Bigshot

The RCO boxes are up to 73 to over 100 euro now. Those who got in on that window got a real bargain.

Complete Rubinstein box under $100 http://www.importcds.com/music/2358603/arthur-rubinstein-the-complete-album-collection

With any label, the thing that differentiates them are the performers and sometimes the repetoire. RCA had Reiner, Heifetz, Rubinstein, Munch... Mercury had Dorati, Paray and unique American music by Hanson.

You haven't looked very closely at these box sets. It isn't like it was in the 60s and 70s. The primary choice performances from the 60s on are now being packaged in these boxes. It isn't no name orchestras, soloists and conductors. It's the top performers of major labels. At this point, just about anything recorded pre-24 bit digital is considered "back catalog". Classical music sales have plummeted, and the way the labels are fighting the slide is by grouping big batches of top recordings together. Bernstein's 60s symphonies in New York, Munch and Reiner on Living Stereo, Dorati on Mercury Living Presence, Karajan at EMI and DGG... All of these were selling at full price five years ago. Today, you can get them in big boxes for $1.50 or $2 a disk. Plus, they've been remastered wonderfully, so they sound better than the individual release from a few years ago. Even the $2 MP3 big boxes at Amazon like Rise of the Masters are compiled from first rate recordings... most of them highly rated recordings from BIS that sell for full price on CD. It's a buyer's market for classical CDs right now, but it isn't going to last. If you are happy with subscription streaming services, then there's no reason to stock up on CDs right now. But I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that in a few years, CDs will be few and far between, just like LPs are today.

My thoughts on duplication is to consider how much duplication and how much I am paying per disk. In a 50 disk set selling for $1.50 a disk, I don't really mind if 5 or 10 are duplicates of things I already have... especially if they are in those replica sleeves. I'll just give away my jewel case version to a friend and have more space on the shelf.

I have the Hannsler Bach edition, and I have yet to find anything in it that qualifies as a "poor-mediocre performance". It's not as hard as you make it out to be. I don't think it's possible to "clutter up my life" with great music. My dream is to have a new great piece of music to discover every single day. I'm not interested in treading the same path over and over again. I want to see the whole world through great music. We're living in a time when that is finally possible. I intend to take advantage of that.

I've reached the point in my collection with thousands and thousands of CDs and records, that I have the basics when it comes to composers and works pretty much covered. At this point, my interest is primarily in the differences in performances, particularly conductors who have a very individual personal style. I don't mind having multiple performances of say, Schubert's 9th. Once I've ripped all the CDs and put them in my music server, I can go to town learning about performers. Recently, doing this with the Abbado and Walter boxes showed me things about both conductors that I hadn't realized before. When a box costs a dollar or two a disk, I'll take a risk and not worry if I love each and every disk in the box. I enjoy casting my net wide. Some labels actually do have a unique "personality". A box set on Mercury Living Presence or RCA Living Stereo makes sense. A box set on EMI or DGG doesn't really make the same kind of sense.

