Unplayed CDs - confess your guilt!

[LeMartinPecheur]

I'm feeling horrible guilt at the pile of opera sets sitting on my shelves awaiting their first play. Selected examples: Solti's Parsifal, Leinsdorf's Ariadne, Muti's Capuleti e i Montecchi, the PMD Taverner, Enescu Oedipe, Gergiev's R-K Invisible City of Kitezh.

But o mea maxima culpa I've had the Davis LSO Live Trojans for upwards of 10 yrs and I reckon 3 discs still await a spin, and large parts of my Solti Gotterdammerung haven't been played in something between 15 and 20 years IIRC! (I did manage to play the other 3 operas in full pretty soon after getting the set...)

In mitigation yer honour I would say that when I listen to opera I can't put it on in the background, but have to sit down and follow the libretto closely. My life at present rarely offers big enough slabs of time for more than one CD with full concentration. Yes, I know on that basis I could manage an act at a time, but somehow this doesn't tick the boxes properly

So it's time to 'fess up: who will claim the booby prize for the longest-owned completely-unplayed CD?? (I think we should restrict it to our own purchases: unwanted presents that you can't throw out don't count.)

[Petrushka]

I have yet to listen to the Rostropovich recording of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk purchased in 2003. Keep on saying I'll listen when I feel ready for it but somehow other CD's take priority. Also got three complete Rings to audition (Karajan, Furtwangler and Janowski), three Tristans (Bohm, Furtwangler and Solti, live 1971) and a live Gotterdammerung from Solti in 1970.

I've heard them all before (except Lady Macbeth and Karajan Ring) either live or on LP but have still to hear the CD's.

Full time work makes things so difficult to fit in. That redundacy cheque can't come soon enough for me!

[Roehre]

I am afraid I am completely up-to-date apart from 37'37" yet left unplayed from a CD which arrived last thursday.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I am afraid I am completely up-to-date apart from 37'37" yet left unplayed from a CD which arrived last thursday.

Most impressive roehre but sorry, no coconut - see the rules set out in the OP

Maybe you should offer lessons in time-management for the rest of us...??

[Barbirollians]

The last three operas from the Sawallisch Ring - quite a few years now . That LSO Live Trojans has been awaiting a spin for about six months and several operas in that complete Callas edition from a couple of years back .

Otherwise i am quite good - only Prokofiev 's Fifth in the Rozhdestvensky Melodiya set remains ( the rest are very fine- the Sixth especially though in the Seventh the orchestra seems rather unrefined and flat footed compared to the vintage Philharmonia with Malko ) and a very recently purchased Walter's Bruckner 9 .

[LeMartinPecheur]

I have yet to listen to the Rostropovich recording of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk purchased in 2003. Keep on saying I'll listen when I feel ready for it but somehow other CD's take priority. Also got three complete Rings to audition (Karajan, Furtwangler and Janowski), three Tristans (Bohm, Furtwangler and Solti, live 1971) and a live Gotterdammerung from Solti in 1970.

I've heard them all before (except Lady Macbeth and Karajan Ring) either live or on LP but have still to hear the CD's.

Full time work makes things so difficult to fit in. That redundacy cheque can't come soon enough for me!

Petrushka: your last para is spot-on, though I still have an 11-yr old to push through to an ability to earn her own corn - and she wants to be a vet

I recommend the Rostro Lady Macbeth though - one I have managed to play!

Ring cycles seem to be a problem for both of us - I forgot to mention that I've still to get past Rheingold in the 1953 Krauss Bayreuth set

[jayne lee wilson]

Oh god, how long have you got? Got the Bohm Ring home in great excitement in 2004, sampled it - wow! - and... I think it's over THERE somewhere... I dread to think how little of Bernstein's second Mahler cycle I've played after failing to fall in love with Nos. 1 and 4...
Svetlanov's Brahms cycle seemed like a great idea at the time but after No.1...

And here's Zemlinsky's Florentine Tragedy (Chailly) acquired after I fell in love with the Lyric Symphony. Look I'm sorry about this, but... it's still in its shrinkwrap. Don't ask how long. My unwillingness to face up to Xenakis' String Quartets may seem easier to understand, but...

