Most multiple recordings you have?

[Turner]

As for complete Beethoven symphony cycles, I chose to keep

Mengelberg CD
Karajan 1962 CD
Leibowitz LP
Toscanini LP
Bernstein/cbs LP
Scherchen/Lugano DWLD

I also have a superfluous Blomstedt/Dresden (CD) that is included in the big Beethoven box, and a Karajan/1977 (LP) that I don´t really need.

I skipped Konwitschny, Bernstein/DG, and Karajan/EMI. Not because they were bad, but because they didn´t imply that much contrast to the others.
Should I get one more, it would be Gardiner.

At the other end of the scale as regards quantity of recordings, I only have one of Brahms "Ein Deutsches Requiem", and a good deal of the operas.

[Jo498]

Which issue do you have of the Mengelberg? Pearl?

To some extent I can understand that some collect A LOT of e.g. Beethoven symphonies or sonatas because there is such a wide range of interpretation available, since the 1920s or so. E.g. with Haydn's Paris symphonies I culled three recordings despite quite liking them (Kuijken, Weil, Wolff) because they did not really add much to the ones I kept (Harnoncourt, Brüggen, Bernstein, Marriner and later I additionally got Fey's). With Haydn there are very few recordings older than about 50 years and the approaches are usually within a narrower range than with Beethoven, i.e. there is hardly any Haydn recording as "romantically free" as e.g. Furtwängler in Beethoven (Furtwängler in Haydn is classically restrained for Furtwängler).

FWIW I have only one disc from the Naxos series with the Liszt piano arrangements of the Beethoven symphonies; I can't really be bothered with them and I don't think I have listened to that disc more than twice in about 10 years...

There is plenty of repertoire I have only one recording of (or sometimes two): Most opera with few exceptions (3 Rings, only one I really listened to..., about 7-8 Fidelios, 5 Don Giovannis) and generally music I don't feel I need any alternatives/comparisons (or where few recordings exist). For some of them one accidentally picks up additional ones in big boxes but they tend to remain unlistened to.

[amw]

I just did a comparison with my favourite Beethoven movement, going through the Eroica opener with Scherchen, Krivine, Dohnányi, Leibowitz, Norrington and Järvi. That being the order I would rate them in.

So I guess I can do comparisons, I just don't usually produce any useful information when I do that. No one caaaaares which Eroica I like best. <_<

[Jo498]

The good thing about most of the Beethoven symphonies for me (and why I would not need even as many as I have and why I am not really seeking out any more) is that I like most of them a lot, regardless of the interpretation. They would hardly figure (for me) another thread where we talked about pieces one has several recordings but is not really happy with them.

[Marc]

I don't really do 'multiple recordings'. Can't think of any examples other than having two different recordings of Beethoven 5 & 7, and Mahler's Das Lied.

For everything else there's Spotify, Youtube, etc.

Wise man.

It's nothing but greed, I admit, but anyway... Bach probably tops my list, never counted them, but I think I have around 25 to 30 recordings of both his St. John and St, Matthew Passion, and also about 25 Bach organ integrals. And I really wouldn't know how many Bach organ hits (like BWV 565, 542, 582 and some of the well known organ chorales) I have, because there are plenty of 'single' organ discs in da house, too.
Besides those, probably 10 to 15 Beethoven symphony and piano sonata sets, and around a dozen different recordings of Mozart's Da Ponte opera's.
I guess that's it.

The rest isn't really worthwhile mentioning... if such things ever are.

EDIT: I have 'sampled' them just because they belong to my favourite works and I enjoy listening to more than just one recording of it.
Especially vocal and organ recordings easily deliver an interesting amount of different performances, because of the variety in human voices resp. instruments/registrations. It's really a huge difference between f.i. Barbara Hendricks or Lucia Popp as Susanna, and between a Toccata on a modern organ or on a 'golden oldie'.

[Turner]

Which issue do you have of the Mengelberg? Pearl?

............

FWIW I have only one disc from the Naxos series with the Liszt piano arrangements of the Beethoven symphonies; I can't really be bothered with them and I don't think I have listened to that disc more than twice in about 10 years ...

Beethoven symphonies with Mengelberg have been released on various labels; mine is from "Iron Needle", 5 CDs (1999, IN1422,1426,1429,1435,1437), also including the Fidelio and Egmont ouvertures, the symphonies said to be recorded in april 1940. There are probably better transfers sound-wise, but I´m satisfied with them. I know that there are various alternative Mengelberg performances of some of the standard pieces, but haven´t studied this subject in detail yet. He is certainly one of the most interesting conductors that is documented in recordings.

Scherchen´s Lugano cycle is extremely uneven, at times clumsy, but nonetheless interesting, I think.

