Best classical concertos music according to redditors

Keep in mind that the term "classical" is very vague. If you ask someone to recommend a good "rock" album, you could get styles ranging from ACDC to Britney Spears, from Beatles to Lynard Skynard. Same thing when you use a broad term like "classical" - you'll range from Gregorian chants to atonal avant-garde. Don't give up on classical music just because you didn't like the first few things you heard - there's a huge range of styles and composers.

Here's a starter list where I've tried to give you an idea of several styles and eras, staying in the realm of "popular" classical music - nothing here is too obscure or fringe. You can get some quick samples from the Amazon links, or try searching Grooveshark for the full pieces.

• Barber: Adagio For Strings Op.11 - Slow yet intense string piece.
  
  
• Dvorak: New World Symphony - Good symphony with a wide range, from slow moving parts to more bombastic parts. (this piece is sometimes referred to as the "Star Wars" symphony, it has a similar tone at certain parts)
  
  
• Rachmaninov: Vespers - One of my personal favorites. Choral music - intense, haunting at times, interesting harmonies founded on that trademark Russian low bass.
  
  
• Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro A very accessible opera, and one of Mozart's most famous, perfect for a beginning opera listener.
  
  
• Beethoven - Symphonies 5 and 9. Easily two of Beethoven's most famous symphonies. Beyond the parts you hear in movies and commercials, very moving and complex pieces. The 9th has massive depth, particularly the 4th movement. I literally have over a dozen recordings of this piece alone, and hear something new every time I listen to it.
  
  
• Vivaldi: Four Seasons. You'll recognize this in quite a few places. Try the Winter suite, especially the third movement.
  
  
• Bach: Brandenburg Concertos. A good example of Bach's counterpoint style in Baroque string music.
  
  
• Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto #2. Intense and melodic, this piece transitions from sweeping melodic lines building to full frenzy - almost chaotic at times.
  
  
• Beethoven: Piano Concerto #5 - Emporer. You could call this a "fancy" piece - several running lines across the piano, including heavy ornamentation and embellishments, particularly in the 1st and 3rd movements. The 2nd movement is more reserved, and it's tranquility bridges the more lively movements.
  
  
• Stravinsky: Rite of Spring. Fascinating, driving intensity - asymmetrical rhythms make this very interesting, unconventional.
  
  
• If you're feeling adventurous and want to delve into a longer piece of a different style, Handel's Messiah or Mendelssohn's Elijah are two great oratorios.

If you dig enough there's always a classical music (ie post copyright) CD for a couple bucks.

Who doesn't want more Vivaldi in their life?

This is an honest and correct answer, unfortunately hidden behind my RES filter that hides comments with too low a score. So here's an upvote for you. I enjoy Valentina's videos but she wouldn't be mentioned in any conversation about the best pianists alive today.

I think many people, including myself, would pick Martha Argerich as the most skilled pianist alive today -- I see you mentioned her above, too.

EDIT - I see others below have mentioned Argerich, too. For those who don't know her or who have not heard her Rach 3, here's a good album to check out what we're talking about. It's not the greatest Rach 3 ever recorded, but it's up there, and is certainly one of, if not the fieriest ever recorded.

A few to consider, some more affordable than others:

• Complete Webern
  
• Complete Varese
  
• The DG Complete Beethoven Edition (if you can find it anywhere)
  
• The Philips Complete Mozart Edition (if you can find it anywhere)
  
• Steve Reich
  
• Philip Glass
  
• Handel - Orchestral Works
  
• Bach - Orchestral Works
  
• Ravel - Complete Edition
  
• Debussy - Complete Edition
  
• Shostakovich Edition (one of the few Brilliant Classics box sets I can wholeheartedly recommend, unlike many of the others which can be a bit patchy)
  
• Strauss - Complete operas
  
• Wagner - Complete operas (Solti)
  
• Boulez - Bartok
  
• Boulez conducts Schoenberg (far from complete, but this about the best you can do)
  
• Boulez - Stravinsky
  
• Various Bach choral stuff - Gardiner
  
• Stravinsky
  
• Alban Berg Collection
  
• Berlioz - Complete orchestral works (Davis)
  
• Brahms - Complete Edition (absolutely superb collection)
  
• Britten conducts Britten + operas 1 and operas 2 + Complete Britten
  
• Sibelius - Symphonies and tone poems
  
• Elgar - Collector's Edition
  
• Vaughan Williams - Collector's Edition
  
• Barber - orchestral works (Alsop)
  
• Scriabin - Piano works
  
• C.P.E. Bach Edition
  
• Corelli - Complete Works
  
• Telemann - Tafelmusik
  
• Schubert - Masterworks (Brilliant Classics - not always the best recordings, but for the amount of stuff you get, worth the money
  
• Poulenc - complete works
  
• Messiaen - complete edition
  
• Mahler - complete edition (the symphony recordings here are a representative cross-section, you might want to supplement it with another complete cycle, e.g. Solti, Bernstein, Abbado, etc.)
  
