Bargains

[amateur51]

I can only see this on the Arkivmusic (Europe) site at over 30 Euros...I presume it has shot back up?

K.

https://arkivmusic.eu/music/album/85...stri-15-CD-Set

[Dave2002]

There's a listing if you scroll down a little of the page linked to here:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/rec.music.classical.recordings/yEPWFVBONQQ

I have too many of the better offering already, but it should be quite attractive to some.

Maybe, though I'd have thought that for around £80 there are other ways to get thrills - even with music and CD collecting. Perhaps not right now, but for a general collection the Decca Sound box set and the Mercury box set are worth/were worth having - though currently a bit more than £80. I didn't bite on the Philips 50 box, except when it was offered very cheap - and then retracted, but I think for someone who hasn't got a collection it was really rather good. I might even buy it if the price drops a lot. The RCA Living Stereo box set is currently available for under £60 from BlahDVD. Some might find the sound quality of older sets, such as Living Presence and Living Stereo sets either not up to modern standards, or just different, but the artists performing are for the most part good. The Decca Sound set has some excellent recordings and very good performances.

OTOH for the same money - around £80, one could buy several Brilliant box sets of individual composers, and build up a collection that way.

I guess I just don't think the Emminence set is particularly good value for money - at that price, and many of us would find duplication of things we may already have in better versions anyway.

Decca Sound - http://www.deccaclassics.com/cat/sin...UCT_NR=4782826
Philips 50 box set - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-50-V.../dp/B0091HVMVO
Living Stereo box - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Stere...0684767&sr=1-1
Mercury Living Presence box - http://www.deccaclassics.com/cat/sin...UCT_NR=4783566

One could also stick with just one conductor, and get a range of works. The Karajan EMI box is a good example:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Karajan-The-.../dp/B000ZBPQEO - it was previously cheaper at Sainsbury's.

or buy a few boxes from other well known conductors, e.g Bernstein, Walter.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Sony/88697683652

You need to shop around to get good prices on any of the boxes above.

[hafod]

Has anyone seen this? 50 CDs of EMI Eminence recordings, with original jacket designs. Quite a few treasures within, I think.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EMI-Eminence...0670167&sr=1-1

Far too much duplication for me. The cheapest I have seen it is £70 delivered from Amde.

These miscellaneous big boxes offer little attraction for me because of serious duplication e.g. the recent/pending VPO (1), Ashkenazy (2), JEG (3) and Vivarte (4a) cheapest; (4b) contents) boxes. Unfortunately, even the pending Boult/Vaughan Williams box (5) falls at this hurdle. However, the Klemperer Strauss/Wagner (6) does not although the Klemperer Mozart Operas (7) does. There is also a Mercury Living Presence volume 2 (8) due but I have yet to see the contents list and similarly Wilhelm Furtwängler: The Vienna Concerts 1944-54 (9).

(1) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wiener-Philh...=ILS9DMG2OS4ZJ
(2) http://www.mdt.co.uk/ashkenazy-vladi...cca-50cds.html
(3) http://www.mdt.co.uk/gardiner-john-e...hon-30cds.html
(4a) https://www.sainsburysentertainment....duct=E11196552
(4b) http://www.hanbooks.com/vico6boxse.html
(5) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Conducts-Vau...I3GMMDJQB613FP
(6) (7) http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/fut...ll&label=&cat=
(8) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mercury-Livi...=IRRW6Y8W3EHFS
(9) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wilhelm-Furt...I1H0JF2XS1UEFP

[MickyD]

I agree - for we serious collectors, it is not really a good buy - but maybe an interesting starting point for someone new to classical music.

[Dave2002]

Far too much duplication for me. The cheapest I have seen it is £70 delivered from Amde.

These miscellaneous big boxes offer little attraction for me because of serious duplication e.g. the recent/pending VPO (1), Ashkenazy (2), JEG (3) and Vivarte (4a) cheapest; (4b) contents) boxes. Unfortunately, even the pending Boult/Vaughan Williams box (5) falls at this hurdle. However, the Klemperer Strauss/Wagner (6) does not although the Klemperer Mozart Operas (7) does. There is also a Mercury Living Presence volume 2 (8) due but I have yet to see the contents list and similarly Wilhelm Furtwängler: The Vienna Concerts 1944-54 (9).

(1) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wiener-Philh...=ILS9DMG2OS4ZJ
(2) http://www.mdt.co.uk/ashkenazy-vladi...cca-50cds.html
(3) http://www.mdt.co.uk/gardiner-john-e...hon-30cds.html
(4a) https://www.sainsburysentertainment....duct=E11196552
(4b) http://www.hanbooks.com/vico6boxse.html
(5) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Conducts-Vau...I3GMMDJQB613FP
(6) (7) http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/fut...ll&label=&cat=
(8) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mercury-Livi...=IRRW6Y8W3EHFS
(9) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wilhelm-Furt...I1H0JF2XS1UEFP

How do you find them?

