Bargains

[hafod]

Indeed, but one has to join Prime in order to get it at that price.

That's a sneaky but typical River People afterthought. In the first tranche of £2.99 'bargains' I did not have to opt for prime when I bought it. A random sampling suggests it is the only one with this condition attached. The original list had some 96 discs and included much dross. The most recent has 234 and exudes dross but there are a few desirable items including a number of Chandos discs.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/ref=sr_il_ti_classical?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A229816%2Cn%3A%21520920%2Cn%3A697386%2Cp_n_binding_browse-bin%3A382528011%2Cp_36%3A299-299%2Cp_76%3A419158031&bbn=697386&unfiltered=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1464248595&lo=classical#/ref=sr_st_featured-rank?lo=classical&fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A229816%2Cn%3A!520920%2Cn%3A697386%2Cp_n_binding_browse-bin%3A382528011%2Cp_36%3A299-299%2Cp_76%3A419158031&unfiltered=1&qid=1464248849&bbn=697386&sort=featured-rank

[Beef Oven!]

That's a sneaky but typical River People afterthought. In the first tranche of £2.99 'bargains' I did not have to opt for prime when I bought it. A random sampling suggests it is the only one with this condition attached. The original list had some 96 discs and included much dross. The most recent has 234 and exudes dross but there are a few desirable items including a number of Chandos discs.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/r...=featured-rank

This £20 threshold is really frustrating. IIRC, a few years ago it was £15, dropped to £10, then £5, then £0. From there it started going back up. A couple of years ago it went to its present £20. I think they are trying to convince their regular customers to subscribe to Prime. But that doesn’t work for me at the price they ask (£50 pa was on the borderline anyway) - I don’t watch TV, films and music streaming and downloading is better elsewhere. Prime only made sense at £50 pa for its fabulous next day delivery service (for me anyway).

I suspect many forumites are similar to me, but we’re just not representative of the market.

However, I don’t agree that it’s sneaky and it is definitely not typical - it’s very untypical inasmuch that Amazon are otherwise unbeatable on customer service.

[mathias broucek]

The most recent has 234 and exudes dross

Most of the good stuff would be duplication for me, or represents works where I have too many versions already

Would recommend the Goodman Bach Suites which is a favourite of mine - only one copy left only at time of writing

[hafod]

However, I don’t agree that it’s sneaky and it is definitely not typical - it’s very untypical inasmuch that Amazon are otherwise unbeatable on customer service.

I suggest that it is sneaky in that the ‘Prime’ requirement was added presumably when it was realised how well this cd was selling. ‘Typical’ referred not to customer service - which I agree is good - but to the lengths gone to extract money from customers. You have already highlighted behaviour over postal charges. I also had in mind the changes they made a while ago regarding searching on price. This originally included any price but was changed to Amazon and FBA prices only. This now makes it very difficult to find any market place sellers with very low price offerings wherever Amazon/FBA has the same item listed at a much higher price. As a result it now often requires scrolling through long lists. Speculative trawls (say on record label) are almost impractical. Previously, they were very fruitful and quick to carry out but not anymore. I now buy much less both in terms of quantity and total spend which, ironically, is probably no bad thing but an own goal (not that they would notice) for Amazon.

[Dave2002]

Query re performance practice

Why not seek out the Robert King CDs of Monteverdi's complete sacred music on Hyperion? I've got a couple and they are pretty good. It would be nice if Hyperion put them into a bargain box.

That's a reasonable idea, which I may follow up. Actually I listened to several tracks/CDs of Monteverdi's music in the last day or two, and I spotted what I assume is an anomaly. I mentioned a couple of versions of Magnificat a 6, which I'd found on YouTube, and I also found one piece Laudate Dominum which I have on CD performed by the Gabrieli Consort, Choir and Players conducted by Paul McCreesh. Several of the YouTube performances (including that last piece) which I liked have women's voices, but the McCreesh version seemed at first disappointing, with an apparently less attractive male voice.

Then I thought that perhaps that is actually probably more authentic. I wondered if some of Robert King's performances would be more authentic, perhaps using boy's voices where appropriate. However, from some that I've heard so far, some of those also use women's voices. I don't actually know if that is strictly incorrect, but Monteverdi might have been composing at a time when most parts were taken by men. Pieces such as Lamento d' Arianna logically should be sung by women, but I'm uncertain if that was actually the practice at the time those pieces were written. There presumably was an era when there was a transition from all male singers to a more sensible use of female voices, but I'm not sure when exactly that would have been.

Musical practices probably also varied from country to country, and change most likely took time to propagate around Europe.

