Classical music bargains

[Stefan Wood]

A lot of these box sets go beyond the standard repertoire. A current example is the new Bernstein box. There are going to be a LOT of American and Latin American works that barely saw the light of cd. Quite a few of the EMI sets (Melos, Sargent, etc) deal with non standard material.

[ejp626]

A lot of these box sets go beyond the standard repertoire. A current example is the new Bernstein box. There are going to be a LOT of American and Latin American works that barely saw the light of cd. Quite a few of the EMI sets (Melos, Sargent, etc) deal with non standard material.

Some do, and I've tried to pick those up. Silverstri was one I thought was particularly good, and definitely Melos. But it is kind of depressing looking at the newish Abbado or Kubelik sets and seeing that it really is the canon over and over again (counting Dvorak symphonies as canonical).

[Stefan Wood]

Silvestri is a good one. So is this, which is finally at its lowest price so far:

$71 shipped from amazon uk. Or 45 pounds if you are in the UK. Lots of singular recordings here.

How about this for non traditional?

[David Ayers]

That Phase Four set is like a month of migraines in a box!

[king ubu]

Silvestri is a good one. So is this, which is finally at its lowest price so far:

Lots of singular recordings here.

Can't buy this one then, as I can't compare each work it contains with seventeen other versions.

[Stefan Wood]

Well, it at least has two versions of Rites and Firebird (mono and stereo) in it.

[neveronfriday]

But for me the real thrill still comes from buying a single disc of unknown music and then following that composer or style, single disc by disc. You usually end up in very unexpected places.

I spent thirty-five years doing exactly that within other genres ... and continue to do so. The recent drastic price drops in classical music via these "monster" boxed sets just helped me get a head start because ...

Most of these box sets sell for less than a set of brake pads for the car. It is just inexpensive fun isn't it, not 'capitalist exploitation'? In fact they have a good answer as to how to get out the back catalog to people who want it.

P.S.: I'm going out to a nice dinner tonight and expect a bill that is the equivalent of four or maybe five of these 55-CD (or whatever) boxed sets..

Without elaborating too much, that's my perspective.

The music will be around longer than the effects of said dinner and, if I happen to dislike a box, I can always sell it for (probably) at least the equivalent price, especially when considering that these price drops and increases have been all over the damn map these past 48 months.

Edited August 1, 2014 by neveronfriday

[A Lark Ascending]

Oh, I can see the appeal to someone starting out at the prices offered.

I just find the marketing angle interesting. How do you sell Beethoven to someone who has Beethoven? Well, you knock up a box and tell them they've not really heard Beethoven unless they've heard Schumfeldicker's Beethoven. It's a variation on reselling the same jazz recordings with promised sonic upgrades (or convincing us we really need to upgrade our mobile or computer).

We all like to buy stuff. The record companies are churning out the stuff. Like the commercial world on general it's about both responding to demand but also creating a demand for stuff we didn't know we needed.

[Bigshot]

A lot of these box sets go beyond the standard repertoire. A current example is the new Bernstein box. There are going to be a LOT of American and Latin American works that barely saw the light of cd. Quite a few of the EMI sets (Melos, Sargent, etc) deal with non standard material.

The Hanson recordings on Mercury too.

[Bigshot]

I just find the marketing angle interesting. How do you sell Beethoven to someone who has Beethoven? Well, you knock up a box and tell them they've not really heard Beethoven unless they've heard Schumfeldicker's Beethoven.

I can think of two reasons... First of all, Beethoven's music lends itself to a variety of interpretations. The music has considerable opportunity for depth and nuance. Secondly, back catalog conductors are more likely to have quite different approaches. A Toscanini box isn't going to sound anything like a Stokowski box, even if they contain the same program.

When you're first starting out in classical music, it's good to get a lay of the land by spreading out wide and sampling a variety of as many different composers and works as possible. Once you've spent a couple of decades doing that, you can start digging deeper and listen to interpretative variety.

[crisp]

Bev makes valid points, but whether I buy my music disc by disc or by the box, I listen to it disc by disc either way. So I've no problem stockpiling -- and right now it's the cheaper way.

