Rebuilding my library.

[AjAjAjH]

I am shortly to retire and am moving from a large 4 bedroomed 3 reception vicarage to a very small house. My large CD selection has to be seriously culled. I'm thinking of starting a totally brand new selection. Boxed sets take up less room thank individual CDS.
So which boxed sets would you recommend for the symphonies of

Beethoven,
Brahms,
Tchaikovsky,
Sibelius,
Shostakovich,
Schumann.
Mendelssohn,
Mahler,
Bruckner,
Elgar.

I might ask for concerto and other musical forms later.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This could be expensive, Aj3H: and, if you're satisfied with your current collection and it's only (!) the storage that's the problem, you might find buying some 6CD jewel boxes, which hold six discs in the space of 2 (you have to sacrifice some covers, and the booklets get squeezed, but you keep your collection). There are also magazine-folder type packaging that gets advertised in the BBCMusic Magazine regularly: hundreds of CDs held in a photo-album sized album with space for booklets. Never tried these and, to me, they look rather pricey for what they do.

Otherwise:

Beethoven: Karajan 1960s (Big Band) and/or Krivine (Period Band)
Brahms:
Tchaikovsky: Rostropovich, Muti, Haitink, Litton
Sibelius: Barbirolli & Hallé (£8.99 from Sainsbury's Entertainment online); Vanska & LahtiSO (BIS)
Shostakovich: Barshai/West German SO
Schumann: Karajan/BPO; Kubelik/BPO; Kubelik/BavRadSO
Mendelssohn: Karajan/BPO or LSO/Abbado
Mahler: Bernstein/NYPO (the recent remastered SONY set: an astonishing bargain)
Bruckner: Wand/Cologne RSO (another astonishing bargain)
OR:
Get the EMI Eugen Jochum set - Brahms, Beethoven and Bruckner Symphony cycles in one box for about £30!
Elgar: I think the only set of three Symphonies is the LSOLIVE set under Colin Davis.

err ...
Schubert: Abbado/COE (modern instruments) or Minkowski/Musiciens de Louvre (Period Instrumenta)

[Bryn]

Re. Elgar, there is also an excellent Naxos box.

[remdataram]

I very much agree with ferneyhoughgeliebte.

Re-think your CD storage, if appropriate Rip all your CDs to a computer hard disk and stream your music - perhaps consigning the original CDs to your loft.

Methinks you would badly miss some treasured recordings!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Methinks you would badly miss some treasured recordings!

Absolutely! Take it from one who's been there Aj3H - you'll only miss the ones you get rid of! Get rid of the jewel cases; keep the discs.

[Bryn]

Have a quick look at some of the solutions to be found by an Internet search for "CD storage".

[richardfinegold]

I am shortly to retire and am moving from a large 4 bedroomed 3 reception vicarage to a very small house. My large CD selection has to be seriously culled. I'm thinking of starting a totally brand new selection. Boxed sets take up less room thank individual CDS.
So which boxed sets would you recommend for the symphonies of

Beethoven,
Brahms,
Tchaikovsky,
Sibelius,
Shostakovich,
Schumann.
Mendelssohn,
Mahler,
Bruckner,
Elgar.

I might ask for concerto and other musical forms later.

I'm struggling with this as well, albeit for a different reason; I have simply no place else to store CDs or lps. I'm also tired of living in a a building that resembles a CD warehouse.
I have had several tentative starts attempting to store music on hard disc and hope to crack the problem soon. My plan is to store the SACDs, DVD-A, and Blu Rays and a few hundred of may favorite CDs on my current shelving. The few thousand CDs that I do not frequently play but do not want to part with will be put
on a hard drive, so I can still access them when I desire.
I do not know how computer literate you are, or if you have experimented with playing music from a computer into your regular hi fi. There are some companies coming out with regular Hi Fi equipment that can be used for this and that will bypass actually needing a computer in the system. NAD has recently released a disc ripper/spinner that is designed to mate with a dedicated 3TB hard drive. It costs $4500 American, but futre competing products may be cheaper. There are also machines by companies such as Brennan and Olive Digital that combine the ripper, DAC and Hard Drive, and are of varying sound quality.

If you are computer phobic I would suggest one of these instead of a NAS based system, which are terribly frustrating the non-techies such as myself.

[martin_opera]

If you are still serious about replacement then THIS might be a good (and diverse) place to start. It's one of the few symphonic box sets with a consistently high standard.

