How can I find out which recording to go after for a particular selection of 'classical' music?

Question

I'm just beginning to get into orchestral music, etc. (classical, but not from exclusively the classical mvmt) and it would be great if there was a website that compared the pros and cons of getting a particular recording of a piece. Perhaps you know of one?

for example, "this one is very warm sounding, but loses a lot of details as a result of bad engineering. This one is very well recorded, but the musicians sound uninspired. This one is a brilliant performance, but is 50 years old so the recording has many limitations..."

Answer 1

to tell you the truth, you don't know how it sounds unless you listen to it yourself. don't trust what the "experts" say. if you value opinions, then try going to
http://www.classical-music-review.org/
http://www.classical.net/music/frames/
or you can read listener opinions, these are more valuable: like on amazon.com

Personally, I enjoy listening to both the new and old recordings. For example, the great pianists, Vladimir Horowitz, Artur Rubenstein, and Sergei Rachmaninov are worth listening to even though the sound quality is not good. But for the most part the modern recordings should be better for you, get ones that are digitally recorded. Try listening to samples on iTunes and see if you like it first. If you are on a budget then I have always been surprisingly pleased by the Naxos label -- featuring mostly Eastern European artists which are quite good. Recently I have been downloading very inexpensive classical music from http://www.eclassical.com and haven't heard a bad performance yet. Just yesterday I downloaded Bach's Goldberg Variations with Koroliov at the piano -- over 1 hr of music for only $5.99 & they have lots of complete works for 0.79 - 0.99 .. try the Rachmaninov concerto #3. Good luck and happy listening.

Answer 2

the best thing i found is to listen to a lot of stuff. i listen to the local classical station and whenever i hear something i like i try to write it down. because classical music is so old and has been covered so many times (especially the biggies like beethoven and mozart) there could be literally hundreds of recording of a single piece of music. you might also want to try online radio stations. they often tell you the composer, conducter, orchestra name in whatever player you may be using.
plus if you just read about it you may end up with a lemon anyway. you might have different tasts than the person who wrote the review and like a certain recording that they found terrible.

Answer 3

An ambitious question, for sure.

But I don't recall of any mainstream online websites. I'm sure you might find individual music critics with their own sites.

All Music Guide, however, is a great source for music. And though they have an extensive classical section, I have not seen what you've asked for, except on rock, pop and jazz artists.

Don't give up, though. And don't let critics alone determine whether something is good or not.

Answer 4

When buying CDs try going for the the big publishig coumpanies like sony CDs are very good. the key thing is try finding the big brands you heard of.

I dont know a sight but a good sugestonis thry buying the sound tracks from the movies you like. lord of the rings have great great music, Stars wars are pretty good too.