Best theatrical, incidental & program music according to redditors

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.

The one complaint I have about this is that many of these pieces deserve to be listened to in their entirety. I don't generally like Germanic operas - and listening to the entire Ring Series from Wagner would take something like 9 hours - and even then there are relatively few songs that stand out to me. With that in mind, I'd like to first thank you for putting this up and add just a bit to what you've already listed. I've tried to find some of the best recordings I can, which are often very cheap from Amazon if you buy them used.

Carmen is one of the very best operas, but that's for another discussion. You really can't go wrong with anything from Bizet.

Also Sprach Zarathustria is an entire work. The piece most commonly known from 2001: A Space Odyssey is merely the first piece.

Carmina Burana most certainly belongs in this list, as its signature piece (O Fortuna) is frequently used for a cheap dramatic effect.

I am fairly certain the band name "Modest Mouse" is a direct reference to a classical composer, Modest Moussorgsky.

Numbers listed refer to the track number in the listed album.

Album/Work|Composer|Notable examples
:----|:----|:----
Peer Gynt Suite | Edvard Grieg | 1 - Morning Mood, 4 - In the Hall of the Mountain King
The Nutcracker | Tchaikovsky | 3 - March, 19 - Waltz of the Flowers, 22 - Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Carmen / L'Arlésienne Suites | Georges Bizet | 1 - Les Toréadors, 2-3 - Prelude / Aragonaise, Habanera
Also Sprach Zarathustria, bonus: The Planets | Richard Stauss, bonus: Holst | 1 - Einleitung or Sonnenaufgang (prelude or sunrise), 10 - Mars, the Bringer of War, 12 - Mercury, the Winged Messenger
Carmina Burana | Carl Orff | 1 & 25 - O Fortuna, 6 - Tanz, 15 - Amor Volat Undique
Pictures at an Exhibition / Night on Bald Mountain | Modest Moussorgsky | 12 - The Great Gate of Kiev, 16 - Night on Bald Mountain (Fantasia version)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Greatest Hits | Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov | 1 - Flight of the Bumblebee, 10 - Procession of the Nobles, 6 - Fandago Asturiano

Hi there, I'm the original OP of this vid from Goose_bumps, perhaps I can help. I have this recording on vinyl - I am not aware if it has been made available on CD, however you can find the record on Amazon. It should be noted that the attribution to Tushmalov/Rimsky-Korsakov as a co-composer is a known misprint - this could be why you had difficulty locating it. The correct authorship is Mussorgsky-Tushmalov. Here is a link to the album.

edit - just saw that you are looking specifically for a CD format. I don't know that it has been made available on compact disc.

Because nobody has mentioned it.. "Carnival Overture" is my favorite Dvorak. Especially this recording, fwiw. It's not the first or third or twelfth piece you think of when you think of Dvorak, but it's resplendent. One of the better kept secrets of classical music.

These are all 78rpm discs. They look to be 12-inch discs, which only hold 4-5 minutes per side. This is why you have a whole album of discs for a single symphony. As for dates, the Columbia record in your photo is 1939 or later, and the HMV Victor record is probably also late '30s.

Unfortunately, what you have is probably not worth very much. I say "probably" because you say you have a bunch, but only show a few examples in your photos. What you've got in the photos are fairly common works released by major labels. So, there were lots of copies to begin with, and probably much (if not all) of what you have has been re-released on LP and/or CD. Here's the Toscanini Beethoven 1 on Amazon.

You can get a bunch of John Williams' Olympic themes on this album.

>My last acquisition was a recording of Pictures at an Exhibition and its just not my favourite take on the piece

Which recording did you get? I'd recommend Fritz Reiner with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra or Antal Doráti with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra.

As for Sibelius, I think the most popular recommendation tend to be for Anthony Collins with the London Symphony Orchestra and it's a really safe pick. You can't go wrong with it. The tempos are quite brisk. He plays through all seven symphonies in three and a half hours, faster than most others.

