Revealed, the 250 greatest classical recordings, as selected for Gramophone by more than 30 leading musicians. Below, contributing editor and reviewer Rob Cowan muses on why artists and critics might choose differently

The votes are in. Time to celebrate the best of the best. It’s a classical title showdown! Swapping gloves for glissandi and punches for prestos, players from around the globe square up for the hotly contested spot of World’s Best Symphony Orchestra

Gramophone offers classical music reviews, news, playlists, features, and blogs from the world's leading classical music magazine.

Handel's Messiah: a complete guide to the best recordings Tuesday, April 12, 2022 The perennial fame of Handel’s oratorio has inspired a host of contrasting approaches to text and performance. David Vickers mulls over the finest recordings Painting of George Frideric Handel from c1748-49 by Thomas Hudson (1701-79), showing the composer holding sheets of music from Messiah (photography ...

Nov 29, 2024 · Puccini: the great melodist Jack Pepper Friday, November 29, 2024 November 29 marks 100 years since the death of Puccini – to explore his art in detail, Jack Pepper talks to three leading performers of his music

Schubert: the 50 greatest recordings Sunday, January 1, 2023 This list of albums is a great way to start exploring Schubert's music and includes many of the finest recordings from the last 100 years, featuring Sir Thomas Beecham, Alfred Brendel, Imogen Cooper, Gundula Janowitz, and …

Apr 19, 2023 · Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute): a guide to the best recordings Wednesday, April 19, 2023 The Magic Flute was a welcome operatic success for Mozart during his hectic final year. Richard Wigmore considers ten decades of recordings of this enchanting masterpiece The Queen of the Night in the Hall of the Stars, as imagined by German architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel for a 1815 ...

A complete guide to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, including how audiences, performers and the composer himself have responded to this iconic and surprisingly controversial work

The most highly recommended classical recordings from every issue of Gramophone magazine. with links to the original reviews

No symphony has been more widely discussed, or been a greater divider of musical opinion, than Beethoven’s Ninth. One problem has been the difficulties the work presents to performers; another is the very nature of the symphony. ‘We shall never make head or tail of the Ninth Symphony until we treat it as a law unto itself,’ wrote Sir Donald Tovey in Essays in Musical Analysis, published ...