The most famous recording that you DON'T yet own

To my fellow music lovers,

I often think about my collection and the artists and conductors that are represented on my shelves. I love thinking about it. It's also interesting to think about what famous recordings of a particular artist, that may even be career defining, that you may not have. All this despite being an ardent fan. I guess this is becoming less likely when music is now downloadable at the click of a button.

But for those of us still clinging onto CDs and LPs with relish: what are some of the famous offerings of the phonograph that you are yet to own, or that got away, went missing or are elusive in some other way?

To start us off, the biggest gap in my collection of Sir Georg Solti opera recordings is also one of the most famous recording projects of the twentieth century - Sir Georg Solti's benchmark Der Ring des Nibelungen. I have three ring cycles, and many Solti Wagner and Verdi recordings, but not that one.

Another one from a devoted fan of Herbert von Karajan - his first Der Rosenkavalier: again, probably regarded as his most famous operatic recording. Although I do have it on cassette...hmm.

For me it's probably the famed Schumann 4th under Wilhelm Furtwangler, even though I have about a dozen other recordings of said work. It's supposed to be fabulously fabulous, but after hearing his Beethoven , I am not sure I want to take the plunge......

I am sure there is a long list of famous recordings I don't own, mainly because the music/repertoire doesn't interest me, I can't like everything. For example, I don't have any complete operas with Callas except Carmen (which I do like) and that was a present.

Jscha Horenstein's Mahler Third. He's a good conductor, I have his Mahler Sixth and Eighth, but his Third eludes me. Not absolutely essential, as I have others. Most famous and infamous recordings that I've wanted I have managed to find.

Bartok -- Furtwaengler's Schumann Fourth with Berlin Philharmonic is pretty good ... the oboe solo in the slow movement, and the music to move furniture by in the finale. It's not like his Beethoven at all, although I like that also.

Wilhelm Kempff's famous mono Beethoven piano sonatas or the stereo remakes for that matter. I have been tempted by one or the other on many occasions but have never taken the plunge. To a large degree because of conflicting reports as to which is better and the fear of buying the wrong set (please no one suggest buying both!).
Ryan you beat me to the other one: Solti's Ring Cycle.

I don't have that Horowitz Rach 3 he made in the late seventies. Not sure I like Rach much though...

Mravinsky Shostakovich 8

Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony is dedicated personally to Yevgeny Mravinsky, and of course he conducted the world-premiere. I try to have all his recordings of Shostakovich.

Rasmus -- Horowitz's 1976 RCA High Performance CD of Rachmaninoff's third concerto is my favourite version by him, and of the work in general. Ormandy conducts. Around the same time, Horowitz made a VHS-DVD of it with Zubin Mehta. It's fascinating to see Horowitz play it. In the finale, during a rare rest of a few bars, he lifts his joined hands over his head in a prizefighter's salute before diving back in.

I saw Denis Matsuev play it with Valery Gergiev two years ago and don't expect to hear it played better live. Nikolai Lugansky played it here this year. He is very good, but Matsuev has quite a bit more panache.

In Horowitz's Rachmaninoff Third with Ormandy and Mehta I can actually here the string afterbeats in the opening, before the piano enters. On most recordings they either go for nothing or are inaudible.

Malx says:

Wilhelm Kempff's famous mono Beethoven piano sonatas or the stereo remakes for that matter.
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Maix
I prefer the Kempff mono a bit more and own both.

I would not do without my Backhaus mono set which was hard to find and expensive. I also love his stereo set and everything else I heard him do,

Regards-John

I have no recordings at all by Callas, Casals, Furtwaengler, Horowitz and Toscanini (mainly due to my unfortunate aversion to mono, the era of which would encompass the vast majority of the output). As regards individual releases from the stereo era the EMI recording of Elgar's Cello Concerto with J. Du Pre/Barbirolli and M. Argerich's 'debut' album are probably the most famous absentees.

The Channel Classics CD of Yuri Egorov playing Schubert D958 is virtually impossible to get at whatever price (and I start to care less and less about the amount). Not only would it provide me with, as far as I know, all his recorded solo output, I would also be able to re-create the one concert of his that I attended in the late 70s: all Debussy preludes, Beethoven andante favori, and that sonata.

Ryan-they're both easily available.

My missing disc is one I once had and let go. Harnoncourt and VCM playing music from 17th century Vienna. Music by Fux, Leopold I, Schmelzer, Biber and Legrenzi. Can't find it anywhere. There's a Vanguard purporting to be the one but it isn't. It came out again as a CD on EMI Electrola but has disappeared without trace. Mine was an Australian World Record Club vinyl I bought for $2. I play it in my head.

Taking up on Peter's theme, I have Marriner's recording of Haydn's Seven Last Words (EMI) on LP but would like it on CD. For some reason it never seems to have been released on CD.

Peter: Thanks, yes I am aware that they are available, but I just don't seem to have got around to getting them.

McDoom,
if you only need the content and not the original disc itself, I might be able to help you out.
Kind Regards
Jörg

Dear Jörg,

Thank you for your kind and generous offer. Unfortunately, I am one of those who 'must' have original discs at all (well, nearly all...) costs. Obsessive, compulsive, and very disorderly. Expensive, too. But that's life. I very much appreciate your post.

Could you spare a few words on your impressions of the recording? I did not hear it; only a live event at more or less the same time. Is it as good as my memory makes it?

Kind regards,
Wouter

Dear Wouter,

I listened to the recording for the first time in years this afternoon and found my memories confirmed: It´s the Moments Musicaux, that move me most. Maybe a matter of acoustics - the sonata was played in the great hall of the Concertgebouw, while the M.M. come from the more intimate surroundings of a smaller recital-room in the building. The calm in these pieces, played in Nov. 1987, is extraordinary, while the sonata (from Febr. 1982) focuses more on unexaggerated delicacy, forward momentum and clear contrasts of light and shade. My impressions of course!
But you have to hear for yourself. Owning this disc obviously means a lot more to you than to me, so if you contact me, I will pass it on.

Kind regards

Jörg

Solti's Ring.
I had it on cassette once in the seventies, played it only once and never backed it up on CD when binning those horrible pieces of technology.

I don't agree with that dismissal of the humble cassette. There were a fair few times when I found the ability to access any particular point in the music, not just where the engineers had inserted track breaks, a useful one. You can get part of the way towards that with vinyl, but not with the same precision. Blank cassettes also held more music than their CD counterparts do now, which I appreciated as someone who enjoys putting his own couplings together.

A grand, grand offer indeed. Thank you very much - I have contacted you off-list.

Wouter

HC,

I actually preferred cassettes to LP, as they were more sturdy in handling repeated listening. I hardly ever noticed one deteriorating, which was a constant gripe with the 33 1/3s. The little bit of additional noise was a price I was prepared to pay.

Now? I have none left, but did back-up the most treasured recordings on to harddisk, ready for burning to CDs one day. Oh yes, that one day again. That is going to be one busy day.

I mainly used cassettes for portable music and made my own compilations as well as buying pre-recorded ones. The sound quality isn't as good as LPs but their portability was a great boon to me in my years of travelling. I replaced them as a source of portable music with mini-discs, an unfortunately short-lived technology. I still have most of my cassettes but currently nothing to play them on, my player packed up last month.

Kleiber's Beethoven 5 & 7, Brahms 4. Perhaps they should go on the cd list.

I'm not mad on cassettes. I don't see the undying appeal that LPs have. I remember as a child how many times the damn tape would get stuck.

I did, however, notice that Joan Sutherland's Romantic French Arias album had roomier sound on the cassette than on CD transfer. I wonder what the LP is like?