After a disastrous performance Kna was heard saying, “If only we hadn’t had that f.cking rehearsal”.

Stokowski Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor. It’s so gorgeous. It opened the world of classical music to us ordinary people, at least to me.

David, as far as being concerned about us 'hanging in', or you're going on too long. For me, who is just now sort of health confined at home, listening to a fascinating subject by an energetic and intelligent personality is a pleasure. As great conversations can be, no matter what length. Sometimes I am even sad when they end! So don't be apologetic; for many like me, I think you have become a daily addiction always looked forward too, whether I like the composer/agree with the critique or not. This one was totally fascinating. More, please!

Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations. He started his  recording career with this piece. His debut recording surprised  everyone and made this piece extremely famous.

I can give you an excellent example of "ownership" in the form of Vladimir Horowitz and the Rachmaninov Third Concerto. Horowitz's galvanic interpretation helped popularize this work and established a performing tradition that dominated for decades. Perhaps his 1951 recording (his second of three) was more of a cult among pianists than record collectors and critics, yet for decades it remained in print on LP at full price. Indeed, Horowitz was so identified with the work, that when Rachmaninov himself recorded it with Eugene Ormandy, he asked the conductor things like "What's Horowitz's tempo," or "How does Horowitz play that?" And that from the composer!

1. The Solti Ring. Because when Rheingold came out, no one had done it complete in stereo, and each successive opera was an event. Nowadays it's ho-hum, every week another Ring.
2. The old Webern box from Robert Craft. Now I know everyone says it's been surpassed, but when I was 16 I bought the set because here was a chance to have everything (supposedly) a single composer wrote, and I have held on to it all these years because I still love many of the performances.
3. Also by Craft, the Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet. Because it's a smoker.
4. The Harnoncourt-Leinhardt Bach cantatas. I had friends who collected each LP issue religiously.
5. Lenny's Haydn Paris symphonies. 'Nuff said.
6. The Callas-di Stefano-Gobbi-Serafin Tosca. The only one I own or need to own.
7. Toscanini's Otello. I think it better than his Falstaff.

Heifetz absolutely changed the expectations for all violinists. This was so much the case that there were certain pieces that almost nobody else would play during his heyday.
I think an example of this is Bruch's Scottish Fantasy. The piece is very difficult technically - in some places really ungrateful. Heifetz made a speciality of it, and other violinists simply steered clear of it. They had to face being compared with Heifetz enough without challenging him on his "territory".

I'd like to add 2 other possibilities. The 1st one is Glenn Gould and the Goldberg variations. It seems even today you cannot record it or perform it without somewhere in the review people comparing it to Glenn Gould. The other one I would suggest is Birgit Nielsson as both brunhilda and isolde. It also seems like every review of a performance has to mention her version

Hi Dave and thanks. My dad passed away this morning so your talk did cheer me up a bit :-(
Fascinating examples. My offering would be Horowitz and Rachmaninov, even though he didn’t record most of Rachmaninov’s works. Not so much the third piano concerto, maybe, but the second sonata, of which in a minor way he was a sort of authorised co-composer.

Shostakovich's 24 Preludes & Fugues Op.87 were for the longest time owned by pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva and her three sets of recordings. DSCH wrote these for her after she won the 1950 Leipzig Bach Piano Competition. There may be better new recordings, but nobody knew them like she did.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore “own” the Schubert song cycles. I also have Souzay’s in my collection and cherish it because I am a Souzay cultist, but DFD’s outsized personality and clipped diction, combined with Moore’s propulsive rhythmic drive, put such a stamp on these works that they eclipse all others. I can’t imagine owning any other set ahead of these.

Spontaneously, I thought "the Vaughan-Williams symphonies by Adrian Boult (EMI/Warner, the stereo ones)"-especially because for a very long time, here in France, critics only swore by these versions, to the detriment of most of the others, which were either systematically denigrated or downplayed. Certainly, they are undeniably very beautiful, emotionally dense and very committed interpretatively. And one cannot question the conductor's long relationship with the composer and his work - but Previn ? Andrew Davis ? Bryden Thomson ? Doesn't each of these versions shed light on our relationship to the work differently ? Thank you Mr. Hurwitz for this necessary clarification, and for all the wonderful work accomplished over so many years !

one that springs to my mind quite distinctly is Cyprien Katsaris playing the Liszt Transcriptions of the Beethoven Symphonies. there are only a few other recordings especially for the full set, but you can quite easily hear how Katsaris is just technically and musically so far supreme compared to all of them, and i think even looking ahead its going to be difficult for people to beat it

What a fascinating chat. Thank you so much, Dave. Part of what makes music "great" is that it offers a whole array of possibilities for discovery and enjoyment. The claim to ownership often sounds like a claim that no one outside of one artist can plumb all the depths and riches and pleasures of any given work of it. The greatness of the classical music world is that there are numerous performers with a multitude of insights into what makes music worthwhile. I have my favorite interpreters of a role or a piece of music, but nearly always I have lots of favorites that cannot  be whittled down to just one.

Great talk. Thanks Dave. Here are some suggestions  :

Claudio Arrau : Beethoven Waldstein sonata for its opening and Op.111 for its ending

Glenn Gould : Goldberg variations. Because one can endlessly discuss the merits of the 1955 vs the 1981 version

Arthur Rubinstein : Chopin polonaises. Because Rubinstein is associated with Chopin and because I believe he is the first pianist to have recorded all polonaises (in the 30´s)

Alfred Cortot  in Chopin préludes or études recorded in the 30’s, because of Cortot’s rubato

Hans Hotter as Wotan, because of the 12 millions fabulous versions we have from him

Max Lorenz as Siegried, because even though he was adored by the nazis in the role, he was gay, and a had a jewish wife that he loved and saved from the holocaust

Kirsten Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior in Tristan and Isolde, because they are legendary and because we don’t have them together in the Furtwangler recording

Charles Munch in the Symphonie Fantastique and in Roussel Bacchus & Arianne bacchanale. Because no one whips an orchestra the way Munch does it in this pieces

Yevgeny Mravinsky in Tchaikovsky 4th because of the frantic pace in the finale

Carlo Maria Giulini in Ravel Ma Mère l’Oye. You mentionned it in a video

Tito Gobbi in Scarpia (with Callas of course). Because he really is the bad guy

Gerald Moore as the pianist of choice in any schubert lieder recital

and many more…

I think Dorati owned the complete Haydn Symphonies.  When I think of them, I immediately think of him.

The Tallis Scholars' Miserere, and to a certain extent the Marcelli Mass, which has been the go-to version for many, not to mention with 3 different recordings to choose from.

If you mention the Liszt 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody, who comes immediately to mind?     Bugs Bunny.

If an artist can also mean an ensemble or orchestra, it's the Czech Philharmonic owning Ma Vlast.

Fritz Wunderlich as Tamino in the Magic Flute.  I don't think anyone since has matched his combination of smoothness, elegance, together with richness and beauty of tone.