Class 8: Death and Resurrection - Recommended Recordings

Tchaikovsky: Symphony no. 6 - "Pathetique"
Gold: Moscow Philharmonic/Kiril Kondrashin
Silver: Berlin Radio Symphony/Ferenc Fricsay
Bronze: Mariinsky Orchestra/Valery Gergiev
Place:
Philharmonia Orchestra/Riccardo Muti
Vienna Philharmonic/Lorin Maazel
Leningrad Philharmonic/Yevgeny Mravinsky
Honorable Mention
Royal Philharmonic/Yuri Temirkanov
Royal Philharmonic/Artur Rodzinski

Sibelius: Symphony no. 2
(divided differently)
Golden Age:
Gold: New York Philharmonic/Sir John Barbirolli (1940)
Silver: London Symphony/Robert Kajanus (1930)
Bronze: London Philharmonic/Sir Thomas Beecham (1954)
Classic:
Gold: Concertgebouw Orchesta/Kiril Kondrashin
Silver: Cleveland Orchestra/George Szell
Bronze: Philharmonia Orchestra/Paul Kletzki
Modern:
Gold: USSR Symphony/Yuri Temirkanov
Silver: Orchestre de Paris/Paavo Jarvi
Bronze: Philharmonia Orchestra/Sir Charles Mackerras
Finnish: (The Finnish have a uniquely chilly way to play Sibelius that focuses more on color than expression. Not necessarily correct for Sibelius 2 - so influenced by Tchaikovsky, but still fascinating)
Gold: Helsinki Philharmonic/Paavo Berglund
Silver: Helsinki Radio Symphony/Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Bronze: Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vanska


Franck: Symphony in d
Gold: Chicago Symphony/Pierre Monteux
Silver: Boston Symphony/Charles Munch  (Munch's recording is better, but despite being 20 years later than Mengelberg's, Mengelberg's sound on youtube is much better)
Bronze: Concertgebouw Orchestra/Willem Mengelberg
Place:
Orchestre National de France/Leonard Bernstein
Philadelphia Orchestra/Riccardo Muti
Berlin Radio Symphony/Lorin Maazel
Honorable Mention: 
Concertgebouw Orchestra/Kirill Kondrashin 
NBC Symphony/Guido Cantelli
Detroit Symphony/Paul Paray



Bruckner: Symphony no. 8
(the general recommendations in this symphony are, in my opinion, too slow by at least 10%, it makes for rhythms that don't dance at all and melodies that can't be sung by human breath, so here are, for the most part, extremely different recommendations than usual)
Gold:  Boston Symphony/Klaus Tennstedt
Silver: Bavarian Radio Symphony/Rafael Kubelik 
Bronze: London Symphony/Jascha Horenstein
Place:
Berlin Philharmonic/Wilhelm Furtwangler
Philharmonic Symphony/Carlos Paita
Bavarian Radio Symphony/Karl Bohm
Honorable Mention:
Halle Orchestra/Sir John Barbirolli
Leningrad Philharmonic/Yevgeny Mravinsky
Vienna Philharmonic/Pierre Boulez
Original Edition:
National Symphony of Ireland/Georg Tintner

Mahler: Symphony no. 2 - "Resurrection"
Gold: New York Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein
Silver: Israel Philharmonic/Zubin Mehta
Bronze: London Philharmonic/Klaus Tennstedt
Place:
Vienna Philharmonic/Bruno Walter (1948)
Sydney Symphony/Otto Klemperer (1951)
London Symphony/Sir Georg Solti
Honorable Mention:
Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra/Gustavo Dudamel
City of Birmingham Symphony/Sir Simon Rattle
Orchestre de Paris/Christoph Eschenbach