Once each year, since 1991, we’ve asked our writers, both hi-fi and music, to name two of their favorite albums of all time—albums that are, to them, “to die for.” It has long been one of our most popular features.
Originally a light-hearted conceit based on a phrase that was popular at the time,1 there never was a real implication that any-one would give up their life for this music. Yet, for many of us, it has always carried that baggage. So, while this has long been my favorite Stereophile feature, I’ve never cared for the name.
Immediately after I became Stereophile’s editor, I started playing around with the name. Music, after all, is the stuff of life. So what’s all this about dying?
I quickly learned that the phrase “to live for” is much more popular than “to die for,” and always has been. And, as measured by its appearance in published works, “to live for” has never been more popular.
My favorite formulation of this notion—because of how it captures the connection between living and dying—was laid down by the late music critic John Swenson, in his March 2021 My Back Pages essay. He called his favorite records “death-row discs.” These are records that, at the end of your life, you’d want—you’d need—to hear one last time. Maybe the records—and that desire—would even keep you alive a little longer.
This year, I’m making it official: R2D4—Records to Die For—is now R2L4: Records to Live For.
How does it work? Writers choose two albums they care about a lot. There aren’t many rules. Writers must not repeat a previous selection, although they can choose a new reissue of a previous choice. The other rule is that it must be possible to obtain the record, even if it requires sacrifice, loss of wealth, or serious determination. I’ve been soft on this rule: These recordings are worth some sacrifice to obtain.
Without further ado, here it is: Records to Live For, 2023.
JOHN ATKINSON
BRAHMS
PIANO CONCERTO NO.1; FOUR BALLADES & PIANO CONCERTO NO.2; HANDEL VARIATIONS
Royal Northern Sinfonia. Lars Vogt, piano, cond. Ondine ODE 1330-2 & ODE 1346-2 (CDs; 24/48 FLAC, Qobuz). 2019 & 2020. Jochen Hubmacher, Reijo Kiilunen, Susann El Kassar, exec. prod.; Julian Schwenkner, Richard Halling (Concerto Nos.1 & 2), eng., Michael Morawietz (Ballades, Handel Variations), eng.
I first encountered German pianist Lars Vogt in the complete set of Brahms piano trios with violinist Christian Tetzlaff and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff (Ondine ODE 1271-2D), which I nominated as one of my 2017 Records to Die For.2 I subsequently fell in love with Vogt’s and Christian Tetzlaff’s performance of the Brahms violin sonatas (Ondine ODE1284-2), so I was devastated to learn of the pianist’s death on September 5, 2022, from cancer. He was only 51. My first 2023 R2D4 choice is therefore Vogt’s monumental performances of the two Brahms Piano Concertos with the UK’s Royal Northern Sinfonia, which have been in heavy rotation the past two years. Not only was Vogt the soloist, he also conducted the orchestra from the piano, which allowed him to impart his own vision of the works in a rhapsodic interpretation—he even disregards the composer’s own tempo markings at times. The result is new life breathed into these often-recorded masterworks. The sound of the piano is clean and clear, with excellent low-frequency weight, though its presentation in the second concerto is a little larger than life compared with the orchestral image.
10CC
SHEET MUSIC
UK Records UKAL 1007 (UK LP, 1974; 16/44.1 FLAC, Tidal). Lol Creme, Kevin Godley, Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, prod., Eric Stewart, eng.
I was familiar with bass player Graham Gouldman—he wrote the hits “For Your Love” for The Yardbirds and “Bus Stop” for The Hollies—and with guitarist Eric Stewart, who was a member of 1960s pop group Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders. But British band 10cc, based in Manchester, was new to me when I bought their Sheet Music LP. Released in 1974, this great-sounding album was an explosion of creativity, which was perhaps to be expected given that, along with Gouldman and Stewart, 10cc’s other members, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, were also multi-instrumentalists, composers, and producers. People are probably most familiar with the album’s hit singles, “The Wall Street Shuffle” and “Silly Love.” The track that has stayed in my mind all these years is “The Old Wild Men,” a plaintive paean honoring aging musicians.3 A half-century ago, I was playing bass guitar on sessions at Abbey Road and Sawmills studios as well as touring and playing radio and TV dates with rock bands. My last live gig was in 2015, and although I never regretted abandoning my fulltime music career to become a hi-fi writer and magazine editor, deep inside I am still one of the “old men of rock and roll [who] came bearing music,” in the words of the song’s second verse.4
JIM AUSTIN
THE BUZZCOCKS
A DIFFERENT KIND OF TENSION
I.R.S. SP009 (LP). 1979. Martin Rushent, prod., eng.; Martin Hannett, prod.
Jon Iverson beat me to this one by a full 20 years, listing it as an R2D4 in 2003. That’s okay; people can use a
