INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE:

[W]e set ourselves a few rules. The first is adopted from Tyler Cowen who gave us the idea: "Never buy an inferior recording simply because it is cheaper. In the long run it is more expensive." It's hard to tell what inferior (or "best") really means in a market saturated with the greatest artists from six decades competing with each other, often with multiple entries each, in the crowded field of recording classical evergreens. We interpret it thus: include it only if it really knocks your socks off. This uncompromising approach does conflict with the budget limit and the urge to cover a good deal of territory. But wherever compromise tried to sneak in at the expense of absolute quality, we tried to resist it.

Another rule was not to include box sets. It's tempting when you can get the complete works of Bach, Mozart, or Brahms for $84.99... and all the Wagner operas for $30. But that's unstructured overkill and, in our experience, detrimental to listening habits. Each recording included in this list, and each composer, deserves at least the focus and concentration that goes with listening specifically to one album. The kind of focus that used to happen necessarily when people put a vinyl album on their record player. (It makes all the difference: many of them still think vinyl sounds better!) Experiencing this music for the first time should be a piece-by-piece event, even in an age where the media--hard drives, clouds--have practically no physical confines.

Finally we tried--and failed--to make the list compatible for iTunes downloading, hard-copypurchasing, and Spotify streaming. We've come close, and picked only albums currently in print(which might, granted, change tomorrow). But Spotify, apart from proving near-unsearchable for specific albums, doesn't carry a few essential, high quality labels (Hyperion, ECM, Harmonia Mundi et al.) that we are not ready to exclude. In the Spotify playlist,  we have substituted for the missing recordings similar or near-best choices. (Incidentally the Naxos Music Library, for those interested in streaming, covers many of the lacunae Spotify leaves.)

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