Decca Sound 2: The Analogue Years 1.CD Saint-Saens: Klavierkonzert Nr. 1; Symphonische Dichtungen (Pascal Roge, Philharmonia Orchestra, Charles Dutoit / 1980) 2.CD Bruckner: Symphonie Nr. 6 (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti / 1979) 3.CD Schostakowitsch: Symphonie Nr. 4 (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink / 1979) 4.CD Debussy: Children's Corner; Preludes Heft 1 (Pascal Roge / 1978) 5.CD Sibelius: Pelleas & Melisande op. 46; Der Sturm op. 109 (Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Horst Stein / 1979) 6.CD Prokofieff: Symphonie Nr. 2; Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen-Suite (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Walter Weller / 1978) 7.CD Bartok: Orchestersuiten Nr. 1 & 2; 2 Bilder op. 20; Enescu: Rumänische Rhapsodie Nr. 1 (Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Antal Dorati / 1978) 8.CD Prokofieff: Symphonie Nr. 5; Rimsky-Korssakoff: Russische Ostern-Ouvertüre; Capriccio espagnol (Concertgebouw Orchestra, Lorin Maazel/ 1977) 9.CD Violinsonaten von Debussy & Franck; Ravvel: Introduktion & Allegro (Kyung-Wha Chung, Radu Lupu, Melos Ensemble / 1977) 10.CD Tschaikowsky: Manfred-Symphonie; Valse-scherzo (Philharmonia Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy / 1977) 11.CD Gershwin: Ein Amerikaner in Paris; Copland: Appalachian Spring; Lincoln Portrait; Kraft: Contextures (Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta / 1976) 12.CD Wolf-Ferrari: Il Segreto di Susanna (Maria Chiara, Bernd Weikl, Covent Garden Orchestra, Lamberto Gardelli / 1976) 13.CD Alicia de Larrocha - Werke für Klavier & Orchester von Montsalvatge, Surinach, Falla, Faure (Alicia de Larrocha, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos / 1976) 14.CD Schostakowtisch: Streichquartette Nr. 8, 9,15 (Fitzwilliam Quartet / 1975) 15.CD Schubert: Rosamunde; Ouvertüren von Schumann & Weber (Wiener Philharmoniker, Karl Münchinger / 1974) 16.CD Strawinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps; Ravel: Bolero; Schönberg: Variationen für Orchester (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti / 1974) 17.CD Grieg: Klavierkonzert op. 16; Schumann: Klavierkonzert op. 54 (Radu Lupu, London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn / 1973) 18.CD Haydn: Symphonien Nr. 94, 100, 104 (Philharmonia Hungarica, Antal Dorati / 1972) 19./20.CD Schumann: Szenen aus Goethes Faust; Mozart: Symphonie Nr. 40 (English Chamber Orchestra, Benjamin Britten / 1972) 21.CD Walton: Violinkonzert; Strawinsky: Violinkonzert (Kyung-Wha Chung, London Symphony Orchestra, Andre Prein / 1972) 22.CD Chopin: Etüden (Vladimir Ashkenazy, Klavier / 1972) 23. CD Offenbach: Le Papillon; Massenet: Le Cid (London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Bonynge / 1972) 24. CD Holst: The Planets; Saint-Saens: Symphonie Nr. 3 "Orgelsymponie" (Los Angeles PO, Zubin Mehta / 1971) 25. CD Scriabin: Klavierkonzert; Prometheus für Klavier & Orchester; Poeme de l'extase (Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta / 1971) 26. CD Dvorak: Der Wassermann; Mein Heim; Die Mittagshexe; Die Hussiten; Das goldene Spinnrad (London Symphony Orchestra, Istvan Kertesz) 27. CD Bloch: Schelomo; Voice in the Wilderness; Rimsky-Korssakoff: Capriccio espagnol (Janos Starker, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta / 1969) 28. CD Mendelssohn: Sextett op. 110; Borodin: Quintett c-moll; Berwald: Septett (Wiener Oktett / 1968) 29. CD Mendelssohn: Symphonien Nr. 3 & 4 (London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado / 1968) 30. CD Verdi: Requiem (Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Wiener Philharmoniker, Georg Solti / 1967) 31. CD Mahler: Symphonie Nr. 2 (London Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti / 1966) 32. CD Beethoven: Symphonie Nr. 9 (Joan Sutherland, Wiener Philharmoniker, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt / 1965) 33. CD Britten: Symphonie für Cello & Orchester; Haydn: Cellokonzert (Mstislav Rostropovich, English Chamber Orchestra, Benjamin Britten / 1964) 34. CD Kodaly: Hary Janos; Tänze aus Galanta; Der Pfau; Der Pfau-Variationen (London Symphony Orchestra, Istvan Kertesz / 1964) 35. CD Sibelius: Symphonien Nr. 1 & 4; Karelia-Suite (Wiener Philharmoniker, Lorin Maazel / 1963) 36. CD Mozart: Serenaden KV 361 & 388 (London Wind Soloists / 1962) 37. CD Bruch: Violinkonzert; Hindemith: Violinkonzert (David Oistrach, London Symphony Orchestra, Paul Hindemith, Jascha Horenstein) 38. CD Brahms: Klavierkonzert Nr. 1; Mozart: Klavierkonzert Nr. 27 (Clifford Curzon, London Symphony Orchestra, George Szell / 1962) 39. CD Herold: La File mal gardee; Gounod: Ballettmusik aus Faust (Covent Garden Orchestra, John Lanchberry / 1962) 40. CD Martinu: Etüde für Streicher; Konzert für Pauken & Bläser; Honegger: Symphonie Nr. 2 (Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet / 1961) 41./42. CD Verdi: Otello (Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, Wiener Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan / 1961) 43.CD J. Strauss II: Geschichten aus 1001 Nacht; Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald; Dorfschwalben aus Österreich; Frühlingsstimmen (Hilde Gueden, Wiener Philharmoniker, Willy Boskovsky, Joseph Krips / 1961) 44.CD Tschaikowsky: Schwanensee (Ausz.); Lecoq: Mamzelle Angot (Concertgebouw Orchestra, Anatole Fistoulari / 1961) 45.CD Rossini: Ouvertüren; Mendelssohn: Violinkonzert op. 64 (Ruggiero Ricci, London Symphony Orchestra, Rumon Gamba / 1960) 46./47.CD Puccini: La Boheme (Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Tullio Serafin / 1959) 47.CD Sibelius: Symphonie Nr. 2; Dvorak: Symphonie Nr. 7 (London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux / 1958) 48.CD Schubert: Symphonien Nr. 8 & 9 (London Symphony Orchestra, Joseph Krips / 1958) 49.CD Tschaikowsky: 1812-Ouvertüre; Capriccio italien; Slawischer Marsch; Rachmaninoff: Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 (Julius Katchen, London Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Alwyn, Georg Solti / 1958) 51.CD Grieg: Peer Gynt; Klavierkonzert op. 16 (Clifford Curzon, London Symphony Orchestra, Oivin Fjelstad / 1958) 52.CD Ravel: L'Enfant et les sortileges;Ma mere l'oye-Suite (Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet / 1954) 53.CD "Decca's first stereo recordings" - Rimsky-Korssakoff: Antar; Glasunow: Stenka Rasin; Werke von Balakireff & Liadov (Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet / 1947) 54.CD Mono-Version der CD 53

