Best recordings of all time ...

[Alex C]

I love the people who respond to 'the best ----- of all time' and list a dozen of something. Some folks must have missed what 'best' means.

Okay, best.... hard to do but it was supposed to be. I guess it could mean 'what made the biggest impression on me...

The vinyl pressing of Reiner & the CSO playing Alexander Nevsky. When Jake entered with that wonderful bit in the Battle on Ice that Sergei scored for tuba, I couldn't believe it. The sound was positively alive. I have loved a hundred recordings since then but nothing has impressed me so much, it was so alien to what I heard any other tubist sound like.

Apologies to those of you who bought this on CD, forget it. The engineers have rolled the bass response down so much that the effect is impossible to hear, gone forever. This was the last vinyl recording I played (fifteen years ago), just to hear it one last time.

[Chuck Jackson]

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Cool. Might I also add:

"Nighthawks at the Diner"-Tom Waits
"Rain Dogs" Tom Waits
"The Essential Liam Clancy"
"Smash, Clap"- Naftules Dream
"The Dream of the Golden Dreydl" Naftules Dream
"Automatic for the People"-REM

Chuck"summer listening time"Jackson

[Chuck Jackson]

Have you ever heard the recording of Blue Skies by a Bay Area group called Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers? Funny name - serious recording. It is on her album "One Hour Mama." Excellent stuff to investigate for your Summer listening enjoyment.

I will look for it tomorrow. Might I suggest:

Hot Club of Cowtown- "Dev'lish Mary"

A good time will ensue after partaking of this fine entertainment. Best served with a steak and a cold beer or 7.

Cheers

[ace1719]

The Gergiev/Kirov recording of Poem of Extacy is really something else, though the MSO recording of the organ symphony (Saint-Saens 3) with Dutoit is pretty amazing as well.

[ztuba]

Has anyone listed the Mahler 5 recording with Mehta and the New York Philharmonic yet?

[luke_hollis]

I recently picked up a CD of the CSO (Franck Symphony in D Minor) and BSO (Petrouchka) from the 60s that has the CSO Brass at its finest.

Pierre Monteaux and the CSO play an unrivaled Franck Symphony in D Minor.

At about the 7:00 mark of the third movement, Bud Herseth (I assume) plays the loudest, longest and most clear phrase I have ever heard. The tuba playing is outstanding.