Of course I could have got this completely wrong, but it would be good to have clarification.

[cloughie]

I suggest that it is sneaky in that the ‘Prime’ requirement was added presumably when it was realised how well this cd was selling. ‘Typical’ referred not to customer service - which I agree is good - but to the lengths gone to extract money from customers. You have already highlighted behaviour over postal charges. I also had in mind the changes they made a while ago regarding searching on price. This originally included any price but was changed to Amazon and FBA prices only. This now makes it very difficult to find any market place sellers with very low price offerings wherever Amazon/FBA has the same item listed at a much higher price. As a result it now often requires scrolling through long lists. Speculative trawls (say on record label) are almost impractical. Previously, they were very fruitful and quick to carry out but not anymore. I now buy much less both in terms of quantity and total spend which, ironically, is probably no bad thing but an own goal (not that they would notice) for Amazon.

I sometimes think that margins on new CDs are so small that Amazon put their prices higher and are happy for buyers to use pro merchants as they make more from them!

[Pianorak]

Ordered this item some time ago. Have received the following message just now. Better late than never?

Hello,

We’re writing to let you know that the following items have been unexpectedly delayed:

Idil Biret "20Th Century Piano Box [Idil Biret] [Naxos: 8501504]"
Estimated arrival date: June 08 2016 - June 16 2016

[Dave2002]

I bought boxes one and two of the Mercury Living Presence sets a year or two back. I stopped before getting the third.

The other day I found a couple of interesting/useful CDs in box two (one was the one with the Colin McPhee piece Tabu Tabuhan) so out of curiosity I searched for the contents of the third set. I still don't think it's the best collection ever, far from it, but Amazon UK has it for under £60, which might be a competitive price. Finding the contents is a bit of a.challenge though, but can be done.

[Beef Oven!]

10 previously unreleased CDs:

-CD15: Frederick Fennell conducts Victor Herbert [NEW TO CD]

-CD38: Ginastera: Variaciones Concertantes; Britten: The Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra [Mono recording]

-CD39: Copland: Symphony No.3 [Mono recording]

-CD40: Respighi: Church Windows; Roman Festivals [Mono recording]

-CD43: Beethoven: Symphony No.3 in E Flat - "Eroica"

-CD48: World Of Flamenco

-CD49: Baroque Concertos For Recorders & Strings

-CD50: Hindemith: Symphony in B Flat; Schoenberg: Theme & Variations; Stravinsky: Symphonies for Wind

-CD52: Tchaikovsky: Overture 1812; Capriccio Italien [Mono recording]

-CD53: Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 4 & 8

Full Contents:

CD1: Brahms Symphonies 1&3

London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD2: Brahms Symphonies 2&4*

Minnesota Orchestra, Antal Doráti

*London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD3: Wiener Walzer Paprika

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra

Philharmonia Hungarica, Antal Doráti

CD4: Handel-Harty: Water Music Suite; Music For The Royal Fireworks; Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik

London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

Festival Chamber Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD5: Mendelssohn: Symphony No.3 – “Scottish” & Symphony No.4 – “Italian”; Fingal’s Cave Overture

London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski

CD6: Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Sibelius: Valse Triste; Liszt: Les Préludes;
Smetana: The Moldau

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti, Rafael Druian

London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD7: Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol; Borodin: Polovtsian Dances etc.

London Symphony Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD8: Rossini & Verdi Overtures

London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD9: Strauss, R.: Suite from Der Rosenkavalier; Don Juan

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD10-11: Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos.1-3/Arensky: Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky

London Symphony Orchestra

Philharmonia Hungarica

Antal Doráti

CD12: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5; Marche Slav; Waltz & Polonaise

London Symphony Orchestra

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD13: Wagner: Preludes & Overtures

London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD14: Frederick Fennell Conducts George Gershwin

Studio Orchestra, Frederick Fennell

CD15: Frederick Fennell Conducts Victor Herbert [NEW TO CD]

Studio Orchestra, Frederick Fennell

CD16: Frederick Fennell Conducts Cole Porter

Studio Orchestra, Frederick Fennell

CD17: Carousel Waltz & Other Favourites

London "Pops" Orchestra

Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra, Frederick Fennell

CD18: Sullivan: Pineapple Poll Suite; Rossini-Respighi: La boutique fantasque; Gounod: Faust Ballet Music; Wagner: Lohengrin & Das Rheingold

Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell

CD19: Fabulous Marches For Orchestra

Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell

CD20-21: Adam: Giselle/Offenbach: Gaité Parisienne; Strauss, J. II: Graduation Ball London Symphony Orchestra, Anatole Fistoulari

