Most multiple recordings you have?

[Mirror Image]

I wouldn't even know where to begin with this thread!

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Six recordings of Le Marteau sans Maître, but I am not one of those obsessive collectors really

[Gurn Blanston]

I don't know how you people remember all the recordings you have - your 40 Beethoven cycles adn stuff. I'm confused after 3-4 performances!

I don't do that at all. With my 9th's, which I listen to 1 per week, a lot of times the best I can say (since I haven't heard this one in a year and a half) is that the chorus on this one is excellent, or the solo soprano singer is awful, or the playing in the slow movement is really too slow, sounds like they're dead, that sort of stuff. If I remembered all the details about each one, there wouldn't be any point (for me) in listening to it again. Of course, I don't do comparative listening anyway, I'm far more interested in the music than the performance. I'm happy with "this one is different from that one", without tacking on a better or worse. Life is easier that way, you should consider it. 

[king ubu]

You need to have 43 of something.

Duly obliged ... go the Jochum Orchestral box, bringing the Schumann pc's to 43, the Brahms vc's to 45 and the Beethoven vc's to 42 - so now 44 is missing, damn 

[Florestan]

As the OP of this thread I must confess I have come a long way since I´ve started it.   

Okay, maybe not that long --- most multiple recordings I have now: 19 complete cycles of Beethoven´s Synphonies. 

Have I ever listened to each of them at least once? No. Am I going to listen to each of them at least once in the near future? No.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

As the OP of this thread I must confess I have come a long way since I´ve started it.   

Okay, maybe not that long --- most multiple recordings I have now: 19 complete cycles of Beethoven´s Synphonies. 

Have I ever listened to each of them at least once? No. Am I going to listen to each of them at least once in the near future? No.

??!!!!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!

This is something I have never been able to comprehend.....why would anyone not listen to the multiple recordings they buy?

Wow

I've listened to probably over 50 different complete recordings of the beethoven symphonies in order to narrow my options down to one which I own and a few which I might like to get in the future.

Actually owning things unnecessarily is pointless for me and rather give them away (at least give the physical copies away) to someone who might enjoy them more than hoard them......

But that's just me

[Florestan]

This is something I have never been able to comprehend.....why would anyone not listen to the multiple recordings they buy?

´Cause they have to catch up with multiple recordings they bought earlier?

´Cause they buy multiple recordings for the sake of "I´ll listen to it later"?

I've listened to probably over 50 different complete recordings of the beethoven symphonies in order to narrow my options down to one which I own and a few which I might like to get in the future.

Well, have you? How many do you own now?

owning things unnecessarily is pointless for me

Can you in all earnest tell us you own nothing unnecessarily?

[Jo498]

For me main causes for buying stuff I don't (and maybe never) listened to (and I might have mentioned it before in a similar thread) are probably two:
Get some box because it is cheap and/or highly regarded but with music, like the Beethoven symphonies, I do not frequently listen to any more because I listened to them so often when I was new to classical music and had fewer CDs. It is worse if the boxes are bigger and those dedicated to artists might contain stuff I am not really interested in at all but got because I wanted other stuff in the box.
Another one is more subtle. It's a certain delay between falling in love with some music and getting more recordings of the composer or the piece. I remember when I really got into Handel I listened to two or three discs, especially with the early Italian cantatas for weeks because I was so fascinated by the music I had not even known about before. So in the years that follow I buy operas and oratorios by Handel. Now these are big fat boxes with 2-3h long works. I don't always have time and leisure to listen to them, certainly not in one go. Additionally, my interest has cooled somewhat and I am now into (e.g.) some of Schumann's piano music. So I still grab a fat Handel oratorio box when it is on sale or other occasion but I don't listen. Of course the same thing then happens with Schumann (to a smaller extent because these are shorter pieces): Buy more stuff than one can listen to within the time frame, find another interest that replaces the earlier focuse, rinse, repeat...

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

´Cause they have to catch up with multiple recordings they bought earlier?

´Cause they buy multiple recordings for the sake of "I´ll listen to it later"?

Well, have you? How many do you own now?

Can you in all earnest tell us you own nothing unnecessarily?

I own three recordings of Beethoven's symphonies, one of which I plan on donating to a library (individual CDs not a box set).

I do own recordings I feel are unnecessary for me to own and I tend to give them away to others or donate them to libraries so that others can have the benefit of listening to them. In the case of books, I do the same.

And apologies, I misread your post above which seemed to me to say that you won't be listening to those newly acquired beethoven symphony CDs at all (silly me)

I hope you enjoy them! Just out of curiosity, which ones are your favourites so far and what are you looking forward to hearing most?