• Liszt - Complete piano music
  
• Janacek - Operas
  
• Haydn - Symphonies (Hogwood), not complete, but as close as anyone has come to it
  
• Mozart - Symphonies (Pinnock) - an alternative to Mackerras
  
• Bartok - Piano works
  
• Debussy - Piano works
  
  If you need anything more specific than that, let me know and I'll try to recommend something.
  
  If you have a look in the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section for any of these, you'll find many more.

If you have these recordings, and you compare them to Argerich, she's done much better than he did. Maybe it's just the particular recordings I was using, but there's just no comparison. Ashkenazy can't do fast, intense, or energetic remotely as well as Argerich can.

Try some Mark O'Connor or Aaron Copland.

I think modern culture has promulgated the falsehood of the prodigy and the overnight success, such that we're trained to think everything is just talent that you're either born with or not. The truth is that gaining any skill like photography or cooking or ice skating or piano takes months and years of patient effort. There's really no way around that (even for prodigies), but you can learn to practice much more efficiently. Chuan Chang's book Fundamentals of Piano Practice might be very helpful. The Art of Practicing by Madeline Bruser is also quite good. You choice of music is your own of course, but I will add that my love of classical was absolutely triggered by this one album. I cannot recommend it too highly! It's just such a mind-boggling trip and I can't overstate it's impact on a bunch of us kids in the 1970's who had literally never heard this music before. Give it a shot. It might change your mind about what "classical" music can be! https://www.amazon.com/Switched-Bach-Johann-Sebastian/dp/B00005ORCV [EDIT: Added note on switched on bach]

Martha Argerich Rach 3 and Tchaikovsky - A classic. First rendition of Rach 3 I heard. Not the most technically perfect (e.g. compare with Kissin) but just so powerful and exhilarating.

Solti Mahler 8 in Vienna - Perfect soloists, perfect sound, perfect interpretation. Completely different league with respect to any other recording in terms of the soloists and Part 1.

Solti Brahms cycle - Great cycle. Either I love CSO/Solti recordings or I can't stand them. This is one of the former probably because Brahms is more in line with Solti's type of conducting. The fourth is particularily strong.

Mahler 2 Bernstein - Another classic. Not your everyday Mahler 2 but then again you don't listen to Mahler 2 every day. Pushing the score to its romantic limits as one reviewer put. Spiritual listening experience of death and transfiguration for the listener.

Eugene Ablulescu's Hammerklavier - Very interesting academic performance (not as slow or heartfelt as Solomon in the adagio for example). Rigid adherence to marked tempi. No idea why it isn't more well known.

Also I totally second the Gilels/Jochum Brahms concertos.

I have listened to Vladamir Askenazy's and Georg Solti's Beethoven: The Piano Concertos a lot. I mean like 200 times or more. I love the whole thing.

I also really enjoy Nelson Freire & Riccardo Chailly with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig playing Brahms Piano Concertos. I realize the hallmark for Brahms 1st Piano Concerto is the Clifford Curzon and George Szell recording but for some reason this recording is the one I go back to. Again I have listened to this Nelson Freire & Riccardo Chailly recording a ton of times.

Another album I have been listening to recently and obsessively is Paul Badura-Skoda's Schubert: The Complete Piano Sonatas Played on Period Instruments. I really love how Schubert's Sonatas sound on period fortepianos making it so that you have to play it faster since the strings cannot sustain the notes as long as modern pianos. Badura-Skoda also tried to tie fragment pieces into sonatas and extended some of the unfinished fragments like combining the F-sharp Minor D.571 fragment with D. 604 and two movements from D.570 to make "Sonata no. 8" as well as tacking on the C Major Allegretto D.346 onto the end of the C Major D.279 Sonata. While controversial to purists, I have quite enjoyed these additions especially C Major Allegretto D.346 which makes a unique use of the fagotto lever that gives a shocking power to the piece that I have never heard before. I will admit there are times where the playing is muddled which I think is attributed to both the artist and the instrument but for some reason I really like the sonatas like this plus I really love Schubert's piano music. This doesn't mean I love Kempff, Brendel or Richter's playing less but I really appreciate what this album does.

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You could try looking up this stuff
You can't usually go wrong with decent labels such as Decca. Also you could check out reviews here
I grew up listening to classical music as my dad was a fanatic. Also say for example you wish to listen to a certain composer such as Bach for example. Look for reviews or lists of what are considered the best recordings. There's a tonne of information out there and millions of recordings.

My favorite recordings I own is this and this

His most famous works are his piano concertos (particularly his second and third.) I really like this recording featuring Byron Janis. This new recording of the 1st and 2nd by the BPO and Leif Ove Andsnes is great, too.

Rachmaninoff was also a famed pianist himself, and there are some really interesting recordings of him playing his own music, like this one. (Spotify link.)

