Why own multiple performances of the same work?

[Roger Webb]

Systematic collecting, as Roger says, can contribute to the size of one's store. I remember a man who set out to buy every Decca 'World of...' LP,

Well, I've more or less done that with Lyrita LPs (I'm playing SRCS 98, John Ireland Trios right now). But not just so I can boast that I've completed the 'set', as we used to as kids collecting cigarette cards. This label has (or had, before the likes of Hyperion and Chandos recorded some of the same repertoire) recorded out-of-the way British works otherwise not represented in the catalogue. Lyrita released up to SRCS131, but this was re-release of the Elgar symphonies, and they started the numbering with SRCS 31, John Ireland, so just about 100 stereo LPs - the earlier numbers were mono, mainly piano and chamber records. I've five 'missing'....do I intend chasing after them? No, although I did notice a copy of SRCS 76 Alwyn 4/5 nm/nm on eBay......might have a look later!

I agree about l'Oiseau-lyre label...I noticed, also on eBay a copy of that Lp featuring a certain well-known singer which had the unfortunate misprint in her potted biography!...I'm tempted!

[smittims]

Re Lyrita, I always wondered what was RCS 1. I never saw it listed anywhere. I wondered if it was a special private disc he made for his friends.

[vinteuil]

.... a certain well-known singer which had the unfortunate misprint in her potted biography!..

Roger : an unwritten house rule - don't be a tease

[Roger Webb]

Roger : an unwritten house rule - don't be a tease

I didn't know that! Are you saying I should have just blurted it out?

After all we're talking about the perceived virtue of a much loved artist!

Mulling it over I may be persuaded!

[Roger Webb]

Re Lyrita, I always wondered what was RCS 1. I never saw it listed anywhere. I wondered if it was a special private disc he made for his friends.

You're right RCS 1 was never issued according to Lewis Foreman. The first official Lyrita was RCS 2 (1959) Iris Loveridge playing Gordon Jacob's Piano Sonata. I have a few of these monos...Bax, Ireland, Berkeley etc. these early ones were recorded by Richard Itter himself in the studio he built onto his house at Burnham, Bucks.

[kernelbogey]

....There are innumerable variables involved in recordings from the obvious eg sound, conductor and orchestra to the much less obvious eg the time of year, the date of recording or the weather on the day. Consider for example, Furtwångler's 1944 VPO Eroica. It is an entirely different listening experience to any other Eroica in the vast catalogue of recordings of the work and each of those in their turn are different from all the others. ....

I once heard that when recording Mahler 9, Bruno Walter chose to have the adagio recorded in the evening.

[oliver sudden]

I once heard that when recording Mahler 9, Bruno Walter chose to have the adagio recorded in the evening.

That is certainly possible. Barbirolli definitely rejected a morning session for the last movement when he recorded it with the BPO.

[richardfinegold]

I’ve lost track of how many silver discs I own. At one point I was divesting quite a lot of them after burning them to my server, but dissatisfaction with the software management has stopped me from pitching them and the big retrospective box purchases have notched the numbers upward again.
Someone up thread noted that it doesn’t make sense to take up space with the multiple versions that we don’t have time to listen to.
Collectors rarely act in a sensical manner, be it CDs or shoes or books or whatever.
I became entranced by radio shows that would compare alternative recordings early on, and then record reviews that do the same.
One could have multiple versions to compare and save space but burning CDs to a server and then discarding, or by just using a streaming service. Pros and Cons exist for all the alternatives

[teamsaint]

I once heard that when recording Mahler 9, Bruno Walter chose to have the adagio recorded in the evening.

Cheaper rates in the evenings?!

I heard off the record that JEG failed to badger a certain cathedral in my locality into letting him have the place FOC to record some of the cantatas in his Bach cycle. I don’t think it was a very amicable discussion , but at least nobody go decked. Well I don’t think so…….

[Petrushka]

Purchasing multiple recordings of the same work allows you to get to know the work better by hearing different interpretations and fresh insights between the various versions. Having only one recording of each work would be terribly dull!

[Pulcinella]

Purchasing multiple recordings of the same work allows you to get to know the work better by hearing different interpretations and fresh insights between the various versions. Having only one recording of each work would be terribly dull!

And might make you think that every other interpretation is wrong!

[teamsaint]

And might make you think that every other interpretation is wrong!

Yes indeed, not impossible to pick an outlier.

Do that, and your goose is cooked. Esp with Ravel…….

[kernelbogey]

Purchasing multiple recordings of the same work allows you to get to know the work better by hearing different interpretations and fresh insights between the various versions.

True. I now have a set of LvB symphonies conducted by Ivàn Fischer: I grew up with the Eroica by Klemperer!

Having only one recording of each work would be terribly dull!

Hmm... debatable. I mostly have single versions, carefully chosen, sometimes after a BAL. But now four Goldberg Variations (and counting)....

Cost has been a factor, but also not a lot of interest in making those comparisons - though I get it.

Edit: P.S. I started this thread in order to learn more about members' habits in this respect... and I have!

[Petrushka]

Edit: P.S. I started this thread in order to learn more about members' habits in this respect... and I have!

To be fair, it can get a bit obsessive but I got this compulsion very early on in my collecting life and I'm afraid I'm stuck with it now. Even as an impecunious student in the early 1970s I somehow managed to acquire more than one version, largely thanks to BaL and Gramophone. I remember on one occasion, I bought two versions of Elgar 2, both Halle/Barbirolli (1954 & 1962) on LP on the same day in the same shop, and the shop assistant queried whether I really meant to do that!

[kernelbogey]

Biil Bryson had a story about getting into a conversation on a train with a rail enthusiast who started talking about the number of rivets on the sides of carriages to identify their type....