Recommended recordings!

Well, you cannot go wrong with the following. I find that I return to these performances again and again, though many of them are so very fine that one almost wishes to ration one's hearings of them, for fear that over-indulgence will render the experience of listening to them less special.

I stress that this is all rather subjective and personal. For a start the reader may wish to note that: I am at present very much in love with Czech music; I have a strong suspicion that the greatest composers of our century are Duparc, Debussy, Komitas, Janacek, Suk, Schoenberg and Stravinsky; that the greatest British composers of all time are Byrd, Bax and Birtwistle (though Edmund Rubbra and Benedict Mason at their best come very close). It is also my (admittedly controversial) opinion that Duparc's premature loss of creativity in the twentieth century is a tragedy in the history of music quite comparable to Chausson's premature demise in the nineteenth, Mozart's in the eighteenth, and the destruction of the greater part of Monteverdi's operatic output in the seventeenth!

So..........here goes!

Janacek/arr. Talich: The Cunning Little Vixen Suite, cond. Talich, on Supraphon; also includes Taras Bulba and the Moravian Suite by Novak.
Suk: Pohadka (Fairly-Tale): the Belohlavek version, on Chandos, coupled with the serenade, is the one I find most beautiful. The one under Talich on Supraphon is perhaps more moving but sounds marginally less ravishingly beautiful - of course as it is rather old the sound is less good; but the Talich version is coupled with the best version of ``Ripening'', a masterpiece of the first rank (with a harmonic language at times reminiscent of Ravel's Daphnis et Chlo\'{e} and Schoenberg's Pelleas und Melisande! The snag with the Talich "Ripening" is that with such a complex score better recorded sound would have helped clarity. The best modern version of "Ripening", by the way, is the Neumann one, on Supraphon.
Martinu 6, Suk Fantastic Scherzo, Janacek Sinfonietta: above all, desirable for Martinu 6 -- an outstandingly beautiful masterpiece, exquisitely played on this CD under Belohlavek on Chandos (although my favourite Janacek Sinfonietta is in fact with Kubelik and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on DG - prefrably coupled with Smetana Overtures, although I believe this CD is now being deleted, and an alternative coupling offered instead).
Komitas/arr. Sahakiants: Patarag -- alas, only available on an old (1971) Melodiya LP, but obtainable until c. 2 years ago. I do not know of anything more treasurable.
Roussel: Le Marchand de Sable qui Passe... -- the most beautiful thing I know. There exists no wholly satisfactory recording. I prefer it as a nonet, though the least unsatisfactory CD recording is that under Michel Martin on Cybelia in its chamber-orchestral version. There are several nonet versions on CD, but they are undesirable.
Suk: ``Asrael'' Symphony -- the Talich version (1952) on Supraphon has not hitherto been surpassed. This is a masterpiece of the first rank, not a whit inferior to any of Mahler's symphonies.
Mahler 5: There is no truly ideal version, but the new Boulez on DG is very impressive indeed, and can be recommended. I also love the Karajan (on DG), and the Mitropoulos (in poor sound -- a pirate recording from a live performance). There are also some highly idiosyncratic pirate performances under Maderna and (with brutal excisions) Scherchen -- who also has the slowest adagietto!
Mahler 10: the best version is on a set of deleted LPs under Wyn Morris, but I must admit that Wigglesworth's performance (that comes on a back issue of the BBC Music Magazine from about a year-and-a-half or so ago) is surprisingly pleasing!
Shostakovich Symphony No. 4: Jarvi on Chandos seems the most pleasing, though from time to time one also turns to Inbal on Denon. The Slovak on Naxos (not to be confused with the Rahbari on Naxos, which I have not tried) is very different but also demands to be heard - but beware of defective booklets with the last page referring to another CD (of organ music)!
Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 9, 10: Kurtz and Mitropoulos, on a CBS CD. Kutz seems to be one of very few people who understood No. 9 - almost everybody does the slow movement too fast - the way Kurtz did it it is one of the most affecting movements Shostakovich ever wrote. Admittedly, I do that movement a touch faster than Kurtz, but it's better for it to be slightly too slow than ludicrously too fast (though the metronome mark {\em is} very fast!)!
Shostakovich's Quartets with the Borodin Quartet on EMI (including the Piano Quintet with Richter). The Barshai orchestration of No. 4 (not just for massed strings, but also including wind, brass and percussion) under Barshai, on DG.
Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, with Tatyana Nikolaeva - the version I know is the Hyperion one.
Honegger: Ph\`{e}dre - conducted by Rozhdetsvensky, on Olympia. A very fine and little-known work, with a harmonic language reminiscent of Debussy's Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien (also written for a play by D'Annunzio!).
Rubbra 10: cond. Schonzeler, on Chandos; I prefer it to the more recent Hickox version on the same label. One of the finest symphonies in the whole repertoire, and at least as good as Sibelius' essays in the same genre!
Mozart C-Minor Mass: The {\em earlier} Corboz version on Erato - not the more recent one on Cascavelle!
Mozart Violin Sonata in B flat, K454 - one of my most beloved pieces of all music... there is a very fine Heifitz/Emmanuel Bay version but I have never seen it on CD (I think it would be on RCA/BMG if it appeared), but also a lovely version with Pauk and Frankl that came with an issue of the BBC Music Magazine.
Mullova/Canino Recital on Philips, including Stravinsky Divertimento, Prokofiev Sonata No.2 and the Ravel Sonata.
Schoenberg: Two Chamber Symphonies -- with the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, on DG!
Martin: Der Cornet -- the best version is under Zagrosek, with Lipovsek, on the Orfeo Label.
A Brahms cycle is, of course, essential. Well, there are the early Giulini ones, on EMI; they are fast-ish, with excellent (1960s Philharmonia) wind soloists -- especially the oboes. Nos. 1 and 2 exist on DG with the LAPO, and these are his most individual interpretations; very strongly recommended. They are slower. The recent DG cycle, with the Vienna Phil, is the slowest and sonically richest, but the interpretations (at least in the case of Nos. 1 and 2) have become a little more ``objective''?
The Muir Quartet playing the first two Brahms String Quartets -- they are lovely pieces, and the Muir Quartet really play them as well as I could imagine possible. On the French "ADDA" label.
Haydn -- "Paris" and "London" symphonies -- though I usually dislike bernstein, his recordings on Sony with the NYPO in the late fifties and early sixties, at a time before the so-called authenticity movement had its deleterious effect on string playing worldwide, are quite treasurable, and are now in fact available in a single box at a bargain price!
Haydn Saint Cecilia Mass - Corboz on the fnac label.
A Beethoven cycle: the best complete cycle available is the Klemperer EMI one. But individually, my recommendations would be: 1: Ren\'{e} Leibowitz (coupled with a fast and aggressive Eroica) 2: The live Monteux from the Disques Montagnes two-CD box (including Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Rimsky-Korsakov) 3: Monteux on Philips (but the new Giulini on Sony is in some ways even better -- though, alas, the wind playing may be found distractingly out-of-tune by some) 4: The new Giulini on Sony (coupled with No. 5) 5: The ``old'' Giulini -- with the LAPO, on DG 6: Klemperer (EMI)! 7: Klemperer (EMI)! (Though Monteux, who unlike Klemperer, who does it delightfully slow, does it frenetically fast, must also be heard! Coupled with Dvorak 7) 8: Giulini on Sony (coupled with a very fine No. 2) 9: Giulini on DG -- but I haven't heard the old Giulini on EMI, or the forthcoming Giulini on Sony.
Though I sometimes have some problems with Boulez's conducting, the following three CDs are very fine indeed, and highly desirable: 1. Debussy Premi\`{e}re Rapsodie -- utterly beguiling clarinet-playing, sensitively accompanied, coupled with a superb Jeux and an entirely satisfactory La Mer and the Nocturns. On DG. 2. Stravinsky Petrouchka and the Rite of Spring, on DG. He does them very well -- he did them live with the LSO a few months ago, and that was even better than the recording (with the Clevelend Orchestra)! 3. Birtwistle Secret Theatre, etc. -- admirable! Also on DG.
Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen -- the most recent Karajan, coupled with ``Death and Transfiguration''; the earlier, with the Four Last Songs, is equally good, if not better -- they are just different!
Bach: Mass in B Minor -- get the Corboz version on Erato -- the later of his two recordings.
Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites -- though the Nagano version, on Virgin, is cleaner and more complete, the Dervaux on EMI (not easily available in the UK at the moment) has mmuch greater warmth and urgency. This is one of my favourite operas, together with Monteverdi's Orfeo and Mozart's The Magic Flute.
There is no {\em wholly} satisfactory recording of Chausson's {Po\`{e}me de l'Amour et de la Mer} to my knowledge. The best interpretation and orchestral playing is that with Monteux (though, alas, with an elderly American singer); the most musical and physically-pleasing singing is without doubt that of Waltraud Meier, if the Teutonic accent and Muti's misjudged (to the point of perversion!) rubati can be forgiven. It's on EMI, and has the highest pleasure-to-cringe ratio of the various versions. The couplings are Ravel and Debussy (orchestral works).
