Ugh, classical music... so confusing.

[notfred]

I have some classical music that I've "obtained" off the internet. I'm interested in buying it, or at least finding out what else comes on a CD, but I have no way of finding it for sale. For instance, this particular song is labeled as "Mozart - Symphony No 40"... if I search for it on Amazon, there's over 500 results. Which ones do I look at? I want to find a similar recording to this one, too, or a better sounding one, but not a crappy one with some symphony that can't play or something. Argh...

 

[thirtythree]

just buy all of them.

 

[fyleow]

Usually with classical music CDs are rather cheap. You have to look at CDs that cost A LOT of money for good sound quality. These are done by the top orchestras. The problem with classical is that almost anyone can play the piece, record it and sell it 🙁

Oh btw, there are also different parts to each symphony like molto vivace, allegro etc...so Symphony #40 might not be Symphony #40...

 

[Schadenfreude]

Originally posted by: fyleow
Usually with classical music CDs are rather cheap. You have to look at CDs that cost A LOT of money for good sound quality. These are done by the top orchestras. The problem with classical is that almost anyone can play the piece, record it and sell it 🙁

Oh btw, there are also different parts to each symphony like molto vivace, allegro etc...so Symphony #40 might not be Symphony #40...

 

[NewSc2]

Originally posted by: notfred
I have some classical music that I've "obtained" off the internet. I'm interested in buying it, or at least finding out what else comes on a CD, but I have no way of finding it for sale. For instance, this particular song is labeled as "Mozart - Symphony No 40"... if I search for it on Amazon, there's over 500 results. Which ones do I look at? I want to find a similar recording to this one, too, or a better sounding one, but not a crappy one with some symphony that can't play or something. Argh...

Buy them from a reputable company, or a reputable classical music collection at least. I know off the top of my head "Chesky" recordings are very well recorded and valued by audiophiles... but they're fairly expensive compared to other larger company offerings.

 

[Schadenfreude]

Don't know so much about quality of recording, but there are some symphony orchestras that are just well-known so that the compositions can (usually) be trusted.

Also, since it is a reputable orchestra, one would assume they wouldn't go to some piddly dink recording hall/use crap equipment . . ..

 

[fyleow]

Originally posted by: NewSc2

Originally posted by: notfred
I have some classical music that I've "obtained" off the internet. I'm interested in buying it, or at least finding out what else comes on a CD, but I have no way of finding it for sale. For instance, this particular song is labeled as "Mozart - Symphony No 40"... if I search for it on Amazon, there's over 500 results. Which ones do I look at? I want to find a similar recording to this one, too, or a better sounding one, but not a crappy one with some symphony that can't play or something. Argh...

Buy them from a reputable company, or a reputable classical music collection at least. I know off the top of my head "Chesky" recordings are very well recorded and valued by audiophiles... but they're fairly expensive compared to other larger company offerings.

It's also pretty complicated since things depend on how good your audio system is. Different recordings might not amount to a tangible difference if you're playing it from free headphones that came with your CD player.

Whatever you do, NEVER buy anything that is "digitally remastered". Usually this means that it's copied from tapes and the noise will be terrible.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

consider this

 

[DaveSimmons]

Naxos is both good and cheap. They don't have the absolute best soloists that you see in the paper, but they are just one step back from that at 1/2 to 1/3 the price of discs loaded with stars. Their material is all fresh, clean digital recordings as well, unlike a lot of other CDs that are hissy old analog recordings from the vault.

Some other suggestions to "preview" are Vivaldi (four seasons), Bach (brandenburg concertos), Boccherini (concerto for cello & orch in b-flat).