Essential Classical Music - The Best Orchestral Recordings

[@CaminoAir]

I admire anyone who can speak to a camera and achieve the effect of directly addressing the viewer. It is an unnatural thing for us to speak to an inanimate object, without any feedback from a physical audience. So, thank you for presenting me with this level of information and recommendations. I'll be sorting though them for some time to come.

[@lucasjankowski7117]

What a fabolous effort with those marvelous recommendations. Thank you very much sir.

[@iracema1]

Great William F. Buckley imitation! I felt like I was watching an episode of Firing Line, LOL!

[@GilZilkha]

Thanks! That was one of my introductions to Bach as a kid

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

Those Britten Brandenburgs are classic. If memory serves, it was trumpeter David Mason practicing this part that inspired George Martin to write the famous piccolo trumpet part for the Beatles tune, Penny Lane.

[@carlosacarter]

Love these videos!

[@bonecarver4248]

Great reviews ! Thank You !

[@jamescrawford9883]

I love Bohm’s Beethoven symphonies! As you say, consistently good! Klemperer’s 1,2,4 & 5 are the only ones for me.

[@barrysaines254]

Thanks for recommending the Dobrowen Scherazade, I thoroughly enjoy it.

[@marzzt]

Thank you for taking the time to do this. Enjoying the video (so far) very much. Just subscribed. Cheers!

[@GilZilkha]

Sure thing, thank you!

[@germanchris4440]

Thank you, Mr. Zilkha, for these very interesting recommendations and explanations. But I am sorely missing Rachmaninoff here, namely the Isle of the Dead and the Symphonic Dances. I'd really like to hear your recommendations for this.

[@mankiperukangas7785]

Those closing pages of Finlandia are sung as the Finlandia Hymn frequently in festive occasions in Finland. It is about as popular and of similar national importance as our national anthem.

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

Coppola's orchestra was a pickup group with a name that translates roughly, The Large Symphony Orchestra of the Gramophone. But I'm not so sure it was the first recording, as Ravel's own recording with the Lamoureux Orchestra was made the same month! And, as a trombonist, what caught my attention is that both recordings use the same trombonist! Ravel recorded for the Polydor label, while Coppola recorded for HMV.

[@rickmilam413]

Total agree with your Daphnis choices. The one I might add, for myself, is Ansermet. Not nearly as ethereal as Monteux, my favorite, but has this kind of... organic quality, for lack of a better term. Perhaps it would sit between Monteux and Munch in terms of feel and approach. I didn't hear Monteux until last year. I thought I knew the piece weel but he brought out nuance that I had never notice.

[@b1i2l336]

Your choices are superb. I have one suggestion for a Richard Strauss recording that you did not mention: Toscanini's NBC Symphony performance of 'Tod und Verklärung' is simply hair raising, and I think his greatest of all his many recordings. The first time I heard it I thought MY soul was leaving my body!

[@jamesscottvideos]

Pretty good list. My fave La Mer is the RCO under Haitink, and The Planets with Royal Liverpool under Mackerras. P.S. Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture is pronounced Heb-ruh-dees. It's in Scotland. 😉

[@shawnhampton8503]

I was giving thumbs up on pretty much all your choices. For Corelli check out (if you can find it) Roy Goodman and the Brandenburg Consort on Hyperion, and, readily available, but not the entire opus 6 sadly: New Dutch Academy, Simon Murphy on Pentatone. Sublime!!! Check out Lorin Maazel's EMI Dvorak Slavonic Dances with the Berlin Phil. Super but the recording has a low level... so crank it. For Janacek my fave is the Mackerras Vienna Phil version on Decca.

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

Quixote's comical companion wasn't Pancho Villa, it was Sancho Panza.

[@barrysaines254]

Gil was that Tower in NY?

[@GilZilkha]

Austin, TX. But when I was a student in NYC I frequented both the Greenwich Village and Lincoln Center stores.

[@barrysaines254]

​@@GilZilkha The Village was my hangout, I really miss the hours I spent talking with the Classical buffs. Do remember the buyer, John Green? He moved on and ended up in Academy Records (Another great place for used classical cds.)

[@angreagach]

As for Szell's recording of the Slavonic Dances, the first four bars of the opening repeat of the 15th dance (Opus 72 No. 2) are omitted, no doubt because Szell thought Dvořák couldn't want the introduction to be repeated, could he? Yes he could! See his piano waltz, opus 54 no. 4, which repeats its introduction TWICE and the Furiant opus 42 no. 2, which repeats its introduction in varied form after its middle section. Szell spoils a humorous opening and reduces it to something commonplace.

[@nepse75]

Pierre Monteux never conducted The Planets. The cd you showed was Karajan’s Decca recording with Monteux’s Enigma.

[@GilZilkha]

Who said Monteux conducted the Planets? Certainly not me. Thanks for watching but please make sure you are actually commenting on what is said in the video.

[@jimcrawford5039]

He never RECORDED the Planets! But he did conduct them!

[@richfarmer3478]

I have to disagree with you on Richard Strauss not being a melodist. The opening of Also Sprach? The hero's theme and love music from Ein Heldenleben? The final moments of Tod und Verklaerung? The Don Juan theme and love music? Almost all of Sinfonia Domestica? The Four Last Songs? Der Rosenkavalier???

[@DerrickMims]

The Trio at the end of Rosenkavalier is one of the heart-stoppingly beautiful numbers I have ever heard.

[@hmhparis1904]

I think Gil just wanted to stress out that in Strauss’ music the melody is never the dominant part of development.

[@arthurgoodman2531]

You certainly sing better than Dave Hurwitz.

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

How could you possibly talk about Grieg without mentioning Per Dreier's LSO recording on Unicorn?

[@martiglesias60]

I prefer the Bolero faster, between 15 and 16 min. Otherwise its getting bored. For me there are better versions of the Bolero. By the way, bolero is a Spanish dance with that rhythm. Karayan never was interested in "Spanish" rhythms or music.