For anyone who’s ever entertained the idea of exploring an unfamiliar genre of music … or pondered what CD to buy as a holiday gift for a jazz aficionado … or just wondered if a certain beloved recording is on anyone else’s “must have” list … here are some expert opinions.

Several faculty members in the Department of Music agreed to go out on a limb and pick some of their all-time favorite recordings. All the selections were made with the caveat that they weren’t meant to be a definitive or absolute list, just some personal choices that the rest of us might find well worth a listen.

Brian Stone,
assistant professor of conducting and director of the UD Orchestra

Classical music
Stone says his list of favorites might change from day to day, but he especially suggests Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini (a “powerful masterpiece of the lyric stage, performed with magnificent style, drama and passion”), Bach’s Goldberg Variations played by pianist Glenn Gould (a “deservedly famous” 1950s recording characterized by “personality, insight and swing”) and Mahler’s The Song of the Earth by the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Bruno Walter with contralto Kathleen Ferrier and tenor Julius Patzak (“thrilling, heartbreaking, lusty and tender”).

Two of Stone’s other favorites are works by Brahms—the Fourth Symphony played by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Carlos Kleiber (“majestic and statuesque music recorded here with a real feel of epic sweep”) and the Piano Quintet by the Quartetto Italiano with pianist Maurizio Pollini (“the fun and intimacy of chamber music joyously captured”).

Jon Alan Conrad,
associate professor of music theory

Musical theatre
Conrad doesn’t claim that the five musicals he chose are the greatest ever, but he says they’re the ones he currently enjoys the most. A 1988 three-CD box set of Jerome Kern’s Show Boat with Frederica von Stade, Jerry Hadley and Teresa Stratas “sets the standard for how reconstructions of classic musicals ought to be done,” he says, while a two-CD recording of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies with Dee Hoty, Donna McKechnie and Ann Miller “gives us more of the music than any other version [of] one of the greatest theatre experiences ever.”

Although Conrad concedes it’s difficult to pass up West Side Story as the best of Leonard Bernstein’s work, he instead chooses the “sheer pleasure” of Candide, with the original cast of Barbara Cook and Robert Rounseville. Another favorite, resurrected by a 1998 concert cast after flopping on stage in 1946, is Harold Arlen’s St. Louis Woman with Vanessa Williams and Yvette Cason, described as “bluesy and sultry.” Rounding out the list is Dreamgirls by Henry Krieger, a 2001 concert recording with Lilias White, Audra McDonald and Heather Headley, of which Conrad says, “No other musical has managed to weave such an operatic texture from a pop vocal sound, rising to believable Motown hits.”

Tom Palmer,
instructor in jazz percussion and
Jazz Ensemble director

Jazz
Palmer suggests such jazz greats as Miles Davis, whose 1956 Relaxing is one Palmer “keeps coming back to,” John Coltrane (“one of the all-time masters of jazz”), whose Blue Trane is a special favorite, and Buddy Rich (“What can I say? The world’s greatest drummer”), whose Best of Buddy Rich: The Pacific Jazz Years includes most of the well-known charts “from this exciting big band.”

Palmer also likes Hank Mobley’s Soul Station, which he says has a great rhythm section and shows Mobley “in top form,” and Letter From Home by the Pat Metheny Group, which features “great music from one of today’s top guitarists and from keyboardist Lyle Mays” and which is a particular favorite of Palmer’s wife, Ellen.

Christine Delbeau,
associate professor of piano

Piano music
“A Decca Records legendary performance with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and pianist Benjamin Britten performing the Schubert Arpeggione Sonata is extraordinary,” says Delbeau, who notes that the recording features works by Schumann and Debussy as well. She also suggests pianist Sviatoslav Richter in a solo recital featuring the Polonaise-Fantaisie and other works by Chopin and the two-piano recording of Murray Perahia and Radu Lupu playing the Mozart Sonata in D major K. 448 and the Schubert Fantasia in F minor D. 940.