I enjoy the Cantatas, but I already have the complete Rilling. That version is fine with me for now. The box I'm looking forward to is Decca Sound 2. I really liked the first Decca Sound box.

Get em down in the neighborhood of a buck and change per disk, and I'm game for a pig in a poke.

Miyaskovsky's Symphonies are fantastic. A bit of Tchaikovsky and a bit of Shostakovich and a bit of classic movie soundtracks, like Waxman and Steiner. Svetlanov's box set is the best discovery I've made in years.

Stan Getz is pretty cheap too. $20 for 8 CDs

The first Decca Sound box is my favorite of all the mega boxes. More variety and all good. I'll definitely pick this one up.

I'm sure people feel exactly the same about Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lopez when they read the Enquirer.

I heard that Mendelssohn had a big red boil on his neck, and Schubert liked young ladies to paddle his bottom. All of this informs my understanding of their music!

I think that the sexual history of posters in internet forums informs us about their comments and opinions. Perhaps we should all make a list...

Why does this matter?

For those looking for the Heifetz box, there is a seller on eBay with sealed copies he starts at a penny. I got one for $300.

The difference between the same symphony performed by Bernstein, Toscanini, Furtwangler and Klemperer can be huge.

I just got the Jazz on Vogue 35 CD box set and it is a tremendous bargain. http://www.amazon.de/Jazz-Vogue-Perfect-Collection-Original/dp/B0087PI57K Scratch that... 20 CD set.

Today at Amazon... Murray Perrahia 73 CD box set for $74. http://www.amazon.com/Murray-Perahia-The-First-Years/dp/B008NBEY3C/

Solti is definitely anti-soft. I'd call him strident at times. I like my Wagner to be varied in emotion. I really like Stokowski's symphonic synthesis transcriptions. Bambert's rerecording of these is pretty good.

Today's Gold Box Deal: The Complete Columbo 69 episodes plus 24 TV movies on 34 DVDs for $57 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008RJ6TTC/

I ripped that box a couple of months ago using iTunes, which uses Gracenote and the tracks were all correct

Amazon.de is taking preorders for two CD boxes at about a buck and a half a disk. These appear to be fully packed 60 minute + CDs, not the short running time Original Jacket ones. Sony: Bruno Walter Edition (39 CDs) http://www.amazon.de/Bruno-Walter/dp/B00BNZN27E/ DGG: Claudio Abbado- The Symphony Edition (41 CDs) http://www.amazon.de/Claudio-Abbado-Symphony/dp/B00BN1QV0S/ The big guns are starting to slide into bargain box territory.