CD22: Bloch: Concerto Grosso No. 1 & No. 2/Schelomo* Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, Howard Hanson, Georges Miquelle *Georges Miquelle, Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, Howard Hanson

CD23: Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue; Concerto in F; Cuban Overture Eugene List, Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, Howard Hanson

CD24-25: Howard Hanson - The Composer & His Orchestra

Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, Howard Hanson

CD26: Kaleidoscope: An Orchestral Extravaganza

London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras

CD27: Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique; Hungarian March; Trojan March, etc.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Paul Paray

CD28: Dvorák: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"/Sibelius: Symphony No. 2

Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Paul Paray

CD29: Franck: Symphony in D minor/Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2

Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Paul Paray

CD30: Lalo: Namouna / Chausson: Symphony, etc.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Paul Paray

CD31: Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream; Symphony No.5 / Haydn: Symphony No.96

Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Paul Paray

CD32-33: Schumann: The Symphonies

Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Paul Paray

CD34: Marches & Overtures à la Française

Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Paul Paray

CD35: Paul Paray Conducts Wagner: Die Meistersinger suite; Der fliegende
Holländer Overture; Rienzi Overture, etc.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Paul Paray

CD36: Schubert: Symphonies Nos.5 & 8; Rosamunde Incidental Music

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski

CD37: Schubert: Symphony No. 9; Symphony No. 6

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski

CD38: Ginastera: Variaciones Concertantes; Britten: The Young Person's Guide To
The Orchestra

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti [Mono recording - NEW TO CD]

CD39: Copland: Symphony No.3 [Mono recording – NEW TO CD]

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD40: Respighi: Church Windows; Roman Festivals [Mono recording – NEW TO CD]
Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD41-42: Tchaikovsky: The Four Suites [NEWLY REMASTERED]

New Philharmonia Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD43: Beethoven: Symphony No.3 in E Flat - "Eroica" [NEW TO CD]

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD44: Liszt: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Sviatoslav Richter, London Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin

CD45-46: Beethoven: The Cello Sonatas

Mstislav Rostropovich, Sviatoslav Richter

CD47: Songs by Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky & Prokofiev

Galina Vishnevskaya, Mstislav Rostropovich

CD48: World Of Flamenco [NEW TO CD]

Los Romeros

CD49: Baroque Concertos For Recorders & Strings [NEW TO CD]

Bernard Krainis, The London Strings, Sir Neville Marriner

CD50: Hindemith: Symphony in B Flat; Schoenberg: Theme & Variations;

Stravinsky: Symphonies for Wind [NEW TO CD]

Eastman Wind Ensemble, Frederick Fennell

CD51: Soler: Works for Harpsichord [NEWLY REMASTERED]

Rafael Puyana

Genoveva Gálvez

CD52: Tchaikovsky: Overture 1812; Capriccio Italien [1954 Mono recording – NEW TO CD!]

Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Doráti

CD53: Shostakovich: String Quartets Nos. 4 & 8 [NEW TO CD]

Borodin Quartet

[Dave2002]

Thanks for the listing. Have you got the set?

[Beef Oven!]

Thanks for the listing. Have you got the set?

I don’t. As these box sets came out, I saw that I already had so many of the CDs. Maybe one day I’ll have a change of heart.

[Dave2002]

I don't have so many, though there are many that I'm not desperate to have, but a few very good or interesting ones.
As a collection they're quite good overall, and they don't really take up too much space. That many CDs would take up several shelves if in jewel cases.

I do have some of the surround or SACD versions, which are not in the boxes. I"ll probably order box 3 after all.

[Bryn]

Bruckner: Symphonies 1-9 Michael Gielen
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brucker-Sym...dp/B01ET5D54Y?

Following a failure of the handheld device used to authenticate handover of the package at my chosen Amazon pickup location on Saturday, I was able to collect the Gielen Bruckner set today. The only recording in the set which I already had is that of the 6th, and that in the box appears to be a new mastering by Ute Hesse.

I listened to the first three movements of the Vienna version of the 1st in the car, while driving home from work. Very much to my taste, I must say.

[teamsaint]

1 used copy of the recent John Williams box set on amazon market place for £35.00

https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Williams-Complete-Columbia-Collection/dp/B00UOFCG94?ie=UTF8&colid=QKL316A1U4BB&coliid=I1QOQ55C9ALMFJ&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl

Get it while you can.

Edit : its gone. Hope one of you lot got it.

[hafod]

Some of this could prove heavy on the wallet unless of course the duplication issue comes to the rescue.

https://www.jpc.de/s/Box-Sets+um+50%25+reduziert%21?searchtype=campaigntext