Charity Shop Trawl

[teamsaint]

the united States consumes one quarter of the worlds resources with 5% of its population.
Fact, not estimate .

[edashtav]

the united States consumes one quarter of the worlds resources with 5% of its population.
Fact, not estimate .

Exactly!

[frankwm]

Charities, such as those frequently discussed/haunted, don't help populate Continental America.

I'm referring to people who donate (frequently under deceased situations), potentially being in need of some of the capital/wealth tied-up in such collections: for which they won't see a brass farthing...and here you are wittering-on about the USA's excessive consumption...which doubtless warms your collective cockles.

Lost Cause: frequently encountered on the WWW: thus no surprise; just keep on telling The World how little you've paid for some long-sought CD's, acquired for the usual pittance...
...makes for thrilling reading....no, honestly, it does!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I feel some of that too,but get over it by attending as much live music as I can, which likely puts rather more bread on the musicians' tables.

I just "get over it"!

[teamsaint]

obviously, nights out at music events can be a bit of a trial, but the musicians are worth it !!

[pastoralguy]

Another aspect is that (esp. applying to widows) those who are quite unaware of the value of Hubbies Hobby - and who could be more in need of some recompense...

Well, I've made it very clear to Mrs. PG that some of my collection is quite valuable. In the event of my demise, I have told her that, instead of mopping around, she should sit and list the rare discs on eBay and get a holiday off the proceeds! I've left clear instructions about what information is required and each rare disc has a yellow dot.

So there!

[frankwm]

If she visits http://collectorsfrenzy.com she may be tempted to bring-forward that holiday...

[JFLL]

Doubt the Oxfam's of this world ever knowingly miss an opportunity to screw the last few coppers out of donations:
Here's one interesting example:

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/music-films-video-games/music/vienna-octet-mozart-divertimenti-k334-136-sxl-2290-hd_100161663

Sheer mindless greed as to the claimed 'online value'..

"Similar examples of the recording have sold for £1000 Online" Well, there's a mug born every minute, isn't there? And have they sold for that, or just been offered for that? Don't we all have a good laugh at those booksellers on Amazon who offer a book for £1966.71 which is still in print at £10? (I love the precision of these figures, raising suspicions of being generated by random number calculators.)

[Don Petter]

The two recordings are available as part of an Eloquence double CD for £10.75, having five divertimenti and a march.

[frankwm]

Suspect some hyper-active Oxfam pricing drone misread £100 - and it didn't seem that £1000 was a bit too much... (quickly found Popsike with eBay sold @£82).
But that's the subsquent (apparently misunderstood (??)) point: you only need a bare handful of these and that's £1000 to Oxfam...who, 20 years back, priced such @ £1.50 in London (Ealing) - and less than a decade previous is what I'd paid for my, susbsequently disposed-of, copy from a London dealer..
With such valuable material/collections I consider large organisations should be honour-bound to provide an option for the donor to receive a timely percentage of the proceeds:- if they can keep track of 'Gift Aid' income (solely for even more benefit to themselves) then there's clearly no difficulty operating such a scheme...

[JFLL]

Suspect some hyper-active Oxfam pricing drone misread £100 - and it didn't seem that £1000 was a bit too much... (quickly found Popsike with eBay sold @£82).
But that's the subsquent (apparently misunderstood (??)) point: you only need a bare handful of these and that's £1000 to Oxfam...who, 20 years back, priced such @ £1.50 in London (Ealing) - and less than a decade previous is what I'd paid for my, susbsequently disposed-of, copy from a London dealer..
With such valuable material/collections I consider large organisations should be honour-bound to provide an option for the donor to receive a timely percentage of the proceeds:- if they can keep track of 'Gift Aid' income (solely for even more benefit to themselves) then there's clearly no difficulty operating such a scheme...

"Vienna Octet - Mozart Divertimenti K.334 &136 - SXL 2290. 1961 Recording of Mozart's Divertmenti. First Example of Grooved Decca label. Record cleaned on Clear Audio Matrix Record Cleaner. Similar examples of the recording have sold for £1000 Online"

There's the other point, that a "first Example of Grooved Decca label. Record cleaned on Clear Audio Matrix Record Cleaner" is neither here nor there, it's still a couple of Mozart divertimenti (even though played by the marvellous Vienna Octet), and who would want to pay even £74 for them when they could be listening to Figaro, K.563, K. 550, K. 503 etc. etc.? Or even the Vienna Octet playing them on a Decca Eloquence CD?