I located a site with some tentative details of the Mercury Living Presence vol 2 - translated from a Japanese site - http://translate.google.com/translat...ence-Box-Vol-2

[Karafan]

https://arkivmusic.eu/music/album/85...stri-15-CD-Set

Thanks Ammy - duly ordered

[mathias broucek]

I agree - for we serious collectors, it is not really a good buy - but maybe an interesting starting point for someone new to classical music.

Who these boxes are for is an interesting question

Serious collectors will have duplicates and/or will have strong opinions on some content (Levine Mozart?)
Newbies are possible but £50 is a lot to spend on something you're quite new too

I suspect it's people who are buying at least in part for the nice-to-own effect of having such beautifully presented boxes.

[MickyD]

I think you may be right, Mathias - as a fan of the Decca L'Oiseau Lyre series, I certainly snapped up those reissues again when they came out, purely for nostalgic reasons.

[gurnemanz]

Who these boxes are for is an interesting question

Serious collectors will have duplicates and/or will have strong opinions on some content (Levine Mozart?)
Newbies are possible but £50 is a lot to spend on something you're quite new too

I suspect it's people who are buying at least in part for the nice-to-own effect of having such beautifully presented boxes.

I might start sounding bit boring and puritanical here and I wish the cheapo boxes had been around when I was starting my collection, but I now sometimes think that, compared to the old days (yawn), these sledge-hammer temptations make a collector's life too easy by half. Assuming you have enough loose dosh to back it up, you just click the website button and wait for the parcel to arrive. I'm a self-confessed addict and via boxes, I have in recent times been acquiring hundreds of discs at an accelerating rate, many of which I am very pleased to have but which, if I'm honest, I don't really need ....I'm wearing a hair shirt, as I write.

[Dave2002]

I might start sounding bit boring and puritanical here and I wish the cheapo boxes had been around when I was starting my collection, but I now sometimes think that, compared to the old days (yawn), these sledge-hammer temptations make a collector's life too easy by half. Assuming you have enough loose dosh to back it up, you just click the website button and wait for the parcel to arrive. I'm a self-confessed addict and via boxes, I have in recent times been acquiring hundreds of discs at an accelerating rate, many of which I am very pleased to have but which, if I'm honest, I don't really need ....I'm wearing a hair shirt, as I write.

Probably not aimed at the poor and needy. Most likely older people with a bit of spare cash each month.

Re needs, some people "need" golf clubs, gyms, several holidays/year, nights at the opera, dinners out, a new car every few years etc. On this scale even a large box a month doesn't really compete.
That doesn't make buying CDs a good thing in some people's morality, but perhaps we won't go there.

Re beautiful boxes - this is only sometimes the case. Some of the boxes are pretty awful, but they do the job.

They're probably not aimed at students, nor at people new to classical music. There might not be anything equivalent to the old Reader's Digest LP sets in the current market.

[Howdenite]

If you consider buying downloads, Qobuz are having a special on Berlin Classics and have promo prices on some performances mentioned recently on the Kurt Sanderling thread. They have Shostakovich 1, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 15 with the Berlin Symphony for EUR 14,39 and the 7 Sibelius symphonies plus for just EUR 9,59. The single CDs (download) are still around 9,59 EUR mostly (a few lower).

[richardfinegold]

If you consider buying downloads, Qobuz are having a special on Berlin Classics and have promo prices on some performances mentioned recently on the Kurt Sanderling thread. They have Shostakovich 1, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 15 with the Berlin Symphony for EUR 14,39 and the 7 Sibelius symphonies plus for just EUR 9,59. The single CDs (download) are still around 9,59 EUR mostly (a few lower).

Just tried to access that and I'm thinking it isn't available in the States. Are these mp3 downloads?

[Cheapskater]

Just tried to access that and I'm thinking it isn't available in the States. Are these mp3 downloads?

Richard,

They usually do FLAC downloads also. In UK, we are enabled for download on special request to their customer services (very efficient). Why not give it a go.

Cheaps.

[Howdenite]

To be able to buy from them, I had to register, then try to buy and be refused. I then emailed (in English) and had a quick reply (in English) and have been able to buy from them ever since. It has worked for a lot of us in the UK. They do seem to have keen prices in general, and sometimes low enough I'll go for a download.

[Cheapskater]

To be able to buy from them, I had to register, then try to buy and be refused. I then emailed (in English) and had a quick reply (in English) and have been able to buy from them ever since. It has worked for a lot of us in the UK. They do seem to have keen prices in general, and sometimes low enough I'll go for a download.

Yes, that's what I did; open an account and then contact customer services if you can't download.