Welcome to The Basic Repertoire

Classical Box Sets abound, and are great ways to collect full groups of works, like Beethoven's Symphonies, Mozart's Late Symphonies, etc. Here are a few of my favorites. More to come....

Beethoven - Toscanini at Amazon
Beethoven Symphonies and Piano Concertos are probably the most popular sets available, and if you look around, there are some great bargains out there.
After a long absence, the Toscanini performances have finally been compiled into one set by BMG/RCA. The recordings are old, in mono, and I could not care less. The power and energy that Toscanini brings to these works is beyond compare. You quickly overlook the sonic shortcomings when you hear these recordings. To be honest, the sound quality is surprisingly good, and for under $30, this is a great way to get all the symphonies, or just fill in some works missing in your collection. Do not let the word MONO stop you from discovering this great set.

Beethoven - Klemperer at Amazon
A super bargain set of the 9 symphonies along with the 5 piano concertos, and some overtures thrown in for good measure can be had by Klemperer on EMI in a 9 cd set. The price can be as low as $40 on sale. These are 1960's era recordings, so a bit more modern than the Toscanini set, and better sound. The performances do hark back to the old school of Beethoven, so tempos are not as brisk as in more recent recordings, but they are nontheless classic interpretations.

A new section with reviews of more current recordings, along with other thoughts can be seen at my blog at http://basicrep.wordpress.com/

CBS/SONY Great Performances Series

NEWS: Sony is releasing new issues in this series...read more

BasicRep.com gathers the best available CD releases of the Basic Repertoire with links to CDUniverse and Amazon.com. The Basic Repertoire a list of essential works by classical composers over the ages. These compositions are considered the best of the best, and they give a good example of musical styles and techniques, as well as displaying the talents of the various composers. Many of the composers, such as Bach, Strauss, Mozart and Chopin are familiar to most people. But there are also many essential works by other less well-known composers, from Mahler to Chabrier and Copland to Holst. You may recognize their music without knowing who was the composer.

The BasicRep.Com compositions range from the 16th Century up thru the 1950’s. There are a wide variety of forms the music takes, although symphonic pieces tend to be stressed more than chamber works or solo pieces. However, all of these works are important in building a well-rounded classical collection.
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