Bargains

[Thropplenoggin]

Melos Ensemble in Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms Chamber Works, inc. Brahms Clarinet Quintet with Gervase de Peyer for £1.95 'like new'.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Beethoven-Schumann-Brahms-Chamber/dp/B000009OQP/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371504366&sr=8-2&keywords=melos+ensemble+brahms

I can't make my mind up whether I like this version or not - it sounds too close to jazz for me, not Brahms, especially in contradistinction to the London Haydn Quartet w. Eric Hoeprich.

[amateur51]

Melos Ensemble in Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms Chamber Works, inc. Brahms Clarinet Quintet with Gervase de Peyer for £1.95 'like new'.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-Beethoven-Schumann-Brahms-Chamber/dp/B000009OQP/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371504366&sr=8-2&keywords=melos+ensemble+brahms

I can't make my mind up whether I like this version or not - it sounds too close to jazz for me, not Brahms, especially in contradistinction to the London Haydn Quartet w. Eric Hoeprich.

I'd go for the EMI Melos Ensemble ICON set, 11 CDs of sublime music-making at a ludicrously low price from the grocer, inc p&p

http://www.sainsburysentertainment.co.uk/en/Music/CD/search.html?t=Melos+Ensemble+ICON&section=music/cd

[MickyD]

Presto are currently offering a 30% reduction on all Brilliant Classics CDs ...so they are even cheaper than ever.

[Thropplenoggin]

Presto are currently offering a 30% reduction on all Brilliant Classics CDs ...so they are even cheaper than ever.

Brilliant!

(Quite literally, mate!)

[teamsaint]

Brilliant!

(Quite literally, mate!)

a lot better than a kick in the naxos.

[teamsaint]

Some Malcolm Williamson Piano Music to download at a sensible price.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Malcolm-Williamson-Complete-Works-Piano/dp/B00015JOC4/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1371940858&sr=1-5&keywords=malcolm+williamson

[hafod]

Downloaders might like to investigate the 14cd Kempff Concerto box for €7.99 at Am.fr. One way of avoiding the delivery charge I suppose.

http://www.amazon.fr/The-Concerto-Recordings/dp/B00BFOS9JY/ref=dm_cd_album_lnk

Also Tahra sale at jpc

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/browse/-/collection/1228447_51487

[Dave2002]

Downloaders might like to investigate the 14cd Kempff Concerto box for €7.99 at Am.fr. One way of avoiding the delivery charge I suppose.

http://www.amazon.fr/The-Concerto-Recordings/dp/B00BFOS9JY/ref=dm_cd_album_lnk

Can we download from those European Amazon sites in the UK? I didn't quite understand the comment about the delivery charge - the main saving is compared with the cost of the CDs at around 37 Euros. Possibly those ones are old enough that really the MP3 coding won't do terrible damage, and the MP3 versions are a lot cheaper. I could be tempted - has anyone got much Kempff?

I'm just suffering from a bit of download frustration, as I tried to download the Essential Sibelius tracks from Play.com. I thought it was worth having a go, but it was a total waste of time - the web site doesn't work properly, and the zip files don't unzip. Despite that, according to my account the tracks were downloaded last night at 10pm, and today I can't do anything with the site - obviously thinks I've had enough goes already. A phone call to their customer service is required I think, and they should realise that charging customers for things which don't download properly is not a good way to do business.

[Dave2002]

Postscript to previous post: I have regained access to my account and the download at Play.com which I thought was blocked to me today. I can download the tracks individually - seems to take around 20 seconds/track on average, so it'll take me an hour to do all of them. Some of them are very good. Will need care, and I just hope I don't end up with any unreasonable charges, but it seems to be working.

[hafod]

Can we download from those European Amazon sites in the UK? I didn't quite understand the comment about the delivery charge - the main saving is compared with the cost of the CDs at around 37 Euros. Possibly those ones are old enough that really the MP3 coding won't do terrible damage, and the MP3 versions are a lot cheaper. I could be tempted - has anyone got much Kempff?

The reference to 'delivery charge' is a joke - the clue is in the emoticon. I am already on record here as a non-downloader so have no idea about downloading from European sites hence the word 'investigate'.

[teamsaint]

Can we download from those European Amazon sites in the UK? I didn't quite understand the comment about the delivery charge - the main saving is compared with the cost of the CDs at around 37 Euros. Possibly those ones are old enough that really the MP3 coding won't do terrible damage, and the MP3 versions are a lot cheaper. I could be tempted - has anyone got much Kempff?

