Your Dream Box Sets

[Roehre]

Some pia desiderata

Bruckner: complete vocal works (i.e. including ALL Masses and motets as well as the dozen or so secular works - with and without instrumental/orchestral accompaniment)

Elliott Carter: complete works (split in orchestral / chamber/ vocal)

Arthur Butterworth: orchestral works (the symphonies to start with)

Brian: complete works (at least the orchestral ones)

RVW: complete works

Beethoven: the sketchbooks

Beethoven: the apocryphical works

Mozart: the apocryphical works

Dufay: Opera omnia

Desprez: opera omnia

Ockeghem: opera omnia

Obrecht: opera omnia

Weinberg: complete works (at least symphonies, concertos and string quartets)

[Petrushka]

Not sure if ts was after dreams sets that are perfectly possible or those that are utterly impossible. I'm inclined towards the former.

Decca should do for Sir Georg Solti what DG did for Karajan and have three big boxed sets of the complete orchestral recordings.

As an addition to those DG Karajan boxes, I'd like another big box covering as many live Karajan recordings as are available.

Sony still haven't issued a box devoted to George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.

There's already been a set devoted to the radio recordings of Haitink and the Concertgebouw. I'd like to see another two or three. Plenty of material in the vaults.

[teamsaint]

Not sure if ts was after dreams sets that are perfectly possible or those that are utterly impossible. I'm inclined towards the former.

Decca should do for Sir Georg Solti what DG did for Karajan and have three big boxed sets of the complete orchestral recordings.

As an addition to those DG Karajan boxes, I'd like another big box covering as many live Karajan recordings as are available.

Sony still haven't issued a box devoted to George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.

There's already been a set devoted to the radio recordings of Haitink and the Concertgebouw. I'd like to see another two or three. Plenty of material in the vaults.

Any welcome, its your thread now !! Possible or "impossible", whatever you want.

i agree that a big Sony Szell box would be welcome, and probably sell strongly.


A Henry Cowell box,starting with the symphonies and piano music would be great.

And in slightly more fanciful mode, perhaps, huge box of C20 /21American symphonies would be fabulous to have.

[Roehre]

...
A Henry Cowell box,starting with the symphonies and piano music would be great.

And in slightly more fanciful mode, perhaps, huge box of C20 /21American symphonies would be fabulous to have.

that would be fantastic indeed

[Nick Armstrong]

Is it just me? I find the idea of these huge boxes a nightmare rather than a dream in the positive sense....

[teamsaint]

Is it just me? I find the idea of these huge boxes a nightmare rather than a dream in the positive sense....

You mean in the " sorting out the rights for modest returns" sense I assume ?

You can't surely mean As a consumer?

[amateur51]

Is it just me? I find the idea of these huge boxes a nightmare rather than a dream in the positive sense....

Yup, all on your ownsome lonesome

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is it just me? I find the idea of these huge boxes a nightmare rather than a dream in the positive sense....

I don't - but the thought of paying for them has kept me awake many-a-night!

[amateur51]

I don't - but the thought of paying for them has kept me awake many-a-night!

I'm thinking of appending details of my Amazon wishlist to my Will, so that when I croak and people burst in to find CDs and books everywhere, they'll realise what a very soul of discernment, discimination and virtue I have been

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The best mega-box set I've ever bought is the 107 CD Furtwangler set.

I'm now considering the Decca VPO box set, though it would involve much duplication.

[BBMmk2]

I'm dreaming at long last to find a box big enough in which to store all my existing box sets.

I like book cases

[Roehre]

Is it just me? I find the idea of these huge boxes a nightmare rather than a dream in the positive sense....

for me it isn't.
I take my time to work through them, not (over-)indulging, but the price to pay is less spontaneity.

Working through a complete box needs some kind of discipline as well as some strategy.
Are you starting with CD 1 and end with CD umpteen?
Are you starting with opus 1 and end op with 626 or 1080 or so?
Are you just picking a CD blind?
Are yo listening chronologically (either dates of compositions, or -with those massive conductor boxes- by date of recording)?
One of the few "big"-boxes I added to my collection is the "complete" Verdi.
As it was a birthday pressie of Mrs R I started shortly after my birthday last year. and now, nearly 18 months later, am half way.

I haste to say that these Verdis and some 6 CDs from a recently bought 8CD-set dedicated to Flemish Polyphony are the only ones which I haven't listened to. I avoid backlogs, as THAT is which causes pressure or a feeling of unfulfilment which I think isn't worth it.

[vinteuil]

... doesn't it also depend on whether you consider your CD collection as a 'library' to which you will refer when the time is right?

Good Lord, on my bookshelves there are things like the Works of Meredith, the Correspondence of Horace Walpole, the Letters of Cowper, the Works of Ruskin, the Correspondance of Marcel Proust - have I read them "all through" ? - Haven't even "turned every page"! And yet I know they are there when I want them. Similarly the CDs of Sweelinck Psalms - Frescobaldi keyboard works - Brahms choral works - I don't feel the need to go through them all right now - but I know that in the years to come I shall want to refer to them...

Why do we treat CDs differently from how we wd treat books?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When I buy a large box set, I do ensure that I listen to every disc, if only to check for faults. I suppose it's a throwback to the days of LPs.

[pastoralguy]

A friend bought the DG Fricsay set and discovered pdq that he was lacking disc no. 19 but had two no. 20's! I have so many boxed sets that are still in their plastic wrappings that I despair of every opening them!