Unplayed CDs - confess your guilt!

[Ariosto]

This will shock some but I don't really enjoy Bruckner. I bought a cheap box of all the symphonies, with performances by Carl Schuricht, Karl Bohm, Swarowsky, Furtwangler, Knappertsbusch.etc. Ancient but remastered and only £10 years' ago.

I think I listened to no.0 once, but that's it.

Bruckner can be very turgid and boring. He apparently never had it off so his vision is one dimentional.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Come now, Ariosto. I've been happy to support you on other threads, but this is a bit close to the bone...

[Ariosto]

Come now, Ariosto. I've been happy to support you on other threads, but this is a bit close to the bone...

It's just a point of view, like any other point of view. You have to take it or leave it. Simple really.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It's just a point of view, like any other point of view. You have to take it or leave it. Simple really.

The point of view was fine. I just question the references used.

[Bryn]

Far, far too many to even consider fathoming.

[Jonathan]

I think in my case, it's more often CDs I've played once and left. If I don't like what I've heard, I usually sell them!

However, there are one or two floating I've not listened to yet - Melartin Symphonies 1 - 6 and Sibelius Complete piano music to name but two. Today in the post arrived a pile of Liszt Symphonic Poem CDs on period instruments which I have to write CD reviews for so those will get heard before either the Melartin or the Sibelius. There's also the 6 disc set of Rheinberger CDs and the Rontgen Piano Concerti CD also somewhere in the post which will have to wait...

Good job I have a long commute!

[LeMartinPecheur]

Tippett's 4th / Solti ? Magnificent! ( Even if you are not normally a fan of either )

Seconded! I bought it on LP and have managed to get it again on CD c/w The Knot Garden.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I did think about starting a thread on this after talking to a friend on the phone recenty. He's older than both of us, and enjoyed music all his life until recently. He is also a rather good pianist, and accompanies singers and I think still gives lessons, though these may now be more like play through sessions.

A few years ago he admitted to finding things harder, due to increasing deafness. Last year he reported that the top notes on his piano sounded flatter, though he was sure they weren't. He has a very good piano - a Steinway bought many years ago. Then he reported that chords didn't sound right, so he'd been forced to give up listening - not only to his playing, but also to recorded music. The latest update suggests that now the top end of the piano is inaudible to him. He still plays a bit, but has to imagine what's going on in the upper reaches.

i suggested score reading - not an option to everyone - as I think he could imagine the sound in his head, since he's had so many years of music and has a large collection of piano scores.

Another possibility is to find interesting pieces which don't go so far up in range, both to play, and to listen to.

Late Faure piano music might be a possiblilty. In old age he experienced increasing distortion/ compression of both the treble and bass extremes of the piano rather as you describe, and therefore restricted his compositions more and more to the middle of the keyboard.

[LeMartinPecheur]

With some embarrassment I see that I have not played the Sawallisch Meistersinger which I bought back in April 1993. I really must give it a whirl.

Looks like Reinerfan's 19+ years is currently in pole position, though mentions of still-unplayed LPs might compete if we can be given given firm dates. Any more late runners to be declared??

It's been nice to find I'm not alone in my idiocy...

[hafod]

Mostly opera for me. I get excited about the possibility but the time investment required and the alternative listening opportunities mean I don't get round to them. For example, the Bohm Tristan

I know what you mean. Picked up the following for £25 from a marketplace seller some 18 months ago and it is still in its cellophane!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000VTHTVS

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There must be plenty of wealthy people around this forum, who can afford to buy recordings they never listen to.

[Bryn]

Many of those I have not yet got round to are in big boxed sets, many items from which I have indeed listened to. Quite often, buying separately the items from those boxes which I have listened to would have cost more than buying the boxed set I got them in.

[Alison]

In the end I am artist led: new recordings by favoured conductors and instrumentalists always get listened to.

Repertoire led recordings often have to wait - will I ever listen to those Gorecki String Quartets on Hyperion ??!!

[mathias broucek]

In the end I am artist led: new recordings by favoured conductors and instrumentalists always get listened to.

Repertoire led recordings often have to wait - will I ever listen to those Gorecki String Quartets on Hyperion ??!!

Agreed. However it's taken me years to understand that!

[mathias broucek]

I think in my case, it's more often CDs I've played once and left.

Indeed. I suspect that more than half of my collection has only been played once