You should know that you can often listen to complete recordings on youtube before deciding whether you'd like to purchase any of them. Here's a few youtube videos for the complete Sibelius symphony cycle:

• Anthony Collins, London Symphony Orchestra
  
• Vladimir Ashkenazy, Philharmonia Orchestra
  
• Paavo Berglund, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
  
• Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic Orchestra
  
  You can also find samples, usually around 30 seconds per track, at various merchant websites like prestomusic.com or amazon.com. While each sample is short, they can still help give you an idea as to whether you would enjoy the particular recordings.

In English, here's the sung Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (the standard Sunday service in eastern Christianity.)

Also in English, Taste the Fountain of Immortality is a collection of liturgical prayers and hymns sung by the brotherhood of the ancient Valaam monastery.

In a mix of Slavonic and Greek, using lovely Byzantine melodies, a singer named Divna Ljubojevic has recorded a number of CDs - My favorite: Divna In Concert - Theatre Des Abbesses, Paris. It's a performance, but many of the pieces are the same melodies we sing in my parish - only she does them much more beautifully :-)

>I've never really listened to any of his piano or chamber music - the received wisdom being that he wrote those pieces largely for commercial reasons rather than artist ones.

I'm sure you already know, He wrote lots of violin and piano music during the 80s and 90s when he was still a student. off topic - He also composed songs intermittently throughout, to make money when it was sorely needed, like you said. I'd say the songs are standard for the genre - short and sweet. I recommend a handful of songs from this album by Anne-Sophie von Otter, including "Den judiska flickans sång" and "Skogsrået"

åÅåÅåå!!!

> composers who instantly brings images into my mind

that reminded me of a passage i read in one of his biographies (ekman):

>>"One sunny Easter we walked on the ice that was beginning to melt. We walked for some time, the sun shone brightly, the pools of water on the ice kept growing, and we got our feet wet. But Janne was delighted "to feel the moisture of the melting ice!" he exclaimed. Soon his imagination was at full stretch. "Spring is coming, spring is coming," he cried, and we hurried home to the piano where the approaching spring slid across the keys in joyful tones."

>>...Everything he saw produced a corresponding impression on his ear- every impression of sound was transferred and fixed as color on the retina of his eye and thence to his memory... ideas came to him glimmering on a ray of sunshine reflected in the water.

I wonder what images could have inspired the 4th symphony, if any.

Honestly, it's worth it to listen to all of Beethoven's symphonies. Each one builds on the last. The first sounds like a schizophrenic Mozart and the last sounds like pure joy. I've had my hearing all my life and the Ninth still brings me to tears.

Remember, if you do listen to the Fifth, don't just listen to the first movement! A symphony is one complete piece of music, conceived and executed as a whole, but split into four movements; the Fifth is even more unified, since all four movements deal with the same primary theme. Listening to just the first movement of the Fifth is a cop-out, especially because the last movement kicks even more ass.

I find conductor Herbert von Karajan strays too widely from the music as written in general, but Beethoven scholars the world around swear by his 1963 recording. I personally, however, am a huge fan of the late conductor Georg Solti, and think his 1972 symphony cycle is awe-inspiring.

Sad, I hate it when that happens! The youtube link does have links to places where you can buy the DVD: http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Wolf-Prokofiev-Fantasy-Sting/dp/B000JJSRNE/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1416858356&sr=1-1&keywords=peter+and+the+wolf+sting+abbado

Hi, I've both won professional auditions and have been on audition committees. If it's not behind a screen, dress well.

You've got a Bb Scale and 3 excerpts. The Bb Scale has to be in tune, with a good tone, in a tempo. Galamian and Flesch have great scale patterns to use.
The excerpt should also be in tune, have accurate rhythm, and be close to a normal tempo. It sounds like you're auditioning for a community orchestra of sorts. That should do it. Too simple? Bad rhythm, intonation, tempo, and sound quality are the most common red flags that disqualify players. Do the indicated dynamics and articulations. Nobody's looking for a groundbreaking interpretation, unfortunately, though you should phrase well. Avoid red flags.
I'm reading a bit on this thread about the "broader picture." There's a lot of truth to that, but major red flags will absolutely disqualify you.

