Bargains

[Beef Oven!]

Edmund Rubbra - complete symphonies etc, Richard Hickox Chandos. Qobuz 16 bit CD quality download only £15.99

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/symphonies-integrale-edmund-rubbra/0095115994429

[Pulcinella]

Edmund Rubbra - complete symphonies etc, Richard Hickox Chandos. Qobuz 16 bit CD quality download only £15.99

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/sym.../0095115994429

That really is a bargain.
Is this (your purchase, not the price, assuming you bought, of course; you might just be flagging for others) a result of Rubbra being a recent Composer of the week, Beefy?

[Beef Oven!]

That really is a bargain.
Is this (your purchase, not the price, assuming you bought, of course; you might just be flagging for others) a result of Rubbra being a recent Composer of the week, Beefy?

I’m a firm, long-standing Rubbra fan and I have all the symphonies, but no complete set until I bought that download last night (couldn’t resist at that price! Previously I had the Lyrita issues (which I adore) and a smattering of the Hickox Chandos releases that I’d bought as they were originally released some years ago.

COTW made me relook at his choral works and investigate his string quartets.

[teamsaint]

Edmund Rubbra - complete symphonies etc, Richard Hickox Chandos. Qobuz 16 bit CD quality download only £15.99

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/sym.../0095115994429

Nice.
But I'm waiting for a limited edition on coloured vinyl.

(Paid about that for a download of the symphonies a few years back).

[mikealdren]

There do, in fact, seem to be three CDs in the Mercury Vol 1 box - CD37 - Brahms and Katchaturian concertos, CD 40 Kreisler "Treasures", and CD47 which has the Mendelssohn and Schumann concertos, plus some fillers. Are these the same performances as in the "new" box collection? Probably.
This is reducing my appetite for yet another box.

Sadly only part of the treasures set seems to be included and none of the contemporary Kreisler LP. Another CD would have made all the difference.

Mike

[Dave2002]

I recently "invested" in the second of the boxes of RCA Living Stereo CDs. I also have the first, and although some (perhaps most) show the signs of having been recorded over 50 years ago, there are some good performances. I decided in the end it was perhaps worth having the second box. A deciding factor might have been some performances by Charles Munch from other collections.

One thing is a bit of a let down though, in comparison with some other reissue boxes. This is one box where perhaps there is some attempt (I don't know) to present a CD cover which looks a bit like an LP - though I'm not sure if the covers are the same designs as any originals. Perhaps not. Some of the CDs have hardly any music on by modern standards, so some are only 35 minutes long, while 45 minutes seems fairly normal.

I have already heard quite a few of the CDs, so this is one box which will be quite easy to get through. 60 CDs at perhaps an average of 45 minutes/CD will only last 45 hours, so a week or two could get through it easily. Some other boxes manage to change the compilations so as to get almost double this length of music on, which does set more of a listening challenge. In this box, spreading the Barber of Seville over 4 CDs seems an unnecessary and wasteful "luxury".

Is the box worth it? Perhaps, but be warned. I might not bother with a third box.

[vinteuil]

I have already heard quite a few of the CDs, so this is one box which will be quite easy to get through. 60 CDs at perhaps an average of 45 minutes/CD will only last 45 hours, so a week or two could get through it easily. Some other boxes manage to change the compilations so as to get almost double this length of music on, which does set more of a listening challenge...

Your wording does rather make it sound as tho' listening to these big boxes of CDs is almost a chore - 'quite easy to get through... ', 'more of a challenge... '.

Yes, you have to watch out for 'your money's worth' in some of these reissues of 'CDs copying LP formats' - 35 to 45 minutes now seems decidedly stingy.

I have far too many CDs (and books). In some moods it can seem a burden, a millstone - all this stuff that I ought to be reading / listening to - a duty, a 'chore'. Fortunately most of the time a saner spirit prevails and I can regard them for what they are, a marvellous resource to be dipped in to and savoured at the right moments.

We should surely never regard these experiences as chores - if ever we say we need to listen to what we have, it should come from an inner sense of need, not from some guilty sense of duty...





.

[visualnickmos]

Your wording does rather make it sound as tho' listening to these big boxes of CDs is almost a chore - 'quite easy to get through... ', 'more of a challenge... '.

Yes, you have to watch out for 'your money's worth' in some of these reissues of 'CDs copying LP formats' - 35 to 45 minutes now seems decidedly stingy.

I have far too many CDs (and books). In some moods it can seem a burden, a millstone - all this stuff that I ought to be reading / listening to - a duty, a 'chore'. Fortunately most of the time a saner spirit prevails and I can regard them for what they are, a marvellous resource to be dipped in to and savoured at the right moments.
We should surely never regard these experiences as chores - if ever we say we need to listen to what we have, it should come from an inner sense of need, not from some guilty sense of duty....

