Jacqueline Du Pre & London Symphony Orchestra - Elgar Cello Concerto
by Elgar, Sir John Barbirolli, et al. | 1963
A 1981 2-LP release from the old Musical Heritage Society, St. John’s Classical Collection is a lovely set, clear and polite in both sound and choice of music - kind of like the old “all the classical music your family will ever need” collections. While not quite as all-encompassing as that suggests, it is eclectic, within a fairly confined range of taste, and frankly I can’t see what else ties this group together: Vaughan Williams, Grieg, Ravel, Delius, Fauré, Schubert, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Dvořák. And while there is modest annotation included about each piece, nothing is said about why they’re all presented here in one set. Oh, well - another mystery from the dawn of time.
I really like Ólaffson. Besides his impeccable playing, he’s not afraid to take chances in his programming, making his albums unfailingly interesting.
A 1979 VoxBox - the three Rachmaninoff symphonies, by Slatkin and the St. Louis. This is apparently volume two of three that together comprise Vox/Turnabout’s “Complete Works for Orchestra” by Rachmaninoff. I don’t have the other two, but if their performances and sound are as good as this one, maybe I should seek them out.
Ligeti: Étude No. 4 ‘Fanfares’
Ligeti: Étude No. 10 ‘Der Zauberlehrling’
Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, S178
Rachmaninoff: Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Scherzo
Rimsky Korsakov: Flight of the Bumble Bee
Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor, Op. 19 ‘Sonata Fantasy’
A 1973 3-LP box. André Previn and the LSO performing the complete score of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Maybe my favorite of all the versions I own. And not just because it was a Christmas gift from my brother when we were young. The only downside to this Angel set is the sides were sequenced for playback on a record changer.
Having played under Copeland I should probably get this to see if it captures the experience. 
An ersatz “best of” collection of Perlman recordings issued in 1979, comprised of a variety of previously released short pieces (with the exception of one - Bazzini’s “Dance of the Goblins,” recorded with pianist Samuel Sanders for this specific record). “Itzhak Perman, Virtuoso Violinist,” Angel S-37456.