[Florestan]

apologies, I misread your post above which seemed to me to say that you won't be listening to those newly acquired beethoven symphony CDs at all (silly me)

No apologies needed, we all misread each other one way or another...

which ones are your favourites so far and what are you looking forward to hearing most?

My current favorite is Franz Konwitschny / Gewandhausorchester Leipzig --- no nonsense approavh and superb, I mean really superb, sound! Mr. Konwhiskey did an excellent job! Highly and heartily recommended!

I am looking forward to hearing Paul Kletzki / Czech PO, Rene Leibowitz / Royal PO and John Eliot Gardiner / Orchestre Revolutionnaire & Romantique. When it eill happen, only God knows.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

My current favorite is Franz Konwitschny / Gewandhausorchester Leipzig --- no nonsense approach and superb, I mean really superb, sound! Mr. Konwhitschney did an excellent job! Highly and heartily recommended!

I am looking forward to hearing Paul Kletzki / Czech PO, Rene Leibowitz / Royal PO and John Eliot Gardiner / Orchestre Revolutionnaire & Romantique. When it eill happen, only God knows.

Excellent! The Konwitschney recording of which you speak is one I don't have a strong recollection of but I think I can remember thinking that the orchestral balance was quite good in parts and yes a great sound overall!

The Leibowitz is one I enjoy a lot, and the Gardiner. I hope you will too!

[Florestan]

The Konwitschney recording of which you speak is one I don't have a strong recollection of but I think I can remember thinking that the orchestral balance was quite good in parts and yes a great sound overall!

Quite a way to put it, Sir! 

I am unabashed in calling it one of the greatest Beethoven´s symphonic cycles ever! 

The Leibowitz is one I enjoy a lot, and the Gardiner. I hope you will too!

I will certainly report back!

[king ubu]

I am looking forward to hearing Paul Kletzki / Czech PO, Rene Leibowitz / Royal PO and John Eliot Gardiner / Orchestre Revolutionnaire & Romantique. When it eill happen, only God knows.

Those three all rank among my favourites, Leibowitz maybe as THE favourite!

[Florestan]

Those three all rank among my favourites, Leibowitz maybe as THE favourite!

Why, of course!

De gustibus et coloribus non disputandum est!

I might end up preferring Leibowitz over Konwitschny --- or I might not.

Problem is, where is Beethoven himself in all this? 

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Why, of course!

De gustibus et coloribus non disputandum est!

I might end up preferring Leibowitz over Konwitschny --- or I might not.

Problem is, where is Beethoven himself in all this? 

'Where is Beethoven' is a question with an unattainable answer although IMO it has so far been answered the best by Jonathan Del Mar

[Florestan]

Jonathan Del Mar

Jonathan who?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Jonathan who?

here you go

[NJ Joe]

Those three all rank among my favourites, Leibowitz maybe as THE favourite!

I own 24 Beethoven symphony cycles and the Leibowitz/RPO is one of my very favorites as well.

[Jo498]

Leibowitz was one of the first to (kind of) follow (most of) the controversial metronome markings and it is in considerably better sound than e.g. Scherchen (who was similar but more extreme and more inconsistent). While this feature is not as noteworthy as it used to be until the late 1980s when the first HIPsters (or also conductors like Gielen) started following the metronome markings more closely, it still is an exciting and worthwhile cycle.

I have only about ten Beethoven cycles, Bernstein (cobbled together from Sony and DG), Brüggen, Cluytens (in a box I bought for other stuff), Gielen, Harnoncourt, Järvi/DVD, Karajan 1960s, Leibowitz, Norrington/Virgin, Scherchen, Wand. I have a few more almost complete: Furtwängler (no #2 and #8), Toscanini (no #6), Weingartner (no #1 and #2) and of the more frequently recorded symphonies roughly another 10 in single discs or incomplete cycles. Too many, but I cannot find the leisure to compare and cull, so I mainly refrain from buying any new ones...

[amw]

I have Norrington/LCP, Gardiner, Dohnányi, Krivine, and Bernstein/NYP plus the partial Fricsay. I really like Leibowitz, Chailly and Järvi but haven't bought them and doubt I will ever do so. Krivine is, at the moment, my overall favourite. I also have the Leslie Howard and Yury Martynov cycles for piano.

I've done comparisons between them, but only enough to come to the conclusion that I'm not sufficiently into the Beethoven symphonies to do lots of comparisons between them. <_<