Bargains

[rubbernecker]

They had a whole load of the EMI Great Recordings of the Century box sets knocked down as well. I got the Desormiere Pelleas for £9.00 instead of £33. This includes a makeweight of Debussy chansons sung by Maggie Teyte and Mary Garden, and provides a viable alternative to the Metronome re-issue which retails at £9.99.

[Bryn]

A quite incredible download bargain turned up by davetubaking on r3ok.com:

http://www.hmvdigital.com/artist/various-artists/donaueschingen-festival-75-years-1921-1996-digitally-remastered

[Dave2002]

Bryn

Thanks for the post re HMV's offering. I checked out some of the MP3 details for various downloads I've had recently, including the Lahti SO Sibelius set.
That's very good, and I really enjoyed the 1st Symphony, which has a sense of drive greater than most. I still like Berglund though. Re the MP3s, quite a lot
seem to be in Joint Stereo, rather than Stereo - though maybe this is just what iTunes reports. Bit rates typically seem to be 200kbps to 250 kbps VBR.

It might still be worth buying the Lahti set on discs as the performances seem to be very good, and there might be some benefits in audio quality.
I probably won't bother with some of the others, as the MP3 quality is mostly satisfactory, and unless the performances are knock-out ones, maybe not worth it.

I was slightly surprised that to get the information I had to use iTunes - the Mac Finder only provided the bit rate.

Re the Mozart Opera set (Gardiner) and the Mahler set (Bertini) I suspect the price of the first has come down a few pounds since I posted, and the Mahler set has gone up a similar amount.
I guess they're worth having anyway at a total cost of around £50.

[Bryn]

Dave,

Mp3DirectCut (very reliable) reports the Donauechingen mp3s as 320kbps joint stereo. Since many (most) of the recordings are historical and mono, the use of joint stereo makes sense. Many will effectively be identical to lossless, with all 320kbps devoted to a single audio channel. Also, it must be remembered that mp3 joint stereo is a whole different (much better) ball game to mp2's joint stereo.

[mathias broucek]

Amazon has a 16CD set of Kurt Sanderling at £13 for the download.

Includes famous recordings of Shostakovich, Mahler 10, complete Sibelius etc

Have purchased but not yet sampled.

[EdgeleyRob]

Anyone know anything about this set ?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-The-Piano-Concertos/dp/B003HJCM34/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1308520481&sr=301-2

seems an incredible bargain although there seem to be a a couple of gaps. (no 17 & the last movement of no 24)

[Bryn]

Anyone know anything about this set ?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mozart-The-Piano-Concertos/dp/B003HJCM34/ref=sr_shvl_album_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1308520481&sr=301-2

seems an incredible bargain although there seem to be a a couple of gaps. (no 17 & the last movement of no 24)

I got those in a 40CD Mozart set in a "The Works" shop a year or so ago. Admittedly the set was mispriced at that of a similar 20 CD set, but the intended difference was only about £3.00. I paid £9.99 for the set. The concertos are not bad but would hardly stand up to any of the front-runners.

[As with your downloads, the 40 CD "Ultimate Mozart Collection" I bought also has K365 and the 2 piano version of K242. In these the other pianist is Alfredo Perl. Concertos 17 and 24 are there, and complete. PM me if you think I might be able to assist re. your missing items.]

[Dave2002]

Rob and Bryn

Is this set enjoyable enough to put on one or two CDs for listening in the car? That might be a criterion some of use could use - particularly for CD players which will replay CDs - to avoid having to rip possibly much better versions.

[Bryn]

The recording acoustic is a bit reverberant but the playing is certainly enjoyable. Perl's participation K242 and K365 should give some indication of the quality to be expected.

[EdgeleyRob]

[As with your downloads, the 40 CD "Ultimate Mozart Collection" I bought also has K365 and the 2 piano version of K242. In these the other pianist is Alfredo Perl. Concertos 17 and 24 are there, and complete. PM me if you think I might be able to assist re. your missing items.]

Cheers Bryn.
I haven't downloaded them yet, they are on the wishlist.The previews sound ok.I am baffled by the missing tracks though?

[mathias broucek]

Giulini in America II (CSO) is only £14.99 for 5 CDs on Amazon.

I've not listened to my copy yet but I have some of the performances on LP and they're excellent. And Vol I (LAPO) is excellent as is the EMI Chicago box

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Giulini-America-Chicago-Symphony-Orchestra/dp/B004TNZVEY

[hafod]

The new Rossini ‘William Tell’ conducted by Pappano from EMI due out on 11 July can be ordered from Amazon for just £5.93! Hurry - it won’t last. Apparently it’s a ‘live recording’ so hopefully the audience are not too intrusive.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rossini-William-Tell-French-version/dp/B004XMW70W/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I36E2VEOO70EAN&colid=3GXI8BUN316F2

[Bryn]

Thank you hafod, duly ordered.

[Stanley Stewart]

Due thanks here, too, hafod.

[Rolmill]

Thank you hafod, duly ordered.

Me too - well spotted and thanks, Hafod.