RIP Van Cliburn

The wife has put on his recording of the Tchaikovsky 1 and Rachmaninov 2 at least once a week this winter.

RIP.

One of the first three 8-Track tapes I ever bought was his Tchiakovsky Piano Concerto, in 1968 (other two: Little Anthony and the Imperials' Greatest Hits and Magical Mystery Tour.)

And I searched long and hard for a 1S pressing of it (and eventually found it, and the search was worth it).

His interpretations are usually always extremely interesting. R.I.P.

There is a SACD hybrid available on BMG of his 1958 recording in NY.
The sound is decent IMO.

RIP, thanks for the great performances.

Ditto - he was a great talent and, according to many sources, an even better human being. Although I reluctantly admit to being such a musical Philistine I find it difficult to differentiate between great artists playing the same classical pieces. They all kinda' sound the same to me. My bad, I know.

Name the composer or pieces, and I would be happy to point you to some good performances and recordings.
I have ~10,000 disks....

Dude, I am sooo out of your league.

Regarding classical music, I don't even know what I don't know. That's a giant learning curve I'll probably never even attempt to climb at my age. All I know is it sounds pretty and makes my brain happy at some level I can't even comprehend.

I do have a handful of SACD's and DVD-A's, few if any of the classical variety however. Been awhile since I purchased any. It did seem as though hi-rez digital audio was mostly limited to the jazz and classical categories back when I was buying them, probably even more so now.
Edited by archiguy - 3/4/13 at 8:25am

There is NEVER enough SACD Hybrids for me....gotta be able to listen to 'em in the cars too.

There actually is an inexpensive way to find what appeals to you....your public library.
You can "check out" CDs just as you would books, as in for free.
Every library is different regarding policies.
Typically, you can (like books) check out multiple titles.

As to what might "work" for you, I would suggest sticking with the major styles and composers.
Going forward in time: Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Richard Strauss.
The covers the Baroque era (early 1700s) until the 1940s, without getting into the atonal stuff of the last century.
This is traditional melodic music most people are attracted to.

This is my go-to guy, Jim Svejda, who works at KUSC in LA (does a show weeknights 7-10; they podcast):

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=jim+svejda&sprefix=jim+sve%2Cstripbooks%2C291

A wag, and he doesn't like Toscanini, but I find I can generally depend on his opinions. And he's really funny in a b!tchy way. If you're considering buying some stuff he can point you towards some pretty awesome performances.

I've listened to The Record Shelf before...he is a funny guy.