Classical music bargains

[king ubu]

Well, you get what we get when ordering from the states ... makes one think two or three times before ordering (and that concerns smaller orders, too, btw).

[Stefan Wood]

It finally caught on, sadly.

[Van Basten II]

Amazon Spain from my perspective had always crazy shipping rates, better one has always been the UK, to make it worthwhile you had to make a multi items order .

Guess that the.com didn't like to see business get away from him

Edited May 7, 2014 by Van Basten II

[Stefan Wood]

Italy was the one that surprised me. I had two box sets ready to order, but held off for one week (had it in the cart at the last week of April, had planned to order this week). The shipping doubled. Basically, it would be paying for a third box set.

[crisp]

I'm toying with getting this. It's very cheap, it's an imaginative selection and a look at Amazon reviews for some of the albums brings up a lot of 5-star ratings.

But I'm wondering how great all of these 50 albums really are. Some of them, such as the one by Chick Corea and Bobby McFerrin worry me slightly -- I don't want a box of lifestyle muzak and smooth crossover Classic FM stuff.

[king ubu]

There's also Wynton

Attractive enough package I'd say, but I've probably got most of those albums I really want (Gould, Fleisher, Rubinstein, Casals, Lenny doing Gershwin, Nuria Rial, Horowitz, Staier, Hahn ... also the Huelgas and Harnoncourt/Mozart discs, both of which I've not listened to yet). A few others are tempting, but not as many as would justify buying this (the Frank Peter Zimmermann Busoni disc I might have to look for though).

[Van Basten II]

As Ubu says it looks like a box set for those who are really starting to buy music, it depends of what you are looking for but they are probably better deals elsewhere

[ejp626]

Philippe Entremont: The Complete Piano Concerto Recordings (Sony, 19 CD)

pre-order possible so far @ amazon.co.uk (23 £) or amazon.de (40 €)

Sony Classical celebrates the 80th birthday of French pianist & conductor Philippe Entremont with the first-ever release of his complete concerto recordings in a limited original jacket collection.

So I've been working through this set. For the most part, it is quite nice. I'm not crazy about the mastering on the Bernstein Symphony #2, however. I actually had the chance to see this live yesterday, so wanted to listen to a recording. I find the CD from the Entremont box to be mixed really low, and the version on the Bernstein Symphony box to better on my system.

[crisp]

Thanks for the comments on 50 Great Albums. I actually quite like Wynton's classical playing...

[king ubu]

And thank YOU, too - I've got a used copy of the Zimmermann/Busoni disc in the mail (or so the vendor said, crossing fingers).

[crisp]

Purely coincidental, but I'll take the credit anyway.

I've just bought Jochum's DG Symphonies set from Amazon UK: 16 discs for about £21. Bruckner, Beethoven and Brahms. I have the Icon set but this was so cheap and I like the idea of comparing the two Bruckner cycles.

[Van Basten II]

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B002P3J3BW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=B002P3J3BW&linkCode=as2&tag=bonsplanscl00-21

From Bon Plans more of an occasion than a deal Horowitz Original Jacket Collection for 99 Euros for 70 CDs

For the Canucks it comes within 155 $, shipping included.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Van Basten II

[crisp]

This seems to be a preorder, so is Sony reissuing the box as it did the Heifetz?

And I'll probably look stupid here, but what's Bon Plans?

[mjzee]

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B002P3J3BW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1638&creative=19454&creativeASIN=B002P3J3BW&linkCode=as2&tag=bonsplanscl00-21

From Bon Plans more of an occasion than a deal Horowitz Original Jacket Collection for 99 Euros for 70 CDs

For the Canucks it comes within 155 $, shipping included.

Wow! Thanks for the heads up. I have the white RCA box from the early '90's, and even I could tell the sound quality was lacking. I also have the blue Columbia Masterworks box from the '90's, so there'll be some duplication; ah well. Question: is there a lot of duplication between this box and the Carnegie Hall box set that Sony released last year?

Hope this isn't one of those Korean jobs that some have complained about recently.

[Bigshot]

Ordered the Horowitz box. There shouldn't be any overlap between this and the Carnegie Hall box.

[mjzee]

Ordered the Horowitz box. There shouldn't be any overlap between this and the Carnegie Hall box.

Not sure about this. There's the Sony 3-disc set "The Historic Return - Carnegie Hall 1965 - The 1966 Concerts," at the very least, that's probably on both boxes.

[Stefan Wood]

Not tempted. Not a Horowitz fan. Will plunge for Ansermet Russian box.

[Van Basten II]

This seems to be a preorder, so is Sony reissuing the box as it did the Heifetz?

And I'll probably look stupid here, but what's Bon Plans?

It's a French site that reports deals on classical music, quite handy even if you don't understand la langue de Perec

http://bons-plans-classique.blogspot.ca/

[Stefan Wood]

Alfred Brendel box for 30 euros! Sold out......

[crisp]

This seems to be a preorder, so is Sony reissuing the box as it did the Heifetz?

And I'll probably look stupid here, but what's Bon Plans?

It's a French site that reports deals on classical music, quite handy even if you don't understand la langue de Perec

http://bons-plans-classique.blogspot.ca/

Thanks

[mjzee]

I ordered the Horowitz box from Amazon.de. With shipping, it came to 94.95 eur, or $130.05.

[king ubu]

Got way too much Horowitz to bother for the big sucker ... and frankly I think I already have more than I really need. The "really need" so far boils down to his Scarlatti, Chopin, Liszt ... and some very, very good Schumann ... I might forget a few things, but I've got some 30+ CDs of this material, Columbia/Sony and RCA heritage - I guess the big sucker combines both, right?

I've seen these two a while back and wanted to ask what people here might think of them:

Contents listed here:

http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/us/cat/4792690

I'm tempted, all I know are the Mozart sonatas and I think they're very good.

And then there's this one:

I read some rather lukewarm reviews on an ealier box collecting the Mozart concertos, but again, I am tempted!

The DG set is in the 60€ range, the Erato in the 40-45€ so far ... the DG would have to go down a tiny bit in order to spare me from the custom n*zis, but I'm patient ...

Finally, DG seems to start mining their Fricsay treasures, too .... Vol. 1 coming in July - some info here:

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/ferenc-fricsay-complete-recordings-on-deutsche-grammophon-vol-1-orchestral-works/hnum/5121748

Don't know much of his recordings so far ... but I might be interested in the opera box if they follow up with one! Not sure I need this one, probably have all or most of the concerto recordings with Haskil, Martzy, Menuhin and Morini ... but no symphonic stuff of his at all yet.

[Stefan Wood]

Geez, DG corporate brass, could you find an uglier picture to slap on a box set? Fricsay, long dead, should be pissed:

[mjzee]

Got the Horowitz box today from amazon.de. Looks wonderful. Lots of live Horowitz included, so I don't know about the Carnegie box.

[king ubu]

Silly question maybe, but this is Columbia + RCA, right?

Anway, I've already got more Horowitz than I really need (including one of his two 10 CD original jacket sets - the one covering RCA material).

Edited June 8, 2014 by king ubu