I'm just suffering from a bit of download frustration, as I tried to download the Essential Sibelius tracks from Play.com. I thought it was worth having a go, but it was a total waste of time - the web site doesn't work properly, and the zip files don't unzip. Despite that, according to my account the tracks were downloaded last night at 10pm, and today I can't do anything with the site - obviously thinks I've had enough goes already. A phone call to their customer service is required I think, and they should realise that charging customers for things which don't download properly is not a good way to do business.

I use Head and Shoulders...works just fine !!

Anyway, empathy re the downloads, they do my head in. Hope the Sibelius works well. I always factor in how many hours it will take to faff about, put the tracks back in order, burn to CD (essential to my mind) etc.

[hafod]

Anyway, empathy re the downloads, they do my head in. Hope the Sibelius works well. I always factor in how many hours it will take to faff about, put the tracks back in order, burn to CD (essential to my mind) etc.

Stick with the hard stuff! This arrived in the post this morning - Véronique Gens ~ Tragédiennes 2 (From Gluck to Berlioz): £1.30 delivered (still 2 left). Glorious.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B0020GUXU4/ref=sr_1_2_olp?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1372410763&sr=1-2&keywords=gens&condition=used

.

[Dave2002]

The reference to 'delivery charge' is a joke - the clue is in the emoticon. I am already on record here as a non-downloader so have no idea about downloading from European sites hence the word 'investigate'.

I thought it was a joke, but I didn't know you don't do downloads. I recommend them for some purposes, and particularly if cheap - but that Sibelius set was almost a step too far because of the problems. I might investigate that Kempff set - not sure what would happen with Amazon.fr. I think the largest set I downloaded was of Wagner (around 30 CDs), though Haydn operas might have come close. However 2-3 hours of downloading in the background is OK, but having to press keys every minute or so is not fun. You ought to try one or two.

Re the Essential Sibelius - DID IT. What a pain though, took around 2 hours, though breakfast and other things went on at the same time.
It'd be really good if Play.com could sort out that zip file. I need to check I have all the tracks, but I think I have, and have sampled almost all of them in the download process. There are some lovely things in there - not just the obvious ones, even though I may have quite a few of them already. That's a really good set though, so even the CD set would be worth having. Now it makes me wonder about the Complete Sibelius. Almost all of his music, at least as represented in the Essential Sibelius collection, is worth hearing, which is more than can be said for many other composers, even some very well known and popular ones.

The other problem with the Sibelius set is the random way it was organised. It may take time to sort that out, and to see if I can get the album work and track details etc. Many downloads are organised in such a way that this isn't always such a problem, but the Sibelius tracks may possibly need considerably more work.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Can we download from those European Amazon sites in the UK? I didn't quite understand the comment about the delivery charge - the main saving is compared with the cost of the CDs at around 37 Euros. Possibly those ones are old enough that really the MP3 coding won't do terrible damage, and the MP3 versions are a lot cheaper. I could be tempted - has anyone got much Kempff?

I don't have the concerto set, but I was very happy with the Mono set of the Beethoven Sonatas that Amazon offered at a very cheap download price - from what ami reported, the quality of the downloads was superior to the REGIS "hard copy" set, which was nearly five times more expensive. Kempf was a great Musician and his recordingsI've always found extremely satisfying: the Concerto set is very tempting.

[Dave2002]

Another point to remember is that if you are using iMatch, any CD you rip, or download from elsewhere will be 'matched' to the Apple iTunes library, rather than uploaded to the cloud.

So for example, I ripped a CD of Rattle's Mahler 2 on EMI (bought more than 20 years ago) to my laptop, and iMatch did not upload it to the cloud, it 'popped' its own version in. The up to date digitally remastered version.

It can work against you though, I uploaded a fusion CD that is AAD and sounds better than the ADD version, but of course iMatch gave me the new version.

Some people are using iMatch to update their old recordings - smart move!

As you point out, the version you get from iMatch may not be better than the version you already have in your library. Sometimes even the digitally remastered versions aren't as good as the originals, and if you have ripped your CD to a lossless version, or even put a high resolution file into your library, then what you get back from iTunes Match will not be as good.

Some people - ahem - are using iTunes Match to obtain "legal" versions, having bootlegged or otherwise pirated a version, or "borrowed" a copy from a friend.
Not to be condoned, but it happens.