help my brain: classic recommendations please
 

"They" say that Classical music is brain food. I'm looking for some recommendations of background classical that's inducive of growin' brains. I'm not just looking for composer/piece though. Please give me recommendations of specific recordings. Cover art might help the best, as classical recordings are confusing as hell. Thanks, y'all.

iannis xenakis-pithopratka

yeah

You cannot, and should not, continue existing without Glenn Gould doing JS Bach's Goldberg variations. You should also get the same doing the Art of Fugue.

They say Mozart is meant to the be the one that's good for the brain. If opera seems like the thing for you, I can't recommend Giulini's rendering of Don Giovanni enough. If not, then try some of the quartets - the Franz Schubert Quartet have done a few of the mid-period ones which I'd recommend (KV #s 464, 465, 499 ('Hoffmeister'), 575)

You should get a complete set of Beethoven symphonies as well. I personally think Karajan's complete set is worth it, but there's a lot to be said for what I've heard of Furtwangler, Toscanini or Solti.

I'll leave it there by let me know if you want more recommendations.

Don't bother with Xenakis unless you like unerringly impossible music. I'm trying to play a solo violin piece of his at the moment and it's just a total cunt.

thanks Glice, that's definitely the kind of list I was hoping to get. And if you think of others that are must-have recordings, by all mean expand on yr list.

I always liked playing Tchaikovsky when I played clarinet. I never really listened to many recordings though, as I got enough of it playing it.

I made a recording of Mozart's Symphony #35 in D, and the first movement of his 40th symphony in G minor.

Here are the individual tracks:

Symphony 35 in D
I. Allegro con Spirito
II. Andante
III. Menuetto - Trio
IV. Presto

Symphony 40 in G minor
I. Molto Allegro

get the harry partch collection volume 2

Bach sonatas and partitas
played by Itzhak Perlman.
He is the most gifted amazing violinist...

 

This is one of my all time faves

 

Isaac Stern 60th anniversary recording. AMAZING mindblowing virtuoso playing throughout.

I was expecting something more like this from 'the Instigator'.

rock n roll is better

Let me ask a question also about you people with classical libraries... what's the best way to tag them. Like take the one above. You've got the composer, the orchestra and the conductor. Would it be like:

Artist= Georg Solti
Title= Mahler: Symphony No. 8

and where do you indicate the orchestra? Do you put Artist= Georg Solti & London Symphony Orchestra? Or... ? Cuz again, all the different classical recordings and re-recordings by various orchestras, symphonies, conductors etc gets confusing to me.

I have CDs and Vinyl. I order them by the name of the composer. I would say the order or precedence should always proceed from the composer, but I have no idea how I'd order a digital collection (and hopefully won't ever have to bother). Depends on how much you've got though. I've still got a relatively small collection, but if I had the complete recorded works of Oistrakh, that'd probably sit on a shelf on its own rather than by composer.

Rock n Roll is the shiznit

I go by composer name, unless it is an album by a specific performer, which will then go under their name.

Glice - I loves the Mahler too. My main preference though is for concertos.

John Williams - ET soundtrack

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to atsonicpark again."

Listen to the man.

I really like Penderecki's "Dies Irae" and Messiaen's "Quartet For the End of Time" lately.