My absolute favourite, though, is his Symphonic Dances. It's warm, quirky, fun, late Rachmaninoff at his best. You could do worse than this recording by the London Philarmonic.

Hope that helps!

This is the really famous one with Reiner: https://www.amazon.com/Brahms-Tchaikovsky-Violin-Concertos-Johannes/dp/B0009U55RE/

It used to sell for under $10, it's not hard to find, should be able to get it on Ebay for less than Amazon.

Yes! Wendy Carlos, who used to be a man. I think he/she did some of the work on The Shining too. Amazon even seems to sell it.

http://www.amazon.com/Switched-On-Bach-Johann-Sebastian/dp/B00005ORCV

http://www.amazon.com/Clockwork-Orange-Carloss-Complete-Original/dp/B00000DGXX/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1457982168&sr=1-3

For a box-set, I've always been in love with Haitink/LSO for the Brahms symphonies. I've never been more passionate about a particular recording because I think these are a world above all others available.

Of course, for the 4th Symphony, Kleiber is flawless as well. And, though I haven't come across it as a CD release, there is a film available on YouTube of Kleiber conducting the 2nd, which is also amazing.

Thanks for the intro to Maslanka. This is fantastic. Do you know of a quality CD recording?

Also, 'Yes' on all things Pärt.

Edit: It looks like this is about the only choice, no?

CD cover is included.

Edit:

> Rachmaninov Piano Concertos No.s 1 & 2

> Krystian Zimerman

> Boston Symphony Orchestra

> Seiji Ozawa

It's a rip from this CD.

Does anyone know why CDs of Switched-On Bach sell for such a premium?

I managed to get a second-hand one for about €10, but I've seen them on offer for $60+
Here, for example

I've only heard the Solti renditions, which are good but not great. However, I assume these are the most amazing thing in the universe.

Beethoven - Piano Concertos
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Chicago Symphony, Georg Solti

http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Piano-Concertos-Ludwig-von/dp/B0000041K9/ref=sr_1_1

Stravinsky - Le Sacre du Printemps
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Antal Dorati

http://www.amazon.com/Stravinsky-Petrushka-Le-Sacre-Printemps/dp/B00000E3CJ/ref=sr_1_1

Wagner - Tristan und Isolde
Jon Vickers, Herbert von Karajan

http://www.amazon.com/Wagner-Tristan-Und-Isolde-Richard/dp/B000002SDZ/ref=sr_1_1

Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet
London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn

http://www.amazon.com/Prokofiev-Romeo-Juliet-Sergei/dp/B002Q85A2C/ref=sr_1_2

Mahler Symphonies
Bernstein, New York Philharmonic
or Vienna Philharmonic on DVD

http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-The-Complete-Symphonies-Gustav/dp/B005SJIP1E/ref=sr_1_1
http://www.amazon.com/Mahler-The-Symphonies-Lied-Erde/dp/B000BDIY3G/ref=sr_1_4

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

http://www.amazon.com/Vivaldi-The-Four-Seasons-Antonio/dp/B000003CSU

The instrument used makes a difference with Bach's music. I'm not much of a fan of the harpsichord or the pipe organ, which are two of the instruments his music often gets played on. What really got me into Bach was Switched-On Bach by Walter Carlos, which is the name on the LP. Walter is now known as Wendy, which is the name on the CD. In case the Moog synthesizer is not your thing, I have also made a playlist of the same pieces played by a variety of acoustic instruments:

• Switched-On Bach Acoustic
  
  The Bach Variations: A Windham Hill Sampler is another good collection of Bach played on various acoustic instruments.

Agreed on Zimerman: http://www.amazon.com/Rachmaninov-Piano-Concertos-Nos-Sergey/dp/B0000V8CIQ

Not a single note missed and technically flawless playing. Fantastic orchestra too.

I'm not a musician so I don't have the words or expertise to describe why I like what I do, but this version is my favorite because it seems to flow better. It seems like the instruments are more... balanced? I've heard versions that sound more "rock"-like (looking at you, Joshua Bell) and don't care for that style for this particular set of music, even the Summer presto movement.

Furtwangler

I listen to my fair share of both. Just today, I picked up a Thelonious Monk album along with a used 4-disc compilation of Bach. My wife picked up a similar set of Tchaikovsky a few days ago. Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is on the way and I just picked up Stanley Turrentine's Pieces of Dreams last week for a few dollars.

The classical I put on quite a bit when I'm studying, the jazz is for relaxation and beer time. Not that it's related, but I'm also big into Sinatra and Bennett for my staring-at-the-wall time.

This dude is a beast and these exercises are really helpful. Some of them are really difficult, but they all address several aspects of playing that everyone should work on.

Check out his recording of Samuel Jones' Tuba Concerto. It's awesome. It's on Spotify too.

Dunno about being a solo, but check out Recomposed By Max Richter - Vivaldi: The Four Seasons