Give A Listen

Boy, that last thread is fun. Best kind of intellectual debate. You guys rock.

Somewhat of a different debate here, relatively benign, and one that should get us some excellent recs. I was talking about music toys last week, and we just had filk at ConFusion, and dubheach was asking about musical styles for different activities, and which kinds of music people like generally. I'm gonna get rather more specific: What one or two music recordings would you recommend to people to show them "See? This is what I'm talkin' about"?

My two are:

• The 1996 recording of Beethoven's 5th Symphony by Christian Thielemann and the Philharmonia Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon catalog # 449-981-2, which they may still have at http://www.dgclassics.com. Many musicians and conductors have a tendency to play Beethoven as quickly as possible, to show off their technical competence, and so lose all the drama of the piece. Not Thielemann. Unlike most recordings of the Fifth, this one isn't a race to the finish line, but a fierce and dramatic wall-breaker. (In the same vein, I prefer Alfred Brendel for the piano sonatas to anything by the too-fast-for-his-own-damn-good Rudolf Serkin.)
• The original cast recording of Sondheim's Assassins. The one without the new song, and sadly without the very fine Neil Patrick Harris. But the one with better orchestration, better pacing, and The Cast From Hell (Victor Garber, Jonathan Hadary, and Terrance Mann) as Booth, Guiteau, and Czolgosz. Breathtaking.

So. What one or two do you recommend?