I agree - I have comparatively few 'big boxes' - Oistrakh (EMI), Rostropovich (EMI), Silvestri (EMI), Lupu 'complete' Decca recordings, Webern complete recordings (Sony), Vaughan Williams complete recordings (EMI) and maybe three or four others. I would never think of listening through as a marathon. That would be torture! I see them as mini-libraries within a bigger collection. I enjoy dipping in from time to time. That is by far, the best way, I find...

[Bryn]

I agree - I have comparatively few 'big boxes' - Oistrakh (EMI), Rostropovich (EMI), Silvestri (EMI), Lupu 'complete' Decca recordings, Webern complete recordings (Sony), Vaughan Williams complete recordings (EMI) and maybe three or four others. I would never think of listening through as a marathon. That would be torture! I see them as mini-libraries within a bigger collection. I enjoy dipping in from time to time. That is by far, the best way, I find...

Spot on approach, to my mind.

[HighlandDougie]

I see them as mini-libraries within a bigger collection. I enjoy dipping in from time to time. That is by far, the best way, I find...

Whew! Thank you, Nick, for your elegantly (and eloquently)-worded approach. I sit here surrounded by what TOH describes as a "mountain" (a small alp, really) of 'big boxes' and a nagging feeling of guilt that I should be working my way through them. No longer! I can now square up to "Ferenc Fricsay Volume 2" (still in its shrink-wrap), knowing that some day, but may not today or even tomorrow, I will get round to his recording of The Magic Flute.

[Dave2002]

I think you are making incorrect assumptions about the way I listen. It does depend on the box. The particular box has a fairly diverse set of pieces, which are mostly well played, with an acceptable, though generally not very good, standard of recording. There is a mix, so selecting at random more or less works.
On the other hand, boxes such as the complete (or nearly so) Britten, or Elgar, or VW are different. I probably wouldn't listen to more than 2 CDs, maybe not even a whole one of those each day, or even each month. I have boxes where I may have only infact listened to one or two, but if anyone comes round and says "do you know X" then I might be able to fetch out a recording and listen to it, so I do also use library mode as mentioned. I can do some composers to a greater extent, Mozart, Beethoven, maybe Bach.

[EdgeleyRob]

Your wording does rather make it sound as tho' listening to these big boxes of CDs is almost a chore - 'quite easy to get through... ', 'more of a challenge... '.

Yes, you have to watch out for 'your money's worth' in some of these reissues of 'CDs copying LP formats' - 35 to 45 minutes now seems decidedly stingy.

I have far too many CDs (and books). In some moods it can seem a burden, a millstone - all this stuff that I ought to be reading / listening to - a duty, a 'chore'. Fortunately most of the time a saner spirit prevails and I can regard them for what they are, a marvellous resource to be dipped in to and savoured at the right moments.

We should surely never regard these experiences as chores - if ever we say we need to listen to what we have, it should come from an inner sense of need, not from some guilty sense of duty...





.

and boxes and boxes and shelves and shelves and piles and piles of cds are such eye candy too

[Pulcinella]

and boxes and boxes and shelves and shelves and piles and piles of cds are such eye candy too

Sadly, I don't think the removal men will treat them as such when I ask for quotations for my move up north!

[visualnickmos]

Whew! Thank you, Nick, for your elegantly (and eloquently)-worded approach. I sit here surrounded by what TOH describes as a "mountain" (a small alp, really) of 'big boxes' and a nagging feeling of guilt that I should be working my way through them. No longer! I can now square up to "Ferenc Fricsay Volume 2" (still in its shrink-wrap), knowing that some day, but may not today or even tomorrow, I will get round to his recording of The Magic Flute.

Loving the vision you conjure up of a 'small Alp(!)' of CDs! The beauty of exploring - you never know what you might find..... Fricsay - Volume 2! I hadn't realised he'd made that many recordings for a Volume 1! Would I be correct in thinking that many of them are early 1950s mono? Not a conductor whose recorded output I am very familiar with. I have his Verdi Requiem - DG, in excellent mono, actually. His isn't a name that crops up often on these boards...

I must admit, I'm still working through Haydn's complete symphonies (Adam Fischer) in the 30-something Brilliant box set - I acquired the set in Superdrug about 100 years ago! for £1,99 - but I have to keep a listeing checklist of them.... otherwise I'll never finish. So I am still employing my 'dipping in' philosophy.

[EdgeleyRob]

Sadly, I don't think the removal men will treat them as such when I ask for quotations for my move up north!

My wife doesn't either