New Releases

[Octave]

Warner has already reissued all of the non-opera EMI recordings by Giulini, and it looks like a DG/Sony combo box is coming out of Korea next year.  64 non-opera discs all at once.  Gotta see if the price will drop on this one.  (And maybe Kubelik can get the same treatment?!)

Have you seen a contents listing for the Korea DG/Sony box?  Do you know if it will include all the stuff in that Giulini box due from Sony ~April 2014?  I might hold off buying the Sony box if this is the case, same with that DG Italia (?) ART OF GIULINI box that's been in my queue forever.

BTW, I ran across an ASIN for the aforementioned 22cd Sony box, if anyone needs it: B00HEYF4BA.
It's from a product page at Amazon UK; no listing at Amazon US.

[Todd]

Have you seen a contents listing for the Korea DG/Sony box?

Not yet.  It is scheduled for release next month though, so info should be available soon.  My guess is that it has everything from the Sony set, and everything plus more from the Italian set, and that everything will be original covers and content.  It's listed at around $300, give or take, but it may be available for less in short order, but not bargain basement prices.  I will be watching this one closely.  I may be willing to spend current list price to get this.

[Mirror Image]

For those that wondered how Bavouzet would fare in the Prokofiev PCs, well, it looks like Chandos has answered those prayers:

http://www.chandos.net/details06.asp?CNumber=CHAN%2010802

[Octave]

Another batch of little Sony bargain boxes coming ~24 Feb 2014.  ASINs are currently active at Amazon UK but not US, so I will simply mention them here:
1. Toscanini conducts Verdi (12cd)
2. Gerhard Oppitz plays Grieg (7cd)
3. Lorin Maazel conducts Strauss (5cd)
4. Richard Strauss: "Orchestral Works and Concertos" [also Sony, 7cd, no info at all]...ASIN: B00GZHRHIU
5. Kurt Eichorn conducts Carl Orff (5cd)
6. Pierre Boulez conducts Bartok (4cd)
7. Andreas Schmidt sings Strauss songs (8cd)
8. Alicia de Larrocha plays Mozart (5cd)

[The new erato]

Please don't buy the whole edition up on preorder.....

Schmidt/Strauss are of interest to me, the others less so.

[Octave]

No, haha....I am a pathological box case, but I've not gotten anywhere near Subscriber Level with the Sony offerings.  This newest batch I know very little about.  I assume I already have the Toscanini/Verdi in the big Toscanini box from 2012.

One other possibly new old thing, for those who don't have it (also maybe a false alarm):

The Amazon UK site also lists a '4 Feb 2014' release date for the Borodin II set of Shostakovich quartets (plus piano quintet with Sviatoslav Richter) on Melodiya, with the same "cow" cover.  The ASIN (B000HXE5BK) is the same as the old page at Amazon US, but perhaps this could mean a cheaper re-edition.  Prices for this set seem to have been rather high for a while now.

[The new erato]

There's also a 19 disc set of Philippe Entremont: The Complete Piano Concerto Recordings on Sony
and a Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Symphonies Nos. 1-8 unders Osmo Vanska on Challenge SACD.

[Karl Henning]

Hm, Vänskä/Hartmann, eh?

[Mirror Image]

Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Symphonies Nos. 1-8 unders Osmo Vanska on Challenge SACD.

My friend Karlo (North Star) let me know about this, any idea on the release date?

Edit: Okay, looked at Challenge's website and found a date Jan. 14th -

http://www.challengerecords.com/products/1382707108/

BTW, Vanska is only one of the conductors appearing on the set, you also have Stenz, Gaffigan, Poppen, Schonwandt, and Metzmacher splitting conducting duties.

[Mirror Image]

Here's the Bartok Boulez set on Sony Octave mentioned:



A great bargain for sure. I own the previous issued set and these are superb early performances from Boulez.

[Lisztianwagner]

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Sergej-Rachmaninoff-S%E4mtliche-Werke-f%FCr-Klavier/hnum/3835589

Q

That's THE box-set for Rachmaninov's piano music!

[Brian]

The new reissue of Georg Tintner's Bruckner cycle includes a 75-minute bonus disc of Georg Tintner talking about Bruckner in a public lecture.

Tintner on Bruckner
1.         Ladies and gentlemen, the title of my talk tonight is "Bruckner and I..." 00:09:38
2.         So I mention that because this was completely new territory, especially in New Zealand... 00:12:22
3.         And now, the composer himself... 00:12:29
4.         So, suddenly he who had written four rather ordinary masses before... 00:14:27
5.         And now we come to the word Cosmos... 00:08:01
6.         Now, ladies and gentlemen, I shall, if you can still bear it, play to you a few examples... 00:17:14

[Todd]

DG's latest foray into the super-mega-jumbo box set market: 58 CDs of Lenny.  And it's only volume one.  Out in March.



Next month a prestige release:

[Mookalafalas]

DG's latest foray into the super-mega-jumbo box set market: 58 CDs of Lenny.  And it's only volume one.  Out in March.

  This rather surprises me.  This 60 disc box hasn't been out for very long, and from what I can see hasn't been all that popular:


   I got it a few months ago from Amazon new for $90.  At a price like that, it was like they were begging us to take them off their hands.  The recording quality is very good, and all the warhorses are there (tons of complete cycles) as well as a lot of other material (there are no duplicates, and most discs are quite long).  It's hard to imagine how the DG can be other than a Johnny-come-lately affair...or am I missing something?

