World's worst side-break?

[Petrushka]

If you have a CD set of the last three Tchaikovsky symphonies you will almost certainly find that the unfortunate 5th is split between two CDs. So infuriating!

[Petrushka]

Another CD example, just to show that this problem isn't confined to LPs.

In the Karajan 1960s box the Beethoven 9 slavishly follows the original LP set in having the first three movements on one CD and the 8th symphony plus finale of the 9th on the following CD! This is utter madness and should have been done as a gatefold set with the 8th on one disc and the complete 9th on the other. What on earth were DG thinking?

I've had to buy the DG Original CD of the 9th to get it complete.

[Pulcinella]

Another CD example, just to show that this problem isn't confined to LPs.

In the Karajan 1960s box the Beethoven 9 slavishly follows the original LP set in having the first three movements on one CD and the 8th symphony plus finale of the 9th on the following CD! This is utter madness and should have been done as a gatefold set with the 8th on one disc and the complete 9th on the other. What on earth were DG thinking?

I've had to buy the DG Original CD of the 9th to get it complete.

I wonder if the packaging changed (if we're talking about the same set)?
I have a set called the 1963 First Release: two boxes in a slip case.
The first box has three CDs: 1,3/2,4/5,6; the second box has two CDs, 7,8/9.
So number 9 (at 67'17") is complete on the fifth CD.

That said, I can see some advantage of the layout you mention for those who can't bear the last movement; they are at least spared from having to reach for the remote control.

[HighlandDougie]

Another CD example, just to show that this problem isn't confined to LPs.

In the Karajan 1960s box the Beethoven 9 slavishly follows the original LP set in having the first three movements on one CD and the 8th symphony plus finale of the 9th on the following CD! This is utter madness and should have been done as a gatefold set with the 8th on one disc and the complete 9th on the other. What on earth were DG thinking?

I've had to buy the DG Original CD of the 9th to get it complete.

And it's exactly the same in the big HvK box. Japanese collectors - a very big market for Universal et al - have a little bit of a fetish about "respecting the original" so, if it was split in the original LPs, so it should be with the CDs. Bonkers, I know. At least Tower Records Japan with their SACD-based "Definition Series" (and to a lesser extent, Universal) do fill CDs up to maximise bangs per buck, music-wise.

[Petrushka]

I wonder if the packaging changed (if we're talking about the same set)?
I have a set called the 1963 First Release: two boxes in a slip case.
The first box has three CDs: 1,3/2,4/5,6; the second box has two CDs, 7,8/9.
So number 9 (at 67'17") is complete on the fifth CD.

That said, I can see some advantage of the layout you mention for those who can't bear the last movement; they are at least spared from having to reach for the remote control.

Sorry, should have been clearer. I'm talking about the big box of all of Karajan's 1960s recordings. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Herbert-von...al%2C66&sr=1-1

I'm wondering if the same unfortunate layout was retained for the big, big Karajan box (one for Bryn or ts to answer!)

EDIT:I see that HD answered my question. It does. I normally share HD's bonkers attitude to replicating the original LP issue as per the sleeve but feel that this one took it too far and the solution I put forward was easily achievable.

[richardfinegold]

Has there ever been a prize (booby-prize) for this? If so I have a top contender, IMHO opinion of course.

I was recently given an RCA LP called 'Horowitz Concerts 1977/ 1978 Golden Jubilee Recital' which, despite the title, seems to be a studio recording with excellent sound quality. Contents: the Liszt sonata and a couple of short Faure pieces, an impromptu and a nocturne. OK, not generously filled but never mind, it's Horowitz innit?:



So what have the stupid RCA b*gg*rs done?? They've split the sonata about 2/3 of the way through! It always fits comfortably on one side doesn't it?:


Real pity as it's a cracking performance as one might expect of Horowitz, and not one widely known or reissued as far as I can tell. (Did bad reviews on this point scupper the issue perhaps?) If anyone can route me to a CD version I well might be tempted.

