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Comment by RiderOfGiraffes | Hacker News Reader

There are a few composers that truly sing to me. J.S.Bach (with a few exceptions) is one, some of Beethoven's work, especially his later string quartets, and sometimes Mozart, because even though he sometimes seems a bit fluffy, sometimes that's what I want.

But I can get lost in Chopin, again and again.

There are others that occasionally hit the mark. Some Janacek, some Bartok, and a surprising amount of Joplin (which is surprisingly sophisticated).

But I always return to Bach and Chopin.

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Recommendations for good recordings of works from these composers?

I played for about 15 years and love a lot of the music I learned and performed. At the time though, it was so familiar to me that it never occurred to me to track down recordings of those songs. If I wanted to hear something, I'd just sit down and play it myself.

Now that I don't play so often, I'd like to hear some of those songs again, but I'm completely psyched out by the number of recordings available. Any suggestions for Chopin recordings and perhaps some Debussy and Rachmaninoff?

This is the same, admittedly silly, reason I don't go to many plays. There are so many out there and I don't want to waste time and money on a sub-par product.

Maurizio Pollini's recording of the Etudes & Preludes.

Henryk Szeryng's recording of Bach's Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin

I resonate with most of your list, especially Bach and late Beethoven quartets. But I don't listen to much Chopin. Any recommendations?

No, I don't have any recommendations. I try to listen to it all, and I often don't even remember the names. Listening to it all means that I learn from the pieces that are too complex for me yet to understand, and I am soothed by those I know well.

Find a CD and listen to one track per day. Some people can find more than that a little overwhelming. I try to listen to the same track three or four times in a day, and get to know the piece.

Some people call me odd, but I would guess that many on HN fall into the same category, if not for the same reasons.

Try the nocturnes (You can get Daniel Barenboim's renditions with bittorrent: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4107877/Barenboim_-_Chopin_N...). That's what I started with.

For an assortment of great Chopin playing, check out this playlist of Rafal Blechacz at the Chopin competition in 2005. He on all 5 first prizes at the competition. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=01CC65D4BAEF5E85

Try the Preludes. For anyone who might think of Chopin largely as a 19th C. salon composer they are shattering. They're also mostly quite brief. Some last only a minute or so. Epic especially are Nos 8, 12, 16, 18 and 24.

I'm partial to the Nocturnes, Etudes and Ballades

For six dollars, Amazon has an eight(!) hour Chopin collection for download -- 99 DRM-free MP3's, tracks vary from 192-256kbps according to one review. I bought it a while back (when it was on sale even cheaper) -- worth your while.

You can check out track samples from all tracks, read reviews and/or buy it here (this link only good for US):

http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Chopin-Masterpieces-Amazon-E...

Amazons for other countries should have it as well (e.g. UK (costs six pounds): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Essential-Chopin-Masterpieces-Amazon... Germany (3 Euros): http://www.amazon.de/Essential-Chopin-Masterpieces-Amazon-Ex... )

(Note: the track 55 problem mentioned in one review was fixed. Also note, you'll need to use Amazon's downloader, which installs in seconds--available for Windows, Mac and apparently they now have a Linux version too--you should be prompted; if not: http://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/help/amd.html).

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