The biggest finale in classic music? My vote is for the final movement of Bruckner's 5th Symphony, and specifically the gigantic coda which puts an exclamation point on the massive fugue Bruckner played out for the previous 25 minutes.

One of the great Bruckner conductors of the 20th and into the 21st century is Stanisaw Skrowaczewski, and his Bruckner cycle with the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony, as be was pushing 80 years old is magnificent. The 5th is no exception.



On CD

A different take on the Bruckner 5th, Eugen Jochum's late 50s recording with the Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks aka the Bavarian Radio Symphony. Brisk, with pointed rhythms this performance really bounces along. Until the final coda where Jochum savors the great choral and the Bayerishen brass blow the roof off the join.



On CD.

I've had this disc for a while but never got around to hearing it. Which was a major oversight on my part.

IMO Handel's keyboard music should be as well known and frequently played as Bach's. Generally I prefer it on modern piano, and Bridget Cunningham's performance on harpsichord doesn't change my mind. But it is well worth hearing and the sound on this recording is top shelf.



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In general I prefer the modern concert grand to the harpsichord, mostly because it has a much larger tonal and interpretive palate. But Zuzana Ruzickova finds such a wide variety of sound and feeling in her Bach recordings that they are among my favorites regardless of instrument.



On CD

In my opinion the two undeniably great Bach pianists (not to be confused with pianists who have made great Bach recordings) of the late 20th/early 21st century are Andres Schiff and Angela Hewitt. And Hewitt's complete Bach recordings have recently been issued in a convenient box or download. I have a few of her recordings already, but at like 2 bucks a CD I bought the download and it is outstanding. If I were to compare I would say Hewitt is more lyrical and singing, Schiff is a little more rhythmic and danceable. But both are outstanding and essential.



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To say Maria Tipo's Bach Partitas are the exact opposite of Glenn Gould's would not be entirely correct. They are both gifted pianists with instantly recognizable musical personalities. But it is fair to say Tipo's interpretation is the exact opposite. Where Gould is all in on mathematical precision,  Tipo finds Bach's inner Rachmaninoff, or maybe Mahler. She uses the pedal, legato, rubato, and voicing to give the Partitas very much of a late romantic flavor. It might not be for everyone, and it might not be for everyday, but it is very very interesting.



On CD.

Mahler 9 is one of my favorite pieces, and Jesus Lopez-Cabos is an excellent sounding, and very interesting version. He is sorta in between the "emotional" school like Bernstein, and the "intellectual" school, like Boulez. The Cincinnati Symphony gives up nothing to its "name brand" competitors and Telarc's sound wins in a landslide.



On CD

Frederick Delius was a unpleasant person who wrote beautiful music. None of it more beautiful than his Florida Suite, inspired by the spirituals he heard when he lived there briefly.



On CD

Thomas Beecham was a great champion of Delius' music while the composure was alive, and no one has done it better since. His collection of Delius recordings is truly definitive.

The Big One. The Rilling Compete Bach, on 171 CDs, a recent acquisition. I actually have another Compete Bach, that I bought many years ago, but it is more "historically informed" than I would prefer. This isn't exactly old fashioned Bach, but it is a little more luxurious than current fashion.



On CD

I've been wanting to re-listen to the Cantatas, and Rillings are excellent.

Well, you fooled around and found out! And got to enjoy some music. That was time well spent.

Ha

It seemed the right point in this thread to introduce it. . . .

For me, Felix Mendelssohn is the greatest teenage composer ever, and it isn't that close. Mozart is famous as a child prodigy, and wrote a lot of lovely music as a teenager. But it pales in comparison to his mature work and very little of it is performed these days. Schubert invented German Art Song as a teenager, and that is certainly a thing, but in the greater scheme it is not a very big thing. Mendelssohn wrote masterpieces as a teenager: The overture to A Midsummer Night Dream, the Octet, and the A Minor String Quartet, Opus 13. It is (likely) a riff on Beethoven's great, late a minor quartet which was still widely considered the ravings of a crazy person when Mendelssohn was young. And it is as great a work as any romantic string quartet written by anyone.



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Most everything the Talich Quartet touches turns to gold, and it's Mendelssohn Quartets are no exception.

CA, I too very much enjoy boyhood Mendelssohn.  His string symphonies, a few of which were written it his pre-teen years, are fascinating.  Mendelssohn’s God given talent was, in my opinion, nothing short of miraculous.  I have the BIS three disc set from 1998.  As one would expect from BIS, the small orchestra played well, and the recording is excellent.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra recordings are like potato chips, you can't stop with one. I spun up more (very) young Mendelssohn, the double concerto for piano and violin. I had not heard this recording before, but it is really good. And by really good I mean for a major composer. For a 14 year old, it is crazy.

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On CD, from the OCO DG box.

Can anyone not like Spanish classical guitar music? I mean it doesn't have to be your favorite, but the combination of catchy tunes, exotic harmony and danceable rhythms is pretty cool. And since guitars are relatively easy to record they usually sound good. Of course Franz Halász's playing and the BIS recording are way better than good.



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Schoenberg started writing Moses und Aron (note he did not use Aaron because he was superstitious about a 13 letter title) shortly after WWI in response to the rising tide of anti-Semitism in the German speaking lands. And while it was still unfinished at the time of his death in 1951 it is considered one of, if not the great masterpiece of his career. I have enjoyed his earlier, shorter, smaller, expressionistic "opera" (technically a monodrama because there is only one character) Erwartung but Moses is a full fledged unapologetically 12 tone opera so I have avoided it until now.

That was a mistake. This is fascinating, impressive and deeply affecting music. It is the story of Exodus from the Old Testament, and focuses on the relationship between Moses and his brother Aaron.  And while it is, I guess, academically 12 tone, and the "melody" and harmony are sometimes aggressively modern, listening to it was not unpleasant at all. It just takes more concentration than conventional tonal music because there is no recognizable melody or chord progressions.



Herbert Kegel was a modern music specialist based in the old East Germany who made a bunch of really good, but largely neglected recordings. There is the issue of the final act, which was not set to music and is not in this recording. It is often presented as spoken dialog, but while it is public domain in most of the world it is under copyright in the US and I can't find it online. I'll probably buy the score.

Robert Silverman's Beethoven Sonatas were played on a (fancy, Bosendorfer) player piano and recorded by Stereophile. They sound great and the interpretation is interesting. I guess these days you'd call in "personal" or " romantic." Pretty different from the more restrained performance practice common in the 21st century.



On CD.