Classical recordings: Performance, sound, or price?

[Feanor]

When you're looking to buy a classical recording, what's your usual priority?

For me it's usually good performance with great sound.

But not always: some time I want to sample repertoire with which I'm not familiar in which case price becomes more important. Long live Naxos!

[Pat D]

When you're looking to buy a classical recording, what's your usual priority?

For me it's usually good performance with great sound.

But not always: some time I want to sample repertoire with which I'm not familiar in which case price becomes more important. Long live Naxos!

Well, of the choices, I took a great performance with whatever sound. However, the sound should be good enough that I can appreciate the performance.

Your comments raise another couple of issues: price and repertoire. One of the things I go for is repertoire, and I like to get a great variety of music. The low Naxos price is helpful, but the Polygram group has budget reissues that are often very good: London, Philips, DG, Mercury, etc., and Denons are often available cheap..

Naxos recordings recorded since about 1993 are usually have very good to excellent sound quality. Before that you take your chances with the sound, which sometimes is not very good, and may want to check the reviews first. The performances are pretty competent, often excellent.

So, basically, I like a very good performance with at least adequate sound. If the sound is too harsh, I really can't appreciate an orchestral performance. But often enough, one can find excellent performances which are well-recorded.

[Feanor]

... So, basically, I like a very good performance with at least adequate sound. If the sound is too harsh, I really can't appreciate an orchestral performance. But often enough, one can find excellent performances which are well-recorded.

Beeing musically untrained as I am is a mixed blessing. (I've had no musical training worth mentioning, don't read music nor play an instrument.) That probably prevents me from decerning the great from merely good performances -- sad.

On the other hand, I can probably more readily trade off some performance for good sound or lower cost than the true musician can. For sure Naxos typically offers a great combination of performance, sound, and price.