And, a recording titled Café Music, featuring the Samaris Piano Trio performing works by American composers Paul Schoenfield, David Baker, Aaron Copland and Leon Kirchner “is eclectic, fascinating and beautifully performed,” Delbeau says.

Lee Steward,
assistant professor of voice

Vocal music
Steward’s selections represent a variety of musical genres and include You Won’t Forget Me by Shirley Horn, his “favorite jazz vocalist and pianist,” and the recently closed Broadway musical The Light in the Piazza by Adam Guettell, which he calls “the best musical in the past 50 years [with] a spectacular cast [and] a beautiful story of love in Italy.”

For operatic recordings, he recommends Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Georg Solti, which he says “has everything one could want” in a full opera, and Kurt Weill’s Street Scene by the Houston Grand Opera for “a blend of music theatre, opera, jazz, blues and popular tunes and poems from the first half of the 20th century.” For a great operatic singer, Steward suggests “anything you can find” by Leyla Gencer, including a three-volume set of recitals she performed in the 1950s. “This lady knows how to sing and shows it with some incredible vocal technique and passion. Her commitment to the character is awesome,” he says.

Christiaan Taggart,
instructor in classical guitar

Guitar music
Taggart’s favorite guitar recordings “could change from week to week, or even day to day,” he notes. Still, he managed to come up with a short list that includes the double CD 300 Years of Guitar Masterpieces by Manuel Barrueco, whom he calls “one of the best-ever players” and Music for Two Guitars by the Assad Duo, a pair of brothers who “changed the way two guitars sound forever.” And, he says, if you like the brothers, you should also listen to their sister, Baji Assad, particularly her recording titled Solo.

Other guitar music that Taggart recommends are Vicente Amigo’s City of Ideas (“New Age flamenco filled with smoldering romanticism, high-energy virtuosity and even some easy listening”) and Christopher Parkening Plays Bach (“Just what the title says”).

Eileen Grycky,
assistant professor of flute

Various selections
Grycky says that much of the time she spends listening to music is devoted to pieces she is performing, such as the recent production of La Boheme, for which she was the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s piccolo player. “Even though I have performed it many, many times, I never tire of hearing it,” she says of the Puccini opera.

She highly recommends the CD-DVD Geenyoch by “the extraordinarily gifted composer” Jennifer Barker, who is an associate professor of music theory and composition at UD. Grycky’s other favorites include Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis and John Adams’ Harmonium (“a magnificent and compelling work for chorus and orchestra. Hearing it makes my hair stand on end!”), recorded by Edo de Waart and the San Francisco Symphony.

“Finally, when I am down, my soundtrack from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel can transform my mood,” she says. “The opening is so full of life, so brimming with optimism, that you almost have to dance when you hear it.”

Lawrence Stomberg,
assistant professor of cello

Chamber music
Stomberg who frequently plays chamber music, suggests the Beethoven String Quartets recorded by the Amadeus Quartet (“near and dear to my heart,” as they influenced his choice of career), any of the collaborative recordings of the Guarneri String Quartet and pianist Artur Rubinstein (“full of wonderful energy, flair and depth, especially given that Rubinstein was well into his 80s”) and the Bartok String Quartets recorded by the Emerson String Quartet (“a landmark in the performance of these pieces and in classical recording technology”).

Stomberg also likes the Mozart Divertimento in E flat major, with Isaac Stern on violin, Pinchas Zuckerman on viola and Leonard Rose on cello. “I am not usually a fan of Isaac Stern’s playing,” Stomberg says, “but this is such a beautiful performance that I can’t resist it!” And, to hear three great soloists in a “special and tender” performance near the end of their careers, he recommends the Schumann Piano Trio in D minor and Schubert Piano Trio in B flat with Artur Rubinstein, violinist Henryk Szerying and cellist Pierre Fournier.