When is enough, enough?

[visualnickmos]

Is it possible to actually acquire too much music to really assimilate?

For example, I have today checked how many LvB symphony cycles reside on my shelves, and to my (quite frankly shameful) surprise I have the following:

Klemperer, Szell, Haitink (LSO Live) Walter, Kempe, Blomstedt, Solti, Schmidt-Isserstedt, Harnoncourt, Colin Davis, Cluytens, Wand, Norrington, Karajan (60s and 80s sets) Mackerras, plus numerous 'oddments' which include the likes of Masur, Kubelik, Maazel, Sanderling, Abbado.....

OK - this has been accumulated over about 30 years and some were left to me about 20 years ago after a break-up (every cloud has a silver lining!) but there really has to be limit as to how much it is physically and I suppose, emotionally possible to listen to, and actually 'take in'?

This is just one example, and I do actually listen to them all - dipping in is the way I tend to do it, although more recently I have taken to listening to the same work (different interpretations) back-to-back, which I find very satisfying, actually.

Am I just mad, or does anyone else have thoughts on listening and experiencing the passion of music?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What do you mean, "enough"? If you haven't got the Krivine set, your collection isn't complete yet!

(But it beats mine for the number of cycles - I have Karajan ('60s, '70s & '80s) Krips, Bernstein (VPO/DG), Klemperer, Toscanini, Bohm and Loughran (the last two on LP) as well as the Krivine. So: lacking van Immerseel, a complete Furtwangler, Cluytens and Karajan '50s.)

And, as long as you play them regularly (whether as a set or "dipping in") then how can you have "too many"? It's not as if you had sixteen copies of Oliver Twist, just because you wanted the different covers! Put aside the shame: embrace the riches!

[Dave2002]

Possibly! re Beethoven - now trying to recall - Rattle, Walter, Bernstein, Karajan, Klemperer, Szell, Konwitschny, Mackerras, Hogwood, Norrington, Eliot Gardiner, Cluytens, Blomstedt, plus odd ones - Barbirolli (3), Carlos Kleiber (5,7), Schmidt- Isserstedt (9), Ansermet (9), Ashkenazy (6). I hardly ever listen to them, but merely "think them" ala Punkt Kontrapunkt.

There are perhaps a few more I've forgotten. Mmm some Weingartner - they are good, also Strauss I think - in historic sound.

Possibly it's a fear of not being able to remember or access this music which drives some of us..

[Petrushka]

Is it possible to actually acquire too much music to really assimilate?

For example, I have today checked how many LvB symphony cycles reside on my shelves, and to my (quite frankly shameful) surprise I have the following:

Klemperer, Szell, Haitink (LSO Live) Walter, Kempe, Blomstedt, Solti, Schmidt-Isserstedt, Harnoncourt, Colin Davis, Cluytens, Wand, Norrington, Karajan (60s and 80s sets) Mackerras, plus numerous 'oddments' which include the likes of Masur, Kubelik, Maazel, Sanderling, Abbado.....

OK - this has been accumulated over about 30 years and some were left to me about 20 years ago after a break-up (every cloud has a silver lining!) but there really has to be limit as to how much it is physically and I suppose, emotionally possible to listen to, and actually 'take in'?

This is just one example, and I do actually listen to them all - dipping in is the way I tend to do it, although more recently I have taken to listening to the same work (different interpretations) back-to-back, which I find very satisfying, actually.

Am I just mad, or does anyone else have thoughts on listening and experiencing the passion of music?

If you're mad then I'm much madder!

I have a large collection of CD's and more Beethoven cycles than you (and 50+ versions of the 9th alone!) but you do have a point. I mean to say, it's impossible
for me to play what I already have and still I buy more! Most nights I face the agonising decision of exactly whose version of which work to play. With sometimes three or four by Karajan alone it becomes decidedly tricky.

There will be some here I'll probably never play again even though at the moment I've no way of knowing which ones they will be.

[Suffolkcoastal]

I just have one cycle on CD and all nine with a variety of conductors on LP. Its rare for me to have more than one cycle on CD. I usually find a cycle I like and stick to it, with some occasional duplication of of some of the works in other recordings I've fancied. There's so much else to explore and I don't have money to throw away on buying endless cycles I'll probably never listen to. If I do fancy an alternative to what I have, I just listen online.