Like in your case, the piano transcriptions of Ludwig´s symphonies don´t really grab me either. I have Woodward in the 3rd and Gould in the 5th. Maybe there are better recordings. But I have a good deal of alternative recordings besides the complete symphonies sets, as regards the orchestral versions, of course.
IMO, some must-hear ones are Scherchen´s stereo Westminster 3rd, Carlos Kleiber´s 5th, Dorati´s 6th, Beecham´s 7th, etc. ...

[Jo498]

If one gets the Scherchen stereo Eroica (+6th in the latest single issue) and his 8th on the Great conductors volume (or on older/grey/pirate discs) one can skip the older Westminster cycle (of which that 8th is a part). I have not heard the later recordings from Lugano. Scherchen is wildly inconsistent; the mono Eroica in the complete Westminster cycle is not nearly as good as the stereo Eroica. I keep the older cycle because I am a fan of Scherchen but with Leibowitz and more recent recordings at fast tempi in much better sound and execution, they have been superseded.

[Turner]

I totally agree that the best Westminster Scherchens are probably 3, 6 and 8.

I collect Scherchen too, btw, though I ´ve skipped a few recordings after hearing/having them.

[kishnevi]

Beethoven symphonies with Mengelberg have been released on various labels; mine is from "Iron Needle", 5 CDs (1999, IN1422,1426,1429,1435,1437), also including the Fidelio and Egmont ouvertures, the symphonies said to be recorded in april 1940. There are probably better transfers sound-wise, but I´m satisfied with them. I know that there are various alternative Mengelberg performances of some of the standard pieces, but haven´t studied this subject in detail yet. He is certainly one of the most interesting conductors that is documented in recordings.

Scherchen´s Lugano cycle is extremely uneven, at times clumsy, but nonetheless interesting, I think.

Like in your case, the piano transcriptions of Ludwig´s symphonies don´t really grab me either. I have Woodward in the 3rd and Gould in the 5th. Maybe there are better recordings. But I have a good deal of alternative recordings besides the complete symphonies sets, as regards the orchestral versions, of course.
IMO, some must-hear ones are Scherchen´s stereo Westminster 3rd, Carlos Kleiber´s 5th, Dorati´s 6th, Beecham´s 7th, etc. ...

I would suggest Scherbakov as a safe bet in the piano version. Naxos issued them, but Steinway later reissued them in a clumsy for shelves box.

I do understand your lack of enthusiasm for them in this context.  They are as much a document of Liszt's musicianship as they are a document of Beethoven.

[Jo498]

I have one of the Sherbakov discs and one symphony with Gould. I am wildly inconsistent wrt arrangements/instrumentations. Usually I always prefer the original but I have a soft spot for some alternative/arranged versions. I love the chamber versions of Strauss waltzes by Berg/Schönberg/Webern. And before I learned to like the organ sound better I tended to prefer piano arrangements (or even the overblown orchestral versions by Stokowski or Schönberg) of Bach's organ music. But the Reger two hand (or two piano) arrangements of some orchestral Bach I found rather boring.
Anyway, that's OT but I guess that I am not keen on the Liszt/Beethoven because I am generally not too keen on any arrangements.

[KevinP]

Bach's Mass in B Minor. It might have surpassed 100, but I don't think it quite has. Haven't counted in years, and there haven't been too many released since then.

[71 dB]

Bach's Mass in B Minor. It might have surpassed 100, but I don't think it quite has. Haven't counted in years, and there haven't been too many released since then.

One of my favorite works by Bach, but I only have two: John Eliot Gardiner and Konrad Junghänel. I didn't realize there are 100+ recordings available of this mass(ive work). 

[KevinP]

There's considerably more than 100, but some have never made it to CD.

My tally (and I should count them today) includes a handful of DVDs and probably some CDs that might not be currently in print plus a few Japanese-only releases.

For an extensive and perhaps exhaustive list of the recordings of this, see this (which is only the first page):
http://bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV232-Rec1.htm

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

It always seems to me as if we are certainly very much limited in our understanding of the sheer amount of recordings of various well known works...........

There are excellent resources on the instruments which are devoted to listing every recording of a particular symphony cycle, work etc that it would be certainly amazing (and somewhat sad) to learn that there are less than 100 recordings of any work in the oft-recorded repertoire these days.

[Contemporaryclassical]

I'm not sure what the most multiple recordings of one thing are but I have at least 30 CDs of Webern (not counting Pierre Boulez's two box sets) then he appears on some of my vinyls too   0:)

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I'm not sure what the most multiple recordings of one thing are but I have at least 30 CDs of Webern (not counting Pierre Boulez's two box sets) then he appears on some of my vinyls too   0:)

Tell us what you got!