My impression from your writing is that you will have to practice more and practice better to do well at an audition. You want to be at peak performance. Start asking yourself what that really takes. What are your weaknesses? What are your strengths? Develop yourself daily on your own. If you've done Schradieck, Kreutzer (or other difficult etudes), Galamian, or Flesch scales, it's worth selecting meaningful sections to rework or new sections to master. If you're not sure, consider taking lessons again with an orchestral musician. At 23, it might be time to search out some interesting building material like Massart's packet on how to really practice Kreutzer (available on some archive sites...), Ricci's book on left hand technique, or at least Galamian's Art of violin playing and teaching.

If nerves are a problem, you should absolutely address that issue. For some, that means organizing well, having a light breakfast the day of, playing in public a lot, life coaching, or beta-blockers. I've never taken beta-blockers. If I prepare well (many hours and good planning), I feel more confident. Mental imaging (what will it look like? how will I feel? what's the plan on audition day) helps me a lot too. Very few people sound better at an audition than they did in their practice room.

In an audition for a full-time, professional symphony (an ICSOM orchestra), there are usually 10 or more excerpts, a Mozart concerto mov, and a Romantic concerto movement. You have more opportunity for expression, for rubato, vibrato, glissandi, in solo pieces. It's expected that you play with great phrasing, in an appropriate style. It's expected that you've listened to recordings, studied full scores, and can play the material flawlessly. A mistake or two MIGHT not disqualify you, especially if it's not indicative of a broader problem. It helps to play for people who know the excerpts. If you don't have it yet, Bill Preucil has a tremendous audition excerpt CD. No Tchaik 4, but most of the standard pieces.

Of these, I own and can recommend the Webern, Stravinsky, Elgar, Wagner, and Vaughan Williams sets. The Elgar and Vaughan Williams ones are particularly nice because most of the recordings are by some of the better English conductors and interpreters (Boult, Handley, Barbirolli etc). If you're interested in other English composers, there are a couple of anthologies of the Bax symphonies recorded by several different conductors, the most readily available being the recordings conducted by Vernon Handley.

On a related note, the Toscanini collection reissued by RCA within the last year or so has a lot of excellent recordings of a large portion of symphonic repertoire if you're interested in something more broad.

Korsakov is a favourite--check out his later opera, The Golden Cockerel:

https://www.amazon.com/Rimsky-Korsakov-Cockerel-Recorded-Bolshoi-Theatre/dp/B00000DWDA/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1494028072&sr=1-5&keywords=rimsky+golden

Here's a few that popped into my head:

Sort of a cop-out, but I love the Bernstein Mahler Cycle with the NY Phil.

Summit Brass Live, 2003

Heroes, Dreams, & Icons, Northwestern Symphonic Wind Ensemble

Philip Glass: Aguas Da Amazonia

Nielsen 2 and 4

Steel aLive-Sérgio Carolino

Try also the beautiful Oma Maa for chorus and orchestra (and for more great choral works I recommend this CD)

The only thing that comes to mind is Prokofiev's Egyptian Nights http://www.amazon.com/Prokofiev-Egyptian-Nights-Andrei-Baturkin/dp/B00008NRJM (track 14)

http://www.amazon.com/Renee-Bryn-Under-Stars-Fleming/dp/B000088E7D

You could try for some of these. They're musical theater, but some could still work for you.

...not a fan of opera singers performing MT repertoire. See: Bryn Terfel and Renee Fleming singing "All the Wasted Time" from Parade.

I'm more a fan of the Ella version or the Jane Monheit one.

Which is not to say that Joyce and Renee aren't amazing, in their niche

I can personally recommend the complete symphonies with Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. For a more rare selection of Sibelius' work, check out Piano music, Vol. 1.