[Brian]

  This rather surprises me.  This 60 disc box hasn't been out for very long, and from what I can see hasn't been all that popular:


   I got it a few months ago from Amazon new for $90.  At a price like that, it was like they were begging us to take them off their hands.  The recording quality is very good, and all the warhorses are there (tons of complete cycles) as well as a lot of other material (there are no duplicates, and most discs are quite long).  It's hard to imagine how the DG can be other than a Johnny-come-lately affair...or am I missing something?

The box you (and I!) bought for $90 is the Columbia recordings from the 1950s to the early 1970s; Lenny later signed with DG and re-recorded much of the same material, but often with tempos a lot slower. As far as whether there is a market for this... honestly, I believe most of these giant boxes are catering to the new middle/upper classes of Asia who need a quick, semi-prestigious way to fill out their classical CD library. I have no evidence for this, other than the large number of gigantic boxes made for Korea or Japan that only get released here much later (like the George Szell Edition, which I think might still be an import). Well, that and, I really don't know who else can buy these things. I'm 24 and was not around for any of Lenny's recording career, or Karajan's, or you-name-it, but I'm only buying these things on ultra clearance.

[Wakefield]

The box you (and I!) bought for $90 is the Columbia recordings from the 1950s to the early 1970s; Lenny later signed with DG and re-recorded much of the same material, but often with tempos a lot slower. As far as whether there is a market for this... honestly, I believe most of these giant boxes are catering to the new middle/upper classes of Asia who need a quick, semi-prestigious way to fill out their classical CD library. I have no evidence for this, other than the large number of gigantic boxes made for Korea or Japan that only get released here much later (like the George Szell Edition, which I think might still be an import). Well, that and, I really don't know who else can buy these things. I'm 24 and was not around for any of Lenny's recording career, or Karajan's, or you-name-it, but I'm only buying these things on ultra clearance.

Yes, you're 24 y.o., but this time you sound like a sort of old French aristocrat, writing a contra-revolutionary pamphlet from his castle around 1790. 

[Que]

I have no evidence for this, other than the large number of gigantic boxes made for Korea or Japan that only get released here much later (like the George Szell Edition, which I think might still be an import). Well, that and, I really don't know who else can buy these things.

Classical music lovers from Asia are going to save the recording business, mark my words....

Q

[Mookalafalas]

The box you (and I!) bought for $90 is the Columbia recordings from the 1950s to the early 1970s; Lenny later signed with DG and re-recorded much of the same material, but often with tempos a lot slower. As far as whether there is a market for this... honestly, I believe most of these giant boxes are catering to the new middle/upper classes of Asia who need a quick, semi-prestigious way to fill out their classical CD library. I have no evidence for this, other than the large number of gigantic boxes made for Korea or Japan that only get released here much later (like the George Szell Edition, which I think might still be an import). Well, that and, I really don't know who else can buy these things. I'm 24 and was not around for any of Lenny's recording career, or Karajan's, or you-name-it, but I'm only buying these things on ultra clearance.

For me, these boxes are manna from heaven! When I was younger I made $3.35 an hour, and even in grad school not much more.  A new album was $7.99 and a CD was $13-15 a pop, a serious expenditure.  I bought 90% Jazz/rock at that time.  20 years later I have considerably more discretionary income, and just made the real conversion to classical just in time for the "big box" inundation.  $1-3 a disc for the greatest music ever made??! The way I see it, it's as though the Louvre told me I can start buying old masters for pocket change.  How can I resist?  I've bought over 30 big boxes, and lots of smaller ones.  I have stereos in every room.  I spend all of my time rereading old threads here and listening to music instead of learning Chinese and doing research (which is what I'm supposed to be doing).
    About the Korean made big boxes (Solti, Szell, Westminster Legacy), I don't know who is buying those either.  I live in a Taiwanese city of about 1 million people.  There are only a couple of big CD shops, and only one seems to do pretty-good business.  Korea and Japan, however, really do place a lot of prestige on this type of "cultural capital"--so they probably are a big percentage of the market. 

[Brian]

Jean-Guihen Queyras' conducting debut?

[asin]B00G6OJXHU[/asin]
[asin]B00G6OJXXE[/asin]
[asin]B00FEMGCCE[/asin]
"With this double set encompassing volumes five and six, fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout completes his multi-disc survey of Mozart's music for solo keyboard. On this collection Bezuidenhout performs a mix of Piano Sonatas, Variations and other works on a fortepiano by Paul McNulty that was modeled after an instrument made by the great instrument maker Anton Walter."

[North Star]

Jean-Guihen Queyras' conducting debut?

[asin]B00G6OJXHU[/a sin]
[asin]B00FEMGCCE[/a sin]
"With this double set encompassing volumes five and six, fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout completes his multi-disc survey of Mozart's music for solo keyboard. On this collection Bezuidenhout performs a mix of Piano Sonatas, Variations and other works on a fortepiano by Paul McNulty that was modeled after an instrument made by the great instrument maker Anton Walter."

Well, well, well.

[asin]B00G6OJXHU[/a sin]
[asin]B00FEMGCCE[/a sin]

North Star - oops!