Without enthusiasm we'd all die!

[Ariosto]

I never play any of my VW discs and I'm sure I have many other CD's I never play.

In fact at the moment I'm so fed up with music that I hardly listen to anything, R3 or CD's and I've given up going to concerts.

[reinerfan]

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. The number of box sets still awaiting complete audition is disgraceful. Why did I buy the Gardiner Mozart Operas, Tennstedt's Mahler, the Bernstein Symphony box, the Furtwängler, Rubinstein, Günther Wand and Toscanini sets, etc., etc.? It's a disease which, at my age, I think that I may find difficulty in curing. The worst part is that I have over 50 sets, and their contents, still to enter on my computer database!

[martin_opera]

There never seems to be a "right time" to listen to Die Fledermaus and to this date I have no idea what it sounds like.

I have a pristine unexplored EMI Domingo recording and failed to even play Lucia Popp singing the Czardas because I had it on a recital disc. Purchased in 1991, my first year at university and bought from a great second hand music shop on the Great Western Road in Glasgow.

I will also join the above in their failures regarding the Sawallisch Meistersinger (four discs for crying out loud) and Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk (too difficult??).

[Richard Tarleton]

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.

My favourite version! But the Levine/Met M'singer, and the Barenboim Ring, both on DVD, are on the pile to be listened to when I retire (in 2 months time ) along with the Noseda Boris G....It's boxed sets that I have most trouble with, there are still unplayed discs in the St P'burg complete Shosta string quartets (a bargain offer), and in Hesperion XX's España Antigua (ditto)......

[visualnickmos]

...
Svetlanov's Brahms cycle seemed like a great idea at the time but after No.1...

I know EXACTLY what you mean! But maybe I'll give them a second outing. Your comment hs rekindled my curiosity.

[Barbirollians]

Oh god, how long have you got? Got the Bohm Ring home in great excitement in 2004, sampled it - wow! - and... I think it's over THERE somewhere... I dread to think how little of Bernstein's second Mahler cycle I've played after failing to fall in love with Nos. 1 and 4...
Svetlanov's Brahms cycle seemed like a great idea at the time but after No.1...

And here's Zemlinsky's Florentine Tragedy (Chailly) acquired after I fell in love with the Lyric Symphony. Look I'm sorry about this, but... it's still in its shrinkwrap. Don't ask how long. My unwillingness to face up to Xenakis' String Quartets may seem easier to understand, but...

Without enthusiasm we'd all die!

I love that late Bernstein Mahler 1 . I hope you have played the Fifth and Seventh at least - marvellous performances.

[Dave2002]

There never seems to be a "right time" to listen to Die Fledermaus and to this date I have no idea what it sounds like.

I have a pristine unexplored EMI Domingo recording and failed to even play Lucia Popp singing the Czardas because I had it on a recital disc. Purchased in 1991, my first year at university and bought from a great second hand music shop on the Great Western Road in Glasgow.

I will also join the above in their failures regarding the Sawallisch Meistersinger (four discs for crying out loud) and Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk (too difficult??).

Die Fledermaus. Go for it, it's fun. Though I'd probably recommend a DVD in preference, or a live performance as it might not make so much sense (!!) in sound only. The Glyndebourne DVD/Blu Ray with Thomas Allen is pretty good.

Re my own ... Mmm.

I've only sampled parts of the Brilliant boxes - Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, the Piano - probably less than 5%, though that's from over 300 CDs.

Several Mahler sets (Bernstein, Rattle), Beethoven (Mackerras, a few others ...).

Like others I "think" that I'll play some of these when/if I retire. Partly I buy them because I think theyr're cheap, and also I don't trust the companies to keep a lot of the material available.

However I recently christened Weller's Prokofiev set by playing symphonies 4 and 7.

[Dave2002]

I love that late Bernstein Mahler 1 . I hope you have played the Fifth and Seventh at least - marvellous performances.

I'll take that as a hint too. Actually it's not quite true to say that I haven't listened to some of these, as I had several of Bernstein's Mahler CDs (both CBS and DG) on singles (and played them) but I haven't opened the big box yet! Similarly for the Sibelius plus Elgar, which I'm really looking forwatd to hearing some day soon.