Please nominate further 'side-splitting' inanities to pip this one, if you feel incensed enough!

I suspect that digital versions are not similarly affected. I don’t play lps anymore but I remember a reissue of Walter/NYP Mahler2 that unhelpfully split Urlicht; in fact when I play the same recording on CD I keep expecting the music to stop there

[richardfinegold]

Another CD example, just to show that this problem isn't confined to LPs.

In the Karajan 1960s box the Beethoven 9 slavishly follows the original LP set in having the first three movements on one CD and the 8th symphony plus finale of the 9th on the following CD! This is utter madness and should have been done as a gatefold set with the 8th on one disc and the complete 9th on the other. What on earth were DG thinking?

I've had to buy the DG Original CD of the 9th to get it complete.

Problem solved by burning CDs to a HD and playing from a server. Just sayin

[LHC]

Sorry, should have been clearer. I'm talking about the big box of all of Karajan's 1960s recordings. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Herbert-von...al%2C66&sr=1-1

I'm wondering if the same unfortunate layout was retained for the big, big Karajan box (one for Bryn or ts to answer!)

The problem appears to be the result of a desire to replicate the original LP releases, down to the slipcases all reproducing the original sleeve art. All of the box sets of the 1960s Beethoven cycle have the 9th on a single CD.

For me, the oddest side breaks were on the original LP release of Kleiber's Tristan and Isolde. Instead of a clean break, the music is faded down at the end of each side, with the music then being faded up a few bars earlier on the next side of the LP. It makes for very odd listening. Thankfully, the CD release has one Act per CD, so no need for breaks in the music.

[Parry1912]

I'm wondering if the same unfortunate layout was retained for the big, big Karajan box (one for Bryn or ts to answer!)

The big box has the advantage of having that cycle on blu-ray as well. So you can listen to all nine symphonies without a break!

[mathias broucek]

The big box has the advantage of having that cycle on blu-ray as well. So you can listen to all nine symphonies without a break!

Normally, by the time someone has earned and saved enough to buy such a box, the trials of age mean that getting through the 9th in a single sitting is by no means certain...

[Bryn]

Normally, by the time someone has earned and saved enough to buy such a box, the trials of age mean that getting through the 9th in a single sitting is by no means certain...

Really? I thought it was the young who were stricken by the 3-minute culture disease. O.K., I'm only in my mid-70s as yet but Feldman's SQ2, For Philip Guston, and Sorabji's Sequentia Cyclica . . . (rendered to hard disc or USB stick) still get listened to, straight through, occasionally. Something as relatively brief as Mahler's 9th presents no problem, even with a dodgy prostate.

Regarding Mahler and disc breaks, it's the 3rd which is my bug-bear. So many commercial CDs split it other than after what Mahler designated as Part 1 of 2 (the first movement), thus considerably disrupting the flow.

[Petrushka]

The big box has the advantage of having that cycle on blu-ray as well. So you can listen to all nine symphonies without a break!

No such problem here (yet) and I'll be 68 next month. However, you remind me of Sir Georg Solti's advice that the most important preparation before a performance of Das Rheingold is to ensure you visit the loo!

[Pulcinella]

Rooting around on the shelves for the Colin Davis Stravinsky Symphony in three movements, I was reminded of the other Stravinsky Philips 2CD set I have, called The Great Ballets.
Dreadful break between CDs: just before the Coda and Apotheosis in Apollon musagète.
How could they?

[Aureliano]

I remember at the advent of the CD is was just wonderful to hear the Strauss Alpine Symphony without having to change sides right in the middle of The Summit of all places.

Also there was a Decca vinyl of Mahler's 1st with Leinsdorf and RPO where the break was in the middle of the third movement right before the return of the funeral march theme. I guess this was so the end of the funeral march could segue directly into the bolt from the blue start of the fourth movement.