[Thropplenoggin]

Beethoven: Hogwood, AAM (HiP), Haitink, LPO (modern sound)
Brahms: Klemperer (EMI's new set contains Symphonies, Overtures and Requiem in a tiny box!)
Shostakovich: Haitink OR Kondrashin

[gurnemanz]

I am shortly to retire and am moving from a large 4 bedroomed 3 reception vicarage to a very small house. My large CD selection has to be seriously culled. I'm thinking of starting a totally brand new selection. Boxed sets take up less room thank individual CDS.

I have also recently retired and live in a small house. My CD collection is quite large - nearly 4000 - and but the CD shelves I have do accommodate the discs OK without dominating the room any more than a book cases would. I cannot face the task or justify the man hours of putting that lot onto a hard drive. I have a tiny mp3 player onto which I put selected music for long flights etc.

I have, however, found it essential from a practical point of view and quite satisfying from an anorakish point of view to have everything catalogued on a database programme. All new acquisitions are added straight away. A lot of my recent purchases have indeed been large boxes which seem to be the last hurrah of CD a medium. They certainly take up far less space. My radical solution to collection bloat has from Jan 1st been to stop buying for a year. I have plenty of recordings which I have not done full justice to, for instance, the Wagner Historic Bayreuth box which I haven't even stared yet. I will spend the centenary year doing so.

[cloughie]

I am shortly to retire and am moving from a large 4 bedroomed 3 reception vicarage to a very small house. My large CD selection has to be seriously culled. I'm thinking of starting a totally brand new selection. Boxed sets take up less room thank individual CDS.
So which boxed sets would you recommend for the symphonies of

Beethoven,
Brahms,
Tchaikovsky,
Sibelius,
Shostakovich,
Schumann.
Mendelssohn,
Mahler,
Bruckner,
Elgar.

I might ask for concerto and other musical forms later.

I fear your strategy will leave you with more not less. Presumably the discs in your collection were not bought by accident but your preferred versions and how do you propose to dispose of those surplus CDs - sell? donate to charity shop? I think your pruning will end in tears. I have reduced my shelf-requirements by simply doubling and in some cases tripling CDs in one box and in some cases adding to a lightly filled box. This may not offer you a total solution but might help.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think your pruning will end in tears.

Inevitable, in my experience.

(Using paper wallets - cheaply bought in supermarkets and pound shops - those 6CD jewel boxes can hold 8 discs safely: you'd only need a quarter of the space of single CDs.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If you are still serious about replacement then THIS might be a good (and diverse) place to start. It's one of the few symphonic box sets with a consistently high standard.

Oh; that does look good!

[Bryn]

Oh; that does look good!

That's what I thought until I checked just how many of the recordings I had already. Still, that only goes to show what a well chosen selection it is, what?

[Stephen Smith]

I'm not strapped for space yet. When I do run out, I think for most of my physical collection it will be a combination of weeding out the unloved lowest priority discs, and then for most of them moving to standard vinyl or paper pockets (time needed to Label and handle) on shallow shelves in, say the box or utility room.

As to computer audio - are you comfortable with computers & IT - willing to engage, learn more? Anything I have learnt about computers is "as I go", so I am no expert. However I am confident it would work for me - and I suppose in 10 years time, physical releases will be much reduced (or premium price?) . I was speaking to a friend, rueing not being able to access a much desired Finzi release on Resonus - the 1st (they say) download only music label. But I will, I think, still have a mixture of physical CDs, downloads (+ripped CDs) and, heaven help me, some vinyl.

I am hoping to exit full time work shortly, and I will then have time (at last!) to investigate and set up a PC based music player (indexed library) and streaming system to manage the downloads. (I have bought downloads, especially on offer, but only in open (non-proprietary) lossless file format (FLAC).

As to the computer audio - I'm currently thinking the answer might lie in the J River Media program (can be customised) and streaming into my existing audio systems - I think an Apple Airport Express may well do the job. I'm not at all convinced that paying much more than, in the order of £2-300 in total, for the program and streaming equipment, will result in greater quality. I will approach it from the PC audio end - if you have the laptop or PC to start with, it will be cheaper. I won't be walking into a Hi End audio dealer to find myself walking out with a branded combined streamer / amplifier for getting on for £1,000 or more. I am very wary of any one manufacturer's systems - will they be there (or there to support me in relation to that product) in 10 years time? I can't see a way to avoid spending some time engaging with setting up a computer audio system, and keeping control and access into the future.