HMV/EMI classical.

The question really should be, what conductors and orchestras can I trust? I like ths Sony Classical series. Every bit as cheap. Even though "Cleveland Orchestra" sounds just awful, it's not. And George Szell (sp?) makes me pretty happy.

well go for the naxos label as the CDs are 5 quid and I think they record a wider-ish variety of material.

I have a disc of webern's music and another of Varese's (the latter is v fine). They've recently released a CD of Ligeti's 'Etudes' for piano, which I'll get as well.

I don't know abt great performances or not. I haven't got to the stage in classical where I have multiple recordings of a piece and so I can't compare it and I think that, as a listener, it will take me years to reach a stage where i can say: ''this performance is crap''.

Are you talking about the EMI "Encore" series (the ones with the framed paintings and either the recording angel or nipper the dog on the covers)? If so, then these are, generally speaking, quite reliable. Of course there will be some dud recordings in the catalogue, but for the price they're a good way to introduce yourself to repertoire.

Better than the EMI series, but with a far worse name, is "Eloquence", a similarly-priced series of recordings from the back catalogues of Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, and Philips (all of which I like better than EMI, generally). You don't get any liner notes with these, though, and I think they mightn't be available in Europe.

Sony Classical's cheap line is a good thing, and the recordings by Szell/Cleveland and Ormandy/Philadelphia are probably among most reliable within the whole budget-line area.

The reason these are all so inexpensive is not that they were recorded on the cheap (they are all reissues of originally full-priced recordings), but rather that the big labels are finally realising that they have to compete with Naxos, who own a huge chunk of the market and offer brand-new recordings for a similar price. Buying a recording unheard is always a gamble, but with the encore and eloquence series it's much less of a gamble than with Naxos. Of course all of them have their lesser moments, but with Naxos one is disappointed more often than not. i.e. the major-label reissues are safer bets almost invariably.

(On the other hand, though, Naxos has recorded a lot of rather obscure repertoire which is unavailable anywhere else, much less at a cheap price.)

One thing to watch out for with these reissues is recording dates - anything before about 1960-70 (depending on your tolerance) is going to sound pretty noisy to modern ears, even with remastering. Often the performance is good enough that you don't care, but it's good to check this nonetheless.

what conductors and orchestras can I trust?

Perverse as it may seem, I would actually think about this more in terms of which labels you can trust, because individual performances are so much a matter of preference. For instance, the recordings of Mahler's symphonies by Bernstein and Boulez coexist on Deutsche Grammophon, and they both have their supporters and detractors; they're both well-performed and well recorded. I, for one, happen to like Boulez' interpretations a lot more than Bernstein's, but there's not really anything technically wrong with the latter.

If anyone has read this far and wants to know which labels to trust, I am glad to opine.

Captain Sleep, you are a star. Thank you very much!