[frankwm]

Lookie: Oxfam are alert for such material -but which the donor will quite possibly have no idea of its/their value.

That issue only had a UK release, originally - and maybe didn't sell too well (thus is 'over-the-average' for that part of the SXL series: I got a quite-near price years back - but it hasn't acquired a 10x mark-up like some: for example SXL 6426 (Britten/Rostropovich): the last figure I saw was £500 some few years back compared to my 'price' -due to an old-style label being discontinued near instantly @ its release in 1970: you'll find similar examples with Du Pre on CSD/HQS issues; with a label-design change creating very short print-runs with old-style labels...

[aeolium]

"Vienna Octet - Mozart Divertimenti K.334 &136 - SXL 2290. 1961 Recording of Mozart's Divertmenti. First Example of Grooved Decca label. Record cleaned on Clear Audio Matrix Record Cleaner. Similar examples of the recording have sold for £1000 Online"

There's the other point, that a "first Example of Grooved Decca label. Record cleaned on Clear Audio Matrix Record Cleaner" is neither here nor there, it's still a couple of Mozart divertimenti (even though played by the marvellous Vienna Octet), and who would want to pay even £74 for them when they could be listening to Figaro, K.563, K. 550, K. 503 etc. etc.? Or even the Vienna Octet playing them on a Decca Eloquence CD?

Though this is almost certainly OT to the main topic of charity shop trawls and the later discussion on pricing of rare LPs, I think that later Vienna Octet recording of K334, with Anton Fietz as the first violinist, is an indispensable recording. It is the one on SXL 2290, and I think was later issued on LP under the Ace of Diamonds label (which is how I acquired it). It has now been reissued on Decca Eloquence as Don Petter says under the title "Five Divertimenti" - confusingly a different Vienna Octet recording of the same work, with Willi Boskovsky leading, is also available on Decca Eloquence under the title "Mozart from a Golden Age".

The divertimento K334 is not a slight work but a lengthy one which shows Mozart's growing mastery of chamber music forms and compares well with those slightly later octets purely for wind. Mozart enriches the string serenade sound with horns. Alfred Einstein, Mozart's biographer and one not known for excessive use of hyperbole, called the work "a lost paradise in music". In this later Vienna Octet recording, the string playing is absolutely delightful (with Fietz pre-eminent), and the Vienna horns sound gloriously idiomatic.

K334 does not reach the depths of the late Divertimento K563, or any of the other works JFLL mentions, but it is I think one of Mozart's best works up to that point in his life (with K271). It deserves the great performance it receives on this recording and is well worth acquiring (but for less than £1000 ).

[Don Petter]

Good post, aeolium, and it reminds me how easy it is to inadvertently disseminate false information on these occasions. I did know about the two different recordings on Eloquence, but had forgotten again at the time of posting. Luckily I hit the right one.

[JFLL]

Though this is almost certainly OT to the main topic of charity shop trawls and the later discussion on pricing of rare LPs, I think that later Vienna Octet recording of K334, with Anton Fietz as the first violinist, is an indispensable recording. It is the one on SXL 2290, and I think was later issued on LP under the Ace of Diamonds label (which is how I acquired it). It has now been reissued on Decca Eloquence as Don Petter says under the title "Five Divertimenti" - confusingly a different Vienna Octet recording of the same work, with Willi Boskovsky leading, is also available on Decca Eloquence under the title "Mozart from a Golden Age".

The divertimento K334 is not a slight work but a lengthy one which shows Mozart's growing mastery of chamber music forms and compares well with those slightly later octets purely for wind. Mozart enriches the string serenade sound with horns. Alfred Einstein, Mozart's biographer and one not known for excessive use of hyperbole, called the work "a lost paradise in music". In this later Vienna Octet recording, the string playing is absolutely delightful (with Fietz pre-eminent), and the Vienna horns sound gloriously idiomatic.

K334 does not reach the depths of the late Divertimento K563, or any of the other works JFLL mentions, but it is I think one of Mozart's best works up to that point in his life (with K271). It deserves the great performance it receives on this recording and is well worth acquiring (but for less than £1000 ).

Don't get me wrong, aeolium, I do like K.334, and have four recordings of it to prove it, including the Vienna Octet with Fietz! Perhaps I was feeling a bit dyspeptic last night, and that fol-de-rol about £1000 for a clean LP bugged me more than somewhat.