Duparc's songs are wonderful -- but there is no wholly satisfactory performance of them available recorded on CD to my knowledge. There are a small number of songs in fine performances by Cuenod and Souzay, but as part of larger recitals and with piano accompaniment, rather than the even more magnificent orchestral versions. (There are also two-or-three songs sung by Bernac and accompanied by Poulenc -- wonderfully so in both cases -- but not, as far as I am aware, available on CD.) It is my (admittedly controversial) opinion that Duparc's premature loss of creativity in the twentieth century isa tragendy in the history of music quite comparable to Chausson's premature demise in the nineteenth, Mozart's in the eighteenth, and the destruction of the greater part of Monteverdi's operatic output in the seventeenth!
Monteverdi Vespers: there is no single version that is wholly satisfactory. The earlier Corboz version was the only satisfactory one on CD, but the later Corboz version, which is perhaps preferable in some ways, has, happily, just been also reissued on CD. They're both on CD. The Malgoire version (on CBS LPs which I have never seen on CD) is the best at its best, but at its worst it is shockingly disappointing from the executional point of view.
Boris Christoff Opera Recital - on the obscure Sonatina label, a reissue ofan old Bulgarian Melodiya CD. Includes Senecas Arioso (a couple of scenas) from Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea -- admirably sung, orchestrated (!) and conducted (the latter, at least, by Ettore Gracis). Also includes Rameau, Moazart, Beethoven and Verdi.
Cuenod Chante Debussy: on Nimbus; a uniquely fine recital, with the admirable Martin Isepp at the piano. Includes the Cinq Po\`{e}mes de Baudelaire.
Faure' Requiem under Maestro Giulini, on DG. Marvellously drawn out and sustained. Admirable!
Prokofiev Symphony No. 3: with Muti and the Philadelphians. Excellent! Coupled with a tolerable ``Classical'' (the best is a video with Celibidache, including a rehearsal).
Beethoven: Diabelli Variations - Richter on Philips.
Beethoven: Hammerklavier - Richter (live) on Stradivarius.
Bach: The ``48'' - Richter on RCA.
Bach unaccompanied sonatas and partitas for violin - my favourite version is Heifitz, on BMG (although I don't necessarily like everything that Heifitz did, he came closest to being able to play these both in time and in tune, and it is very muscial!)
Bach: Goldberg Variations - the most recent (1981?) Gould, on CBS/Sony.
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites - Adolf Busch Players, on EMI Re'fe'rences.
Schoenberg: Complete solo piano music - Gould, on CBS/Sony.
Ravel Piano Duets: Lortie and Mercier, on Chandos.
Bax Symphonies: Thomson, on Chandos. I advise starting with No. 3. Other Bax works that I recommend are the Sinfonietta, Elegy and Rondo (on Marco Polo with Wordsworth), some of the Tone Poems, under Thomson on Chandos - especially Nympholept and The Garden of Fand - and Three Pieces for Chamber Orchestra under Tate on EMI.
Dvorak Rusalka: the Neumann version, with the admirable Gabriela Benackova, is very fine. It's on Supraphon. But I have not heard the earlier Bakala version, also on Supraphon, which I would expect to be at least equally fine.
Dvorak's Symphonies: I think the Kubelik is the best complete set (with Berlin Phil, on DG), but individually I'd go for Jarvi on Chandos for No. 1 (one of my favourite of all symhonies!) and for No. 4 (coupled with the admirable Biblical Songs), and Belohlavek with the Czech Philharmonic, also on Chandos, for no. 6. For Nos. 7, 8 and 9 I would recommend Giulini. There is a choice between two or three of his versions -- I'm inclinded to go for the latest Concertgebouw versions, on Sony, but for No. 9 perhaps his Chicago recording on DG Galleria (coupled, incidentally, with the best Schubert "Unfinished" that I know) may be even better.
Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antartica, with the late Bryden Thomson, on Chandos.
Though his output is uneven, Alan Hovhaness' Magnificat is, to my mind, a masterpiece. The recording on Crystal under the late Robert Whitney is admirable. The new recording on Delos should be avoided at all costs.
The above would constitute an enviable collection! Of those happily still in the land of the living, I would particularly recommend Giulini, Zagrosek, Corboz, Malgoire, Belohlavek and Pr\^{e}tre amongst conductors, and Richter, Lortie, Mercier, Tanyel, Fingerhut and O' Hora amongst pianists.

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