Classical

What is that makes a classical recording something that you simply must own? We're not just talking about a tune that you hear on the radio or in the concert hall that you come away humming and slips your mind a short time later, or even an album that you feel you "should" have, but somehow never get around to actually hearing.

Instead, we're talking here about melodies that invade your mind and don't let go. Harmonies that send a chill up your spine. Performances in which the notes written on the page and the perfo...

When you listen to a really fine chorus in America today — the kind that pops out pearl-like syllables and places a judicious halo around each phrase — you are hearing the legacy of Robert Shaw. He was routinely referred to as "the country's greatest choral conductor," which actually sounds like faint praise for such a hugely influential musician. When he died in 1999, at 82, he left a nation studded with singers and choir directors whom he had trained, bullied, hired or inspired. He had also created an A...