[aeolium]

I just have one cycle on CD and all nine with a variety of conductors on LP. Its rare for me to have more than one cycle on CD. I usually find a cycle I like and stick to it, with some occasional duplication of of some of the works in other recordings I've fancied. There's so much else to explore and I don't have money to throw away on buying endless cycles I'll probably never listen to. If I do fancy an alternative to what I have, I just listen online.

I agree with that approach. I try to have no more than 3 versions of any one work and preferably fewer. There is plenty of stuff online to listen to as well, plus live concerts/operas and R3 sometimes. If you had 50 versions of a work you'd never listen to most of them more than once and it would be hard to have a fresh response to the work if you did.

[Petrushka]

pathological collecting.

Perhaps I need to seek help.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If you had 50 versions of a work you'd never listen to most of them more than once and it would be hard to have a fresh response to the work if you did.

I don't understand the logic of this final clause, aeolie: surely it's more difficult to have "a fresh response" to a work if you only have one or two versions of it on your shelves? Isn't there the danger that the recording of a work you own "becomes" the work, so that a performer taking a different approach might sound "wrong"?

[Dave2002]

Perhaps I need to seek help.

Time to visit here - http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...ight=anonymous

[Suffolkcoastal]

I don't understand the logic of this final clause, aeolie: surely it's more difficult to have "a fresh response" to a work if you only have one or two versions of it on your shelves? Isn't there the danger that the recording of a work you own "becomes" the work, so that a performer taking a different approach might sound "wrong"?

For me not in slightest, especially nowadays with all the various recordings available online and even R3 performances to sample, there is plenty of opportunity to listen to an alternative recording for a change, I've been listening to some alternative recordngs to the ones I own during my symphonic journey for example. Also when your budget is very limited as mine is, I'd just rather spend money exploring and widening my knowledge and to experience as much as possible.

[Sir Velo]

I don't understand the logic of this final clause, aeolie: surely it's more difficult to have "a fresh response" to a work if you only have one or two versions of it on your shelves? Isn't there the danger that the recording of a work you own "becomes" the work, so that a performer taking a different approach might sound "wrong"?

Fair point FHG but it's surely also fair to say that if one has 20-30 recordings of Beethoven 6, for example, just how different do most of these CDs sound from each other? There will be the occasional reading or passage that differs in terms of tempi or balance, but large chunks of the piece are going to sound pretty well identical in most recordings. This is not to say that one should stick with one recording or view of the composition, but given the sheer wealth of music out there, it seems nuts to focus on a relatively small area of the repertory.

It's rather like people who see the same film 20 times, or read their favourite novel over and over again. I'm afraid I can't understand that mentality. If I had done as some here and focus on a narrow area of the symphonic repertoire I would never have discovered the delights of Zemlinsky, Ligeti, Simpson, Alkan, Finzi, Medtner, Varese, to name but a few. Beethoven and Brahms are still high among my musical gods, but surely there is room for a few more in the pantheon?

[salymap]

I could never understand people collecting so many copies of the same work. I've never had the spare cash for that, I've heard most of the popular works live in the past.

Hearing a work taken to pieces at rehearsal, then listening to the performance is what Iloved doing.

Could people with multiple CDs explain to someone the differences/preferences away fromthe CDs; if they can remember all the details they have my admiration,

That's not to say I don't have favourites.

[visualnickmos]

Put aside the shame: embrace the riches!

Indeed - yes! I certainly embrace the riches, but at the same time I feel it's bordering on gluttony!

[visualnickmos]

I don't understand the logic of this final clause, aeolie: surely it's more difficult to have "a fresh response" to a work if you only have one or two versions of it on your shelves? Isn't there the danger that the recording of a work you own "becomes" the work, so that a performer taking a different approach might sound "wrong"?

I couldn't agree more - for example there isn't only one actor's interpretation of Hamlet; the same goes for performances and recordings of music - there are many; all the same notes, all the same (mostly) instruments, but all unique voices and delivery......

[MrGongGong]

What's music for ?