DG Vienna Philharmonic 50 CD Symphony Edition

[Petrushka]

Vienna Philharmonic recordings have virtually dried up.

They have haven't they? Apart from the annual New Year and summer Schönbrunn concerts no new recordings seem to come from them. One would have thought that the orchestra would have done what so many of the other great orchestras have done and made recordings on their own label.

Some very interesting live performances were issued on their own label in around 2006 and I have most of those. They weren't generally available and I got mine via the VPO website. I saw them on sale in Vienna when I was there 5 years ago but for some reason they dried up as well. Some Haydn was issued as well some time ago but the VPO have never used their own label in the same way that the Concertgebouw have. Now there is a model of how it should be done!

I don't know whether the virtual disappearance of recording activity is something that bothers the present day management and players but it should do. They cannot live on their heritage alone.

[Dave2002]

I wonder whether what was meant is that the 50 CD box is currently hard to get. It's shot up to £230 at am.uk, and to 270 Euros at am.fr and am.es. It was only around £85 a day or so back.

Pity if it really is going to be so limited that it's going out of stock so soon. I was just beginning to think it might be worth having after all. For some reason I was starting to believe that Levine's Mozart would be interesting, and arguably justify the purchase. The other CDs in the box could simply be treated as a bonus.

PS: Odd price swings - it's back to £79.55 now! Puzzled! All in the space of an hour.

PPS: Levine's Mozart sounds good, though he has done other versions of some of the symphonies, for example with the Chicago SO at Ravinia for RCA.

[verismissimo]

... They cannot live on their heritage alone.

Living on their concerts, as is most of the music industry - classical, pop, rock, jazz etc, unless or until someone works out something workable re intellectual property.

[BBMmk2]

It's around £79 still on amazon.uk(VPO Symphony Edition)

[Dave2002]

It's around £79 still on amazon.uk(VPO Symphony Edition)

Indeed, see the PS in msg 17. There were some very odd price swings in some of the listings on amazon sites recently. I wondered if the "Limited Edition" effect was starting to kick in, though I felt it was a bit early for that.

Looking back at EA's comments suggests he wasn't really expecting to enjoy Levine in Mozart. What I've heard sounds very good, though I also listened to a couple recorded by RCA with the Chicago SO. I too would expect some - possibly considerable - duplication. The "raw" price of the CDs is about £1.60/CD which is reasonable if they're all good and wanted,
but effectively rises if that doesn't hold. Would be around £7/CD if the only wanted CDs were (say) Levine's Mozart ones. Those don't seem to be available any other way right now, so might still be worth a punt. I'll have to check my shelves and lists to see how much duplication there really is. My guess is exact duplication around 25%, duplication by composition almost 100%, and duplication by conductor around 50% e.g NYPO in Mahler with Bernstein, also Beethoven etc.

Has the recorded sound been improved in any way over previous issues? Does anyone know? Sometimes there have been substantial sonic improvements with newer releases, though not always, and sometimes the sound may have actually worsened.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Vienna Philharmonic recordings have virtually dried up.

Perhaps the orchestra is still in shock from the Thielemann Beethoven cycle?

[akiralx]

The VPO set didn't interest me, but I have ordered the similar Abbado set.

[amateur51]

Perhaps the orchestra is still in shock from the Thielemann Beethoven cycle?

[richardfinegold]

Presumably because people (like me) buy them. My duplication was less than one might expect. For eaxmple, I had none of the Carlos Kleiber symphony recordings, despite their almost legendary status.
The reason for not having bought these and others has been my ambivalence towards DG. In my youth, I was told that they represented the ultimate in quality, and their impressive covers certainly suggested this. Things changed when I bought the Bohm Beethoven symphony cycle in 1972. Having previously bought the Decca Schmitt-Isserstedt box, I expected a better better quality of recorded sound. But teh DG ones lacked depth in comparison. So my DG purchases became rarer.
Listening to this 50 CD set does suggest that I might have over-reacted, but that boxy, congested sound does rear its ugly head occasionally, such as in the Abbado Bruckner 1.

I had just ordered a single disc of Bohm/Vienna in Bruckner 7. It is a great performance but the sound is awful. No bottom end at all. The recording date is 1977. Karajan's late 80s Bruckner with the same orchestra and label sounds comparitively normal, but not the last word in depth or sound staging.