagner. Tristan and Isolde. Nilsson, Windgassen. Bohm
JS Bach. Six Keyboard Partitas. Gould
Bartok. Bluebeard's Castle. Ludwig, Berry. Kertesz
Bartok. Concerto for Orchestra. LSO, Solti.

These are all recordings that for some reason or other stick in the memory. In many cases its simply that they are the first versions I heard.

I'm sure if I do it again tomorrow I can find twenty different ones!

And if I could have 21, I'd add Brendel playing Schubert's D960 sonata, the Philips recording from the early seventies.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Gramophone did something like this for their 75th Anniversary.Their list had the Solti Ring at the top. Others in the first 10 included Furtwangler's Tristan and Beethoven 9, as well as the classic Du Pre/Barbirolli Elgar Cello Concerto.

[verismissimo]

Why leave out those great singers from the first quarter of the century, mostly well recorded in their prime?

A personal choice:

Alda
Bahr-Mildenburg
Battistini
Boronat
Caruso
Chaliapin
De Lucia
Destinn
Jorn
Kurz
Lilli Lehmann
Melba
Nezhdanova
Plancon
Plunket Greene
Ruffo
Slezak
Smirnoff
Tamagno
Tetrazzini

Such riches.

Then there are the fiddlers!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

There are 22 CDs in the SONY/CBS Stravinsky conducts Stravinsky box for a start!

[Roehre]

A pretty impossible task, but of the recordings I have heard, here a list of the first twenty that come to mind:

Messiaen. Turangalila Symphony. Ozawa
Mahler. Symphony 2. Solti (the LSO one)
Sibelius. Luonnotar. Jones, Dorati
Shostakovich. Symphony 10. Ormandy
Weill. Threepenny Opera. Bruckner-Ruggeberg (supervised by Lenya)
Verdi. Aida. Karajan
Wagner. The Ring. Solti
Schubert. Symphony 9. Klassiche Philharmonie Stuttgart, Munchinger
Stravinsky. Rite of Spring. Stravinsky
Busoni. Doctor Faust. Leitner
Berlioz. The Trojans. Davis
Berg. Lulu. Boulez
Busoni. Piano Concerto. Ogdon. Revanaugh
Brahms. Piano Concertos. Gilels. Jochum
Cherubini. Medea. Callas. Serafin
JS Bach. Harpsichord concertos. Kipnis. Marriner
Wagner. Tristan and Isolde. Nilsson, Windgassen. Bohm
JS Bach. Six Keyboard Partitas. Gould
Bartok. Bluebeard's Castle. Ludwig, Berry. Kertesz
Bartok. Concerto for Orchestra. LSO, Solti.

These are all recordings that for some reason or other stick in the memory. In many cases its simply that they are the first versions I heard.

I'm sure if I do it again tomorrow I can find twenty different ones!

And if I could have 21, I'd add Brendel playing Schubert's D960 sonata, the Philips recording from the early seventies.

All of these recordings stem from exactly 5 (=five) recording companies.
I cannot imagine that the greatest recordings of the 20th C were all made by these (though many obviously are)