Why own multiple performances of the same work?

[kernelbogey]

A serious and genuine question.

I have a relatively small collection of CDs (maybe 400ish), plus a few boxes, e.g operas, sets of symphonies etc and a collection of LPs not currently in use. I have very few duplicates, but I have several different Bach Goldberg Variations - a new, mild obsession with this glorious masterpice.

Clearly, members here like to play different versions (I wouldn't want to be without so-and-so) but I would love to know more.

E.g. are musicians, whether professional or amateur, more likely to have this habit?

How do you use these?

[LMcD]

A serious and genuine question.

I have a relatively small collection of CDs (maybe 400ish), plus a few boxes, e.g operas, sets of symphonies etc and a collection of LPs not currently in use. I have very few duplicates, but I have several different Bach Goldberg Variations - a new, mild obsession with this glorious materpice.

Clearly, members here like to play different versions (I wouldn't want to be without so-and-so) but I would love to know more.

E.g. are musicians, whether professional or amateur, more likely to have this habit?

How do you use these?

I have about 800 CDs and DVDs of classical music, including duplicates of just a few favourite works. I can't really see the point of having valuable space taken up by recordings that I'm unlikely to find the time to play.

[Pulcinella]

Each can bring different insights, but perhaps the person to answer best is Alpie (unless he simply describes his collection as a personal obsession, which is of course a legitimate response)!

[oliver sudden]

Schoenberg once said something to the effect of ‘a sculpture can never be seen from all sides at once. Nevertheless, all its sides are worked out to the same degree’. He was talking about something very different but I think it applies here!

A piece of music isn’t really finished until it makes a noise. But there are so many ways of carrying out the composer’s set of noise-making instructions. I am thinking at the moment of Furtwängler’s and Goebel’s respective Brandenburg Fives.

[Roger Webb]

I have about 2500 CDs (having thinned them out before moving to my smaller cottage), and about 1800 LPs (also thinned before the move). Most of the thinning process was taking out multiple versions of works...I had multiple versions on LP but not so much on CD - this was my aim when I started to keep CDs at home...as opposed to in my shop, where I could play them whilst at 'work' - and different versions of things if I wanted.

I probably had six versions of each of the Elgar Syms on LP, now only Elgar's own electrical recordings in the EMI Boxes. On CD, only two (Barbirolli and Handley). Do I miss all the versions I got rid of?.......sometimes!

I'm playing a lot of LPs at the moment, yesterday, Beecham's Delius in the two World Record boxes. Terrific!

[Ein Heldenleben]

The only works that I have multiple versions of are ones that merit the multiplicity. In Operas like The Mastersingers (5 versions ) there’s isn’t the perfect cast. In the Ring (4) every cycle has its flaws and successes Beethoven Piano Sonatas (6) wide variation in interpretation and indeed piano sound. Ditto Beethoven symphonies , Bruckner , Vaughan Williams, Mahler .But curiously not Elgar or Sibelius Mozart - only single versions of those.
it’s all academic now . Thanks to Qobuz I’ve not bought a CD since before lockdown. I also haven’t played one for some Time .

[Barbirollians]

Because one can learn so much from different performances - the so different Boult and Barbirolli approaches to Elgar for example - or Abbado and Bernstein in Mahler ... the Furtwangler Ring opening my ears to the music when the Sawallisch set did not etc etc

[Barbirollians]

My problem is not being ruthless enough in disposing of CDs that have been massively superseded by other performances or that I don't like .

[Dave2002]

Thanks to Qobuz I’ve not bought a CD since before lockdown. I also haven’t played one for some Time .

I could follow your example and switch to streaming, but I think it would cost more than buying CDs. That wasn't the case a few years ago. Besides the quality issues [yes I hear that Qobuz and Tidal and others may be able to deliver better sound quality than CDs, but mostly I feel that the opposite is often the case ...] I have known streaming and download services to remove items of interest from their catalogues. So the only way to be reasonably sure that recordings and performances you really want to hear/keep are available is to actually buy some sort of physical media and keep the playback equipment functioning.

[Roger Webb]

The only works that I have multiple versions of are ones that merit the multiplicity. In Operas like The Mastersingers (5 versions ) there’s isn’t the perfect cast. In the Ring (4) every cycle has its flaws and successes Beethoven Piano Sonatas (6) wide variation in interpretation and indeed piano sound. Ditto Beethoven symphonies , Bruckner , Vaughan Williams, Mahler .But curiously not Elgar or Sibelius Mozart - only single versions of those.
it’s all academic now . Thanks to Qobuz I’ve not bought a CD since before lockdown. I also haven’t played one for some Time .

Yes I forgot The Ring! I have 4 on CD and now only two on Lp...oh, and two on DVD. And the same as you with Beethoven Syms, Bruckner and Mahler.

I agree about the difficulty of finding a Ring without blemish...either in cast or orchestral playing/conducting - present favourite Keilberth '55...the 'lost' Decca...not perfect, but an important document of those Bayreuth days - and in better sound than you could ever imagine on Testament (Lp but have the Rheingold on CD, might be tempted to sell the Lp set and buy the other three CD sets).

Like you I also stream from Qobuz....I wish they would fix the appalling track listing though.

[Dave2002]

My problem is not being ruthless enough in disposing of CDs that have been massively superseded by other performances or that I don't like .

I probably have that difficulty too, and giving CDs away is hard, as few people want the type of music I like. However I do offload a few that way.

[Roger Webb]

............... giving CDs away is hard, as few people want the type of music.....

Imagine, then, trying to make a living selling them!

[oliver sudden]

I could follow your example and switch to streaming, but I think it would cost more than buying CDs. That wasn't the case a few years ago. Besides the quality issues [yes I hear that Qobuz and Tidal and others may be able to deliver better sound quality than CDs, but mostly I feel that the opposite is often the case ...] I have known streaming and download services to remove items of interest from their catalogues. So the only way to be reasonably sure that recordings and performances you really want to hear/keep are available is to actually buy some sort of physical media and keep the playback equipment functioning.

All of this re streaming, plus the fact that having a pair of young twins means that a lot of my listening happens on my way to work or otherwise ‘on the road’ rather than at home. So streaming under those circumstances isn’t a realistic option.

[gurnemanz]

Restarting my collection when moving from LP to CD I certainly applied the principle of avoidance of duplicates ... for financial and shelf space reasons as much as interpretative. Later duplicates often came coincidentally through box sets.

However, I do find this principle applies much less to the solo human voice, especially in the song repertoire, where there is much more potential for individuality and distinctiveness, which can be determined by many factors such as voice type, range, register, singer's age and gender, timbre, word-pointing, accent, inflexion, enunciation etc (also interaction with accompanist - cf Gerald Moore's memoirs Am I Too Loud?). Consequently, I have many multiples in my bulging Lieder collection, including over twenty Winterreisen.

[Sir Velo]

All of this re streaming, plus the fact that having a pair of young twins means that a lot of my listening happens on my way to work or otherwise ‘on the road’ rather than at home. So streaming under those circumstances isn’t a realistic option.

Download the music you want to hear on the app and then listen on the move? All you need is a pair of bluetooth headphones (some of which are spectacularly good - thinking of the new B&W pi8) or via usb cable to your playback device.