What CD, book, DVD etc are you waiting for?

[Mal]

... there is nothing decent in the charity shops at present. Are they putting it all on ebay or something?

Oxfam have their own online shop, and I've seen several hospices advertising on Amazon Marketplace. Does Bezos waive his (very high!) fee for charities?

[cloughie]

Oxfam have their own online shop, and I've seen several hospices advertising on Amazon Marketplace. Does Bezos waive his (very high!) fee for charities?

Just had a look at Oxfam on line - considering they are selling donated products the prices are too high and a postage rate of £3.95 also too much. Are they trying to make up the deficit from losing the government funding for their misdemeanours?

[Mal]

Just had a look at Oxfam on line - considering they are selling donated products the prices are too high and a postage rate of £3.95 also too much. Are they trying to make up the deficit from losing the government funding for their misdemeanours?

I'm still sitting waiting for my 2nd hand copy of the Takacs quartet's Bartok (two weeks and counting...) - if anyone is near the shop in Ulverston could you check if it's still on the shelves . The online system says it is still waiting for dispatch; but a nice volunteer contacted me quickly and said it was posted on 19 April. Oh well, can't expect Amazon's level of distribution efficiency from Oxfam or Royal Mail. (Have you ordered anything from Amazon recently? Check out their delivery tracking system - it's become scarily efficient.)

I thought the price was high, but so was everywhere else! They are just selling at the market price. Why not? I'm still happy to donate to Oxfam, they do a lot of good work, even if there are (or were...) a few bad boys. Aren't there always a few rotten apples in any organisation? The BBC certainly had a lot of them floating about!

Anyway, there are a few interesting looking CDs for around £3/4 and £3.95 P&P is for any number of CDs.

They need to fix their interface; there are only 3 Cds listed under classical (!), but 3000 under the "Opera, classical,...", which is the one to choose:

https://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/music-films-video-games/cd?i=1;m_sort_shops=FirstMadeLive;q=*;q1=Music%2C+films+%26+video+games;q2=Music;q3=CD;q4=Classical%2C+opera+%26+popera;show_all=products;sp_s=productcreationdate;x1=secondary_cat_1;x2=secondary_cat_2;x3=secondary_cat_3;x4=Genre

... in fact scrolling down the list I see they have some interesting Naxos at £0.99, buy ten of them and you are getting into "real bargain" territory!

P.S. It's interesting that they list the shops that have the CDs. What happens if you order ten from ten different shops?! Ordering just one takes long enough to arrive...

[AmpH]

Looking forward to receiving this recent Sony issue of the highly - regarded second ( 1951/52 ) mono cycle of Beethoven String Quartets by the Budapest Quartet, apparently remastered from original tapes. There was a previous issue on United Archives I believe, which now seems to be deleted and available copies very expensive.

https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/products/8426713--beethoven-string-quartets-nos-1-16-complete-inc-grosse-fuge

[Bryn]

Looking forward to receiving this recent Sony issue of the highly - regarded second ( 1951/52 ) mono cycle of Beethoven String Quartets by the Budapest Quartet, apparently remastered from original tapes. There was a previous issue on United Archives I believe, which now seems to be deleted and available copies very expensive.

https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/cl...nc-grosse-fuge

I have that United Archives box. I can't find the receipt but I recall paying no more that the current price of the new Sony box. I do not feel any need to get those new re-masters, though I might just check them out via QOBUZ. The 1951/2 survey was, strictly, the first complete one. Two movements of Op. 18/5 were not recorded as part of the 1927-45 set. On page 17 of the United Archives booklet it states "The outstanding quality of these [the 1951-2] recordings - all remastered here for the first time - is owed to the talent of the Columbia recording engineers."

[Pianorak]

The Russian Guitar 1800-1850
The sevenstring guitar appeared in Russia in the 1790s and experienced its Golden Age during the first half of the 19th century. This Box Set is a monument to this remarkable era.
The 7 CDs of this set follow chronologically the development of the guitar in Russia: from the very first works by the Patriarch of the Russian guitar Andrey Sichra, through the Muscovite School of Aksionov, Vysotsky and Vetrov, the St. Petersburg School with works by Morkov and others, to the Romantics Alexandrov, Zimmerman and Sarenko.

ICON - Samson Francois - Chopin Box 10 CDset

[Bryn]

Looking forward to receiving this recent Sony issue of the highly - regarded second ( 1951/52 ) mono cycle of Beethoven String Quartets by the Budapest Quartet, apparently remastered from original tapes. There was a previous issue on United Archives I believe, which now seems to be deleted and available copies very expensive.

https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/cl...nc-grosse-fuge

I have just listened to re-mastered Sony Op. 59/1 via QOBUZ (lossless CD quality), and also to the CD of the united archives transfer. It should be noted that Sony openly admit that at some points the master tapes they were working from had deteriorated to below the audio quality available from the issued LPs, so they resorted to such LPs where they offered the better sound quality. Frankly, the united archive transfers sound on a par to my ears. Also, whereas Sony have stuck the Grosse Fuge on a disc with Op. 18/1 as its companion, united archive very sensibly placed it after the Cavatina of Op. 130, following the Grosse Fuge with the replacement finale, after a suitable pause.

Some of the QOBUZ offerings of the new Sony re-masterings are available as 96/24 downloads. They claim "stereo", which is not, of course, what you get.

[Joseph K]

Snapped up the last reasonably priced Boulez Columbia boxed set from amazon - 175 quid, still significantly more expensive than at its cheapest but oh well... very much looking forward to it!

[teamsaint]

Snapped up the last reasonably priced Boulez Columbia boxed set from amazon - 175 quid, still significantly more expensive than at its cheapest but oh well... very much looking forward to it!

Enjoy.

I’m comtemplating the big Barenboim box.....

[Bryn]

Snapped up the last reasonably priced Boulez Columbia boxed set from amazon - 175 quid, still significantly more expensive than at its cheapest but oh well... very much looking forward to it!

Phew! That's over a ton more than it was 28 months ago.

[teamsaint]

Phew! That's over a ton more than it was 28 months ago.

Ah, but he can resell immediately at a massive profit, and buy, er, something else......

[Bryn]

Ah, but he can resell immediately at a massive profit, and buy, er, something else......

I'll not be parting with mine. That was £72.63 well spent (new, from amazon.fr).

I am currently waiting for yet another Beethoven 9th (this time it's Tafelmusik/Weil).

[Joseph K]

Phew! That's over a ton more than it was 28 months ago.

I know but now it's either 600-odd or over a grand.

[Bryn]

I know but now it's either 600-odd or over a grand.

That is crazy. Surely it's bound to get a re-release?

[kernelbogey]

Tavener: Journey Into Silence

Reading Paul Robertson's book A musician's journey through life and death, I realised that I had been present in Winchester Cathedral for the UK Premier. I can recall only the Tibetan Bowl, for some reason, and wanted to hear the work again.