All Strings Considered A Subjective List of Classical Works & Recordings All Recordings are available from the Lake Oswego Public Library These are my faves, your mileage may vary. Bill Baars, Director Composer / Title Performer(s) Comments Middle Ages and Renaissance Sequentia We carry a lot of plainsong and chant; HILDEGARD OF BINGEN recordings by the Anonymous 4 are also Antiphons highly recommended. Various, Renaissance vocal and King’s Consort, Folger Consort instrumental collections. or Baltimore Consort Baroque Era Biondi/Europa Galante or Vivaldi wrote several hundred concerti; try VIVALDI Loveday/Marriner. the concerti for multiple instruments, and The Four Seasons the Mandolin concerti. Also, Corelli's op. 6 and Tartini (my fave is his op.96). HANDEL Asch/Scholars Baroque For more Baroque vocal, Bach’s cantatas - Messiah Ensemble, Shaw/Atlanta start with 80 & 140, and his Bach B Minor Symphony Orch. or Mass with John Gardiner conducting. And for Jacobs/Freiberg Baroque fun, Bach's “Coffee” cantata. orch. HANDEL Lamon/Tafelmusik For an encore, Handel's “Music for the Royal Water Music Suites Fireworks.” J.S. BACH Akademie für Alte Musik Also, the Suites for Orchestra; the Violin and Brandenburg Concertos Berlin or Koopman, Pinnock, Harpsicord Concerti are delightful, too. or Tafelmusik J.S. BACH Walter Gerwig More lute - anything by Paul O'Dette, Ronn Works for Lute McFarlane & Jakob Lindberg. Also interesting, the Lute-Harpsichord. J.S. BACH Bylsma on period cellos, Cello Suites Fournier on a modern instrument; Casals' recording was the standard Classical Era DuPre/Barenboim/ECO & HAYDN Barbirolli/LSO Cello Concerti HAYDN Fischer, Davis or Kuijiken "London" Symphonies (93-101) HAYDN Mosaiques or Kodaly quartets Or start with opus 9, and take it from there. String Quartets op. 20, #2&4 MOZART Meyer, Brymer or Shifrin. Next, try the Clarinet Quintet & the Sinfonia Clarinet Concerto Concertante. MOZART Serkin/Szell Mozart wrote 27 concertos for piano and 5 Piano Concertos Nos. 19 & 20 for violin; all are worth seeking out. MOZART Karl Böhm/Berlin Symphonies Nos. 35-41 Philharmonic Romantic Era BEETHOVEN Rudolf Serkin. Piano Sonatas Nos. 8, 14 and 23. BEETHOVEN Mosaiques, Lindsay quartet. Start with the opus 18s and work your way The String Quartets up from there. BEETHOVEN Hanover Band Symphony No. 3 BEETHOVEN Perlman/Giulini or Violin Concerto Heifetz/Reiner BEETHOVEN Carlos Kleiber/Vienna Symphony No. 5 in c minor, Op. Philharmonic 67 BEETHOVEN Bruno Walter Symphony No. 6 BEETHOVEN Arrau/Davis All 5 have moments of great beauty, as does Piano Concerto #5 the “Triple” concerto, often on cd with Brahms' Double concerto. BEETHOVEN Istomin/Schneider/Casals , Piano trio op.97, “Archduke” Kempf/Szeryng/Fournier or Immerseel/Beths/Bylsma SCHUBERT Curzon/Vienna or “Trout” Quintet or Serkin/Laredo/Naegele/Parna s/Levine SCHUBERT Walter/Columbia Symphony Symphony No. 8, “Unfinished” Orch. BEETHOVEN Walter/Columbia Symphony Symphony No. 9 Orch. SCHUBERT Murray Perahia Impromptus SCHUBERT Szell/Cleveland Symphony #no. 9, “The Great” BERLIOZ Colin Davis/ London A psychedelic symphony if ever there was Symphonie Fantastique Symphony Orchestra one. MENDELSSOHN Mackerras/Orchestra of the Also. A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture Symphony No. 4 "Italian" Age of Enlghtenment Op. 21 & Incidental Music Op. 61 BERLIOZ Timmerman/Davis or Harold in Italy Lincer/Bernstein STRAUSS (Johann II) Boskovsky Waltzes MUSSORGSKY Richter, for piano solo And who can forget the recording by Pictures at an Exhibition Solti or Maazel for orchestral Emerson, Lake & Palmer? BRAHMS Abbado/Berlin Philharmonic And Symphony No. 2. And 3. And 4 Symphony No. 1 BORODIN Borodin quartet Check out his Polovtsian Dances, too. And String quartet No. 2 Emerson quartet his Symphony No. 2 BRAHMS Jascha Heifetz/Reiner/Chicago Also try his version of the Beethoven, Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 Symphony Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky violin concerti. MAHLER Fischer - Dieskau Songs of a Wayfarer. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen MAHLER Abbado/Berlin Philharmonic Symphony No. 1 RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Beecham/Royal Philharmonic Schererazade Orchestra DVORÁK Emerson String Quartet The Bagatelles are fabulous, too. String Quartet, op. 96, “American” DVORAK Marriner/Academy of St. While you're at it, Dvorak's Serenade for Serenade for Strings Martin in the Fields Winds is wonderful, too; so is Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings. DVORAK Kertesz /London Symphony 7 and 8 are great, too. Symphony No. 9, “From the New Orchestra World” DVORÁK Fournier/Szell/Berlin Often combined on cd with Tchaikovsky's Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. Philharmonic splendid Rococo Variations. 104 PUCCINI DelosAngeles/Björling/Corena Opera – It's not as bad as it sounds. Really. La Bohème /Merrill/Tozzi RCA /Beecham RAVEL Martinon/Chicago Symphony Also worth checking out - Ma Mere L'Oye, Introduction and Allegro Tokyo Strinq Quartet/Galway Bolero. et al. Modern Era Stravinsky/Columbia Other great Stravinsky ballets - The Firebird, STRAVINSKY Symphony Apollo. The Rite of Spring Ozawa/Boston Symphony VAUGHAM-WILLIAMS Bean/Boult/New Philharmonia And if you like this, try his Fantasia on a The Lark Ascending Orch. Theme by Thomas Tallis and his Fantasia on Greensleeves. RESPIGHI Lane/Atlanta Symphony Orch. And Fountains of Rome, Roman Festivals, Pines of Rome DePriest/Oregon Symphony The Birds, Ancient Airs and Dances. Dutoit/Montreal Symphony ELGAR Jacqueline DuPre/Barbirolli Elgar's “Enigma” Variations are fascinating. Cello concerto And his violin concerto, too. STRAVINSKY Stravinsky/Columbia For the non-vocal Pulcinella Suite, Neville Pulcinella Symphony Marriner. Follow with Dumbarton Oaks GERSHWIN Leonard Bernstein/Columbia Rhapsody in Blue Symphony Orch. PROKOFIEV Tilson Thomas/Los Angeles Symphony #1, “Classical;” and Peter and Lieutenant Kije Suite Philharmonic the Wolf. RODRIGO Bonnell/Dutoit Also, Fantasia para un gentilhombre Concierto de Aranjuez COPLAND Tilson Thomas/San Francisco Rodeo Appalachian Spring Sym. HEATH Warren - Green/London This cd is a good introduction to Glass, Frontier Chamber Orchestra Adams and the minimalist school. .