Bargains

[Howdenite]

Amazon put this up as a You might also like... offer. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-EMI-Re...d_rhf_sc_shvl1. It looks quite impressive for the price, but I'm not familiar with Tennstedt's EMI recordings. What I've heard and liked have been the live recordings. Does anyone have any opinions on this? No list of what is on it on Amazon, but Presto has a detailed list.

[Dave2002]

Amazon put this up as a You might also like... offer. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-EMI-Re...d_rhf_sc_shvl1. It looks quite impressive for the price, but I'm not familiar with Tennstedt's EMI recordings. What I've heard and liked have been the live recordings. Does anyone have any opinions on this? No list of what is on it on Amazon, but Presto has a detailed list.

Interesting one this. You do get 14 CDs, so the cost per CD isn't a lot - you can still pay more for one on occasion, though normally you'd get two for that price.

I'd be interested to hear what other people think. Tennstedt was, I think, particularly good in Mahler - but this set only contains one Mahler Symphony - Number 1. There's quite a bit of Wagner in the box, if you like that sort of thing, and Beethoven Symphonies 3,6 and 8. Overall it doesn't have any major pieces which are out of the ordinary. Looks like a reasonable buy, and clearly better if you don't have most of the pieces in the box already. I don't know how T's Brahms and Schumann stack up against others, and lastly, whether these performances as recordings would sound better than some others available. For Schumann I'd probably recommend Karajan, Kubelik and Sawallisch.

There are certainly some very good performances/recordings (indeed, some "must have" ones) by Tennstedt available, but I'm just not sure about the ones in the box. Price wise seems excellent.

[rauschwerk]

I'm sure all church music fans amongst you will want to snap this up - recently reissued on CD for the first time with extra material at a give-away price.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Treasury-English-Church-Music/dp/B005DTE7UM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320918539&sr=8-1

[notnerb]

I bought this box, and it's very good value - if you like Tennstedt, you'll like this. Not listened to all of it yet, but the Mahler 1 with CSO is powerful (if uneven and with some quirky touches - but that's true of all live Tennstedt in my experience), Beethoven and Schumann predictably fine, Brahms very impressive, and the Kodaly / Prokofiev (Janos / Kije) probably the best in the catalogue. At the price, seems a steal to me.

[barber olly]

Amazon put this up as a You might also like... offer. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-EMI-Re...d_rhf_sc_shvl1. It looks quite impressive for the price, but I'm not familiar with Tennstedt's EMI recordings. What I've heard and liked have been the live recordings. Does anyone have any opinions on this? No list of what is on it on Amazon, but Presto has a detailed list.

I bought this in July at what I thought a bargain price £14.99. At £3 less snap it up, that is unless you want to see if it goes down even more!

[HighlandDougie]

At the current Amazon price, the Tennstedt box is a steal. I paid £17.99 and thought that that was a bargain. As Notnerb says, the Mahler 1 and the Kodaly/Prokofiev make it worthwhile on their own. I had very little Tennstedt on CD so I've been enjoying his sometimes wayward but never - or, at least, rarely - dull approach to Bruckner, Strauss and Schubert, among others. The existence of a separate Mahler/Tennstedt box is presumably the reason why there is no Mahler in this box, other than the live Chicago 1st (I assume that it's the LPO version in the Mahler box). Good booklet as well.

[Bryn]

Thanks for the alert, Howdenite. With the Mahler 1 being the only recording there I already have (twice), I have leapt to order the set from Amazon.

[Curalach]

Me too! Thanks

[Howdenite]

Thanks. Now on order. I keep saying I don't need any more CDs, but this is too tempting.

[ostuni]

Ditto!

[hafod]

Amazon are currently 'copycatting' some of the prices in HMV's special offers (including the Tennstedt box). Details below (wade through the dross the gems are there e.g. Elgar Electrical Recordings £12, Handley V-W Symphonies £10, Barbirolli Sibelius £9, Muti Cherubini £9, Furtangler £25, the Beecham boxes, sevaral 'Icons' and so on)

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/specialOffers.do?atozArtistFilter=none&atozTitleFilter=none&simpleSearchString=&searchMode=1&sort=search_sort_attribute_price_product_artist_sort&pGroupID=1&pSubGroupID=209&pGenreID=-1&pTertiaryID=-1&primaryID=1&subPrimaryID=209&secondaryID=-1&tertiaryID=-1&searchUID=-5689258835857233823&leftComponent=null&headComponent=null&compTitle=classical

[Bryn]

Some very attractive items in that HMV list linked to. However, as one climbs up through the price range, many items can be found for rather less elsewhere. Sometimes for very much less. Nonetheless it is a good job I am getting paid for my training sessions over the past couple of days. That should at least cover the cos of the order I just placed.

[Ferretfancy]

Up to now Amazon and others have been able to avoid tax by bringing in DVDs and CDs from the Channel Islands. Cameron and Co. are going to close this loophole, so our bargains are going to be lesser bargains soon.

[Barbirollians]

There are three outstanding bargains for under £5

Furtwangler's whole Tristan for £4.99 !

Brendel's last recording of Op 109-111 at £2.99 - that is one of my desert island discs

Rattle's excellent recent Stravinsky CD at £4.99 - Kaufmann's terrific Verismo arias for £3.99 and the complete Mackerras RLPO Beethoven for £7.99

5 CDS of Barbirolli's Elgar for £6.99

[hafod]

JANET BAKER - ORIGINAL MASTERS £8.88

http://www.amazon.co.uk/DECCA-PHILIPS-RECORD-Janet-Baker/dp/B0000B0A0Q/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_C?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3CK499LTMQSZT&colid=WIEW3DM9FMD5

Shame about the 'usually dispatched within 5 to 8 weeks'