[A Lark Ascending]

When you're first starting out in classical music, it's good to get a lay of the land by spreading out wide and sampling a variety of as many different composers and works as possible. Once you've spent a couple of decades doing that, you can start digging deeper and listen to interpretative variety.

I'd say listening to interpretations will give you a deeper appreciation of listening to interpretations.

You can learn to love and understand the music off one recording.

[king ubu]

Well no, if you stick to one recording, it's one interpretation you can learn to love and understand.

[David Ayers]

I guess the beauty of the cheap box-set and streaming era is that those who choose to only listen to one recording can do so, while those who find some interest in exploring the range of different ways in which a score rich in potentials can be made to sound and feel can easily and cheaply do it that way. It seems dogmatic to decline to do so. Who really now would sit there on Spotify with her or his Klemperer, resolutely refusing to click on the Beethoven of Harnoncourt, Bernstein, Vanska etc etc.? To say nothing of e.g. piano traditions which vary incredibly widely. Who gets more stupid by doing it that way? What exactly have they lost - expect maybe a few dollars which, it seems, they can easily afford. These days a coffee costs more than one CD in a box set, sometimes by a multiple.

[A Lark Ascending]

Not dogmatic at all.

Listening to versions is a matter of choice like anything else. I enjoy listening to things like Building a Library where people with expertise and considerable experience make comparisons based on depth of knowledge, awareness of the score(s) etc. I enjoy listening to music I know live or on the radio. But stacking up masses of celebrity recordings of the same pieces?

You get the impression here that listening to music is all about owning great stacks of recordings by approved and validated celebrity maestros. Commentary rarely amounts to more than name-checking the famous names.

These sets seem to very consciously play to that market.

I'm always uncomfortable with recordings that put the performers name in bigger letters than the composers. Seems to invert importance to my way of thinking.

[Bigshot]

I'd say listening to interpretations will give you a deeper appreciation of listening to interpretations.

Absolutely. The performer is half the show. The music is the other half. Staying with one recording forever would be like only wanting to see one performance of Hamlet.

You get the impression here that listening to music is all about owning great stacks of recordings by approved and validated celebrity maestros. Commentary rarely amounts to more than name-checking the famous names.

That's because most people on internet forums haven't gotten to the point where they are ready to explore various interpretations. They're still getting familiar with the basic layout of the work itself.

I agree however that a lot of modern performers are pretty much interchangeable, but that isn't the sort of thing we're talking about with big boxes of Heifetz, Horowitz, Rubinstein, Reiner or Toscanini.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Bigshot

[David Ayers]

Add to that, that much of the market for these sets is collectors who would have had to spend a fortune in the past to collect these recordings, if they could do it at all.

I mean, a complete Fricsay on DG - for some people that will be like a dream come true.

[ejp626]

I guess this is right on the edge of being a bargain: http://www.amazon.com/Luciano-Pavarotti-Edition-First-Decade/dp/B00G5WUIP4/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

Pavarotti - the First Decade (Decca). 28 CDs and a small vinyl bonus disc for roughly $100. Almost everything remastered well apparently. I think this is one of those sets where price will drop, then skyrocket when it goes OOP. I don't enjoy opera enough (or at all) for this to tempt me.

[mjzee]

The Universal sets don't get deeply discounted the way Sony sets do.

[king ubu]

The smaller ones do (i.e. Jochum or Böhm Symphonies), and of course all the Universal Italy ones do (the Jochum and Böhm might be italian, have the later, but not at hand to check). Also the Abbado Symphony Edition went down quite some (to less than 50€).

Not sure about the Pavarotti ... I want a few of the recordings it contains and as they're not around in cheapo, librotto-less reissue versions, it might in fact be cheaper to get the big box - but then again, there's stuff in it I really don't think I'm going to like all that much (though that's not based on actual listening).

[Д.Д.]

New DG originals 50-CD box, good price at amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/The-Originals-Box-Set-50/dp/B00LNRJMCQ?SubscriptionId=AKIAIVGTH525N57WM2NQ&tag=pricenoiaca-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00LNRJMCQ

Erato / Warner complete Rameau operas (27 CDs): http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00KYMJ4H4/ref=s9_ri_bw_g15_i13?pf_rd_m=A11IL2PNWYJU7H&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-5&pf_rd_r=1E6B12T9D694079TVZ3N&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=394753867&pf_rd_i=435475031

[Stefan Wood]

Sony is issuing a complete Pierre Monteux box in December.

