Category: Best Recordings
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Best Recording of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique: One Goes Too Far
No other symphony in the standard repertoire splits conductors this badly. Tchaikovsky’s Sixth ends with a slow movement that dies away to nothing, and the score gives you almost no protection: get the tempo wrong and the finale either sounds…
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Best Recordings of Holst’s The Planets: One Clear Winner
Put on two recordings of The Planets back to back and you may wonder if they’re the same piece. One Mars grinds forward like a tank with the brakes cut; another sounds brisk and almost polite. One Neptune dissolves into…
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The Best Recordings of Carmina Burana — One Clear Winner
Most people meet Carmina Burana through about ninety seconds of it. “O Fortuna” — the hammering choir, the timpani landing like a door being kicked in — has scored movie trailers, talent-show eliminations, sports montages, and more than one aftershave…
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The Best Recordings of Beethoven 9, Ranked (and One to Skip)
Ask ten serious listeners for the best recording of Beethoven 9 and you will start an argument, not get an answer. No other symphony splits opinion this hard, and there is a reason. The Ninth is two pieces welded together:…