Bargains

[Conchis]

An electrifying performance


Well ... the orchestra plays in tune, the singers aren't bad, the recorded sound is excellent; but "flying" it ain't! (The Dutchman Stuck in the Doldrums, more like!)

Like most of Levinr's efforts in Wagner, it is hardly dramatic and some might call it sclerotic. But as an interpretation, I think it's acceptable.

[Conchis]

Worth it for that Ring Cycle alone, you also get excellent performances of Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger and (especially) Parsifal - these latter three taken from off-air recordings in not the best (nor the worst) sound. No Tannhauser or Tristan - and the worst performance of Dutchman I've ever heard. Some historic recordings from Melchior and Flagstad, some more modern ones (Brunnhilde immolates no fewer than thrice in this collection!) - orchestral excerpts and arrangements from Stokowski, Szell and Maazel, and a disc of two-piano arrangements of or by Wagner.

Everything taken from the SONY/CBS, EURODISC and RCA/BMG back catalogues - which makes the omission of Tristan & Tannhauser all the more remarkable: not a single recording of either from any of these companies between the 1960s and the 1990s?!

Lohengrin is a studio recording. Meistersinger is a professional live recording. Only Parsifal stems from a radio broadcast.

[umslopogaas]

Apologies if this has been said before, I cant face trawling through 490 pages to check, but I have just bought two bargain boxes of CDs:

Arturo Toscanini: The Complete RCA Collection. 72 "volumes", each containing more than one CD, a book and a free DVD. The CDs work out at around two pounds each or maybe even less.

Maria Callas Remastered. The Complete Studio Recordings (1949 - 1969). Forty "volumes" each containing one or more CDs, in wallets featuring the artwork of the original LPs, a book in several languages with lots of photos of Callas with other leading singers, and making studio recordings with Walter Legge. Again, in the region of two or three pounds a CD.

Now admittedly, these boxes are not cheap - somewhere around two hundred to three hundred quid each - but per CD they are outstanding value. I am working my through them, though that many CDs will take a few evenings!

[Bryn]

When I got that RCA Toscanini box some 30 months ago it was £76.61 including p&p from amazon.co.uk. It's now around £81 (post free) from a UK based amazon.co.uk marketplace supplier (fulfilled by Amazon) or around £55 plus p&p plus customs and handling charges from a Canadian supplier.

[umslopogaas]

Woops, Bryn you are right, I got the Toscanini box for around eighty or ninety quid from my local hifi shop, not two or three hundred. That would make the CDs less than a quid each, which is an even more outstanding bargain. I probably got the price for the Callas box wrong too, but if I did it was even cheaper than I said.

[hafod]

Woops, Bryn you are right, I got the Toscanini box for around eighty or ninety quid from my local hifi shop, not two or three hundred. That would make the CDs less than a quid each, which is an even more outstanding bargain. I probably got the price for the Callas box wrong too, but if I did it was even cheaper than I said.

The Callas, very recently released and newly remastered 70 disc box can be had for just over £116 delivered - less than £1.70 per disc. It would appear that the sound quality is a great improvement on the set issued (I think in 2007) under the EMI imprint.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KN15P56/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=LQHDDV9CIDRU&coliid=I10IVUHX02Z1MB

[HighlandDougie]

Maria Callas Remastered. The Complete Studio Recordings (1949 - 1969). Forty "volumes" each containing one or more CDs, in wallets featuring the artwork of the original LPs, a book in several languages with lots of photos of Callas with other leading singers, and making studio recordings with Walter Legge. Again, in the region of two or three pounds a CD.

Now admittedly, these boxes are not cheap - somewhere around two hundred to three hundred quid each - but per CD they are outstanding value.

I shouldn't have read this post - and certainly shouldn't have looked up the Callas set on Amazon UK. Although it will mean pease brose for the next few weeks, at its current price (just short of, err, cough, £120) it was irresistible. I had thought that it was rather more expensive. Given the quality of remastering work being done these days at Abbey Road (the sound on the 1940s/1950s Karajan re-releases is little short of miraculous), I'm now impatient for it to be delivered.

[umslopogaas]

Highland Dougie, dinnae fasch, or something like that. Never mind the neeps and porridge, buy the discs and you wont regret it. Pease brose (whatever that is) will be a price worth paying.

And if you ever stray south of the border as far as Devon, I'll happily play you the discs. There's a bottle of Bells in the pantry to tempt you, I keep it for guests but dare not drink it myself any more, whisky is wonderful but it makes my head ache (especially after a couple of CDs of Callas at full throttle) and these days I stick to vodka.

[umslopogaas]

Just playing the CD of Toscanini conducting Sibelius, symph. 2 and orchestral items, including 'Finlandia'. Which is always a rousing item, but this is very exceptionally rousing, indeed. if you want a performance to blow your socks off, look no further.

[Barbirollians]

The Callas, very recently released and newly remastered 70 disc box can be had for just over £116 delivered - less than £1.70 per disc. It would appear that the sound quality is a great improvement on the set issued (I think in 2007) under the EMI imprint.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KN15P5...I10IVUHX02Z1MB

How annoying I bought the 2007 set I cannot face buying it again !

[reinerfan]

Anyone contemplating buying the new Callas set should find it useful to have a look at Pristine Classical's comparison with some of the new against the old. In the circumstances, I don't think that I shall buy the new box, but may try one or two of the individual opera recordings to compare with the older big set.
Incidentally, I am not entirely happy with the New Warner Karajan transfers, as there appears to be quite a bit of inconsistency. Some are an improvement, some sound worse than their predecessors, and others sound about the same, but with an increase in volume. The Kempe/Richard Strauss re-mastered set I found far more satisfactory. Unfortunately, in my experience, EMI/Warner's re-mastering is rarely as satisfactory as the results from Sony and Decca (or whoever owns Decca at this point).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Seeing that many of us bought the Harmonia Mundi Lumieres box a couple of months ago, Forumistas may be interested in a similar bargain collection:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sacred-Music-Cornerstone-Century-Harmonia/dp/B002HNA9LS/ref=pd_rhf_pe_p_img_1

... a bit more than the £16 asked for the Lumieres, but still under a quid per CD. (Personally, I'd have exchanged the 20th Century stuff and the Mendelssohn for a few more discs of Bach Cantatas and an Earthquake Mass or other material, but what the hey ... )

[antongould]

Cheers Ferney duly ordered.........

[muzzer]

Is this a way into Wagner......? Certainly at that price it's tempting..

[muzzer]

Oh, and Liszt fans - get this - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1