[Bigshot]

That originals box is probably going to have a lot of crossover with the Karajan, Abbado and DGG anniversary boxes.

[ejp626]

That originals box is probably going to have a lot of crossover with the Karajan, Abbado and DGG anniversary boxes.

It looks like some but less than you might think. Amazon UK has more but still incomplete details:

CONTENTS

• CD 1-2 BACH - BRAHMS -TCHAIKOVSKY
• Violin Concertos Oistrakh
• CD 3-4 BACH Cello Suites Fournier
• CD 5 BEETHOVEN Symphonies 5 & 7 Kleiber
• CD 6 BEETHOVEN Symphony 6
• SCHUBERT Symphony 5 Böhm
• CD 7 BEETHOVEN Symphony 9 Karajan
• CD 8 BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos 4 & 5 Kempff
• CD 9 BEETHOVEN Sonatas 8, 14, 21 & 23 Kempff
• CD 10 BRAHMS Symphony 4 Kleiber
• CD 11-12 BRAHMS Piano Concertos Gilels
• CD 13 BRAHMS Cello Sonatas Rostropovich
• CD 14 CHOPIN Piano Concerto 1
• CD LISZT Piano Concerto 1 Argerich
• CD 15 CHOPIN Études opp. 10 & 25 Pollini
• CD 16 CHOPIN Polonaises Pollini
• CD 17 DEBUSSY La Mer RAVEL Boléro
• CD MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition Karajan
• CD 18 DVOŘÁK Symphonies 8 & 9 Kubelik
• CD 19 DVOŘÁK Slavonic Dances Kubelik
• CD 20 DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto Rostropovich
• CD 21 GRIEG Lyric Pieces Gilels
• CD 22 MAHLER Symphony 1 Kubelik
• CD 23 MAHLER Symphony 5 Karajan
• CD 24 MENDELSSOHN Symphonies 3 & 4 Karajan
• CD 25 MENDELSSOHN - BRUCH Concertos Mutter
• CD 26-27 MOZART Symphonies 35, 36, 38-41 Böhm
• CD 28 MOZART Piano Concertos 6, 17 & 21 Anda
• CD 29 MOZART Violin Concertos 3 & 5 Mutter
• CD 30 MOZART Wind Concertos Prinz - Tripp - Zeman
• CD 31-32 MOZART Die Zauberflöte Böhm
• CD 33 ORFF Carmina Burana Jochum
• CD 34 PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto 3
• RAVEL Piano Concerto in G Argerich
• CD 35 PROKOFIEV Scythian Suite - Lieutenant Kijé Abbado
• CD 36 RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto 2
• TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto 1 Richter
• CD 37 SCHUBERT Symphonies 3 & 8 Kleiber
• CD 38 SCHUBERT “Death and the Maiden“ Quartet
• “The Trout” Quintet Gilels - Amadeus
• CD 39 SCHUBERT Die schöne Müllerin Wunderlich
• CD 40 SCHUBERT Winterreise Fischer-Dieskau
• CD 41 R. STRAUSS Zarathustra - Till Eulenspiegel
• Don Juan Karajan
• CD 42 R. STRAUSS Four Last Songs
• Tod und Verklärung Janowitz - Karajan
• CD 43-44 TCHAIKOVSKY Symphonies 4-6 Mravinsky
• CD 45 TCHAIKOVSKY Ballet Suites Rostropovich
• CD 46 VERDI Messa da Requiem Fricsay
• CD 47-49 WAGNER Tristan und Isolde Böhm
• CD 50 Martha Argerich Debut Recital LISZT
• CHOPIN - BRAHMS - PROKOFIEV - RAVEL

[Д.Д.]

Debussy / Ravel Martinon recordings, 8CDs, for €14 at amazon.fr: http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B008DK3Q96/ref=ox_sc_imb_mini_detail?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1X6FK5RDHNB96

These are excellent performances.