Recordings That You Are Considering

[Sergeant Rock]

when it came to Wagner I found it better to just pick and choose rather than go for huge box set....

The trouble with doing it that way, for a student like Paul, is the expense. Putting together what I would consider a good starter set--on a limited budget--would still cost almost $250. The Solti Ring alone costs more than the whole Solti Wagner box!

Rienzi Hollreiser $20
Holländer Klemperer $14
Tannhäuser Solti $30
Lohengrin Kempe $18
Tristan Böhm $26
Meistersinger Karajan $25
Ring Böhm $57
Parsifal Barenboiim $36

(Current prices at Amazon.) Looking for bargains in the marketplace could bring the price down but it would still cost way more than $82, the asking price for the EMI box.

Sarge

[Mirror Image]

The trouble with doing it that way, for a student like Paul, is the expense. Putting together what I would consider a good starter set would cost almost $250. The Solti Ring alone costs more than the whole Solti Wagner box!

Rienzi Hollreiser $20
Holländer Klemperer $14
Tannhäuser Solti $30
Lohengrin Kempe $18
Tristan Böhm $26
Meistersinger Karajan $25
Ring Böhm $57
Parsifal Barenboiim $36

(Current prices at Amazon.) Looking for bargains in the marketplace could bring the price down but it would still cost way more than $82, the asking price for the EMI box.

Sarge

I guess he should go for the Solti Wagner set then since he gets 36 CDs at a reasonable price. That seems like a great deal.

[Lisztianwagner]

I don't have much of a Wagner collection, so I am thinking about getting this:
[asin]B008YKRRJU[/asin]

Just wondering, is it a good price for these performances?

It is certainly reasonable since that set includes all Wagner's operas from Rienzi to Parsifal. About the recordings, Klemperer's Holländer, Kempe's Lohengrin and Karajan's Die Meistersinger are excellent choices, they're absolutely outstanding.

[DavidRoss]

I guess he should go for the Solti Wagner set then since he gets 36 CDs at a reasonable price. That seems like a great deal.

If I didn't already own nearly all of Solti's Wagner, I would jump on this box faster than Buster Posey jumps on a hanging curve ball over the inside of the plate! (And unlike most of the guys here, I don't even regard Wagner as a first-rate composer.  )

[Scarpia]

If I didn't already own nearly all of Solti's Wagner, I would jump on this box faster than Buster Posey jumps on a hanging curve ball over the inside of the plate! (And unlike most of the guys here, I don't even regard Wagner as a first-rate composer.  )

I have Solti's Ring.  I generally prefer other conductors in Wagner, so I wasn't tempted by the Wagner/Solti set.  Even if it, hypothetically, dropped in my lab for $1 I have too much unlistened-to Wagner on the shelf.
 

[Mirror Image]

If I didn't already own nearly all of Solti's Wagner, I would jump on this box faster than Buster Posey jumps on a hanging curve ball over the inside of the plate! (And unlike most of the guys here, I don't even regard Wagner as a first-rate composer.  )

Yeah, Dave it's a great deal for somebody just starting their Wagner collection.

[Karl Henning]

Some of the scariest words I've read on GMG this week: just starting their Wagner collection ; )

[Mirror Image]

Some of the scariest words I've read on GMG this week: just starting their Wagner collection ; )

[DavidRoss]

Some of the scariest words I've read on GMG this week: just starting their Wagner collection ; )

Well, with that box they can start and end it with one mouse click!

[admiralackbar]

Is #1 the same as #2 + #3?

#1 [asin]B003S9GOWS[/asin] #2 [asin]B000026OW3[/asin] #3 [asin]B0009U55SS[/asin]

Also, any comments about these new Sony budget boxes? I know they don't include liner notes (does that bother anyone else?). Are the remasterings any better than before? Other info I should be aware of? I've got my eyes on that Perahia/ECO set of the Mozart concerti, too, and maybe the Fleisher/Szell box as well.

[Opus106]

No. 3 is included in No. 2. The 11th CD which makes the difference is, I think, a set of mono recordings from the '40s.

[Sergeant Rock]

From DG, a 43-CD set of all of the operas.  They use the BBC recordings of the first two operas, and Hollreiser's EMI(!) Rienzi. so that one's also in the EMI box.

Just saw this in the Opera board. If the set includes Karajan's Ring and Parsifal, and is reasonably priced, it could be a game changer (for PaulR).

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Well, with that box they can start and end it with one mouse click!

If only they'd had such a box when I began! ...I might not have ended up with 14 Rings 

Sarge

[Opus106]

If the set includes Karajan's Ring...

Sarge

Levine's, actually.

[Wakefield]

No. 3 is included in No. 2. The 11th CD which makes the difference is, I think, a set of mono recordings from the '40s.

It's probable: Disc 11 is the only one from the '40s (1946) in that collection. The remaining discs are from the late '50s and from the '60s.

Disc 11 includes duplicated versions of the sonata N°2, the Berceuse Op. 57 and the Barcarolle Op. 60.

[Sergeant Rock]

Levine's, actually.

Oh well, I should have known. Karajan's Ring is too valuable to squander on a cheap box. Do you have a link to the contents, Opie? (At last, you have a nickname  )

Sarge

[Opus106]

Oh well, I should have known. Karajan's Ring is too valuable to squander on a cheap box.

I thought the same about the Solti Ring; but Decca will perhaps make it work with both the cheap box and the fancy edition.

Do you have a link to the contents, Opie? (At last, you have a nickname  )

Sarge

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/DG/4790502

Thanks for the meta-nick.

[Sergeant Rock]

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/DG/4790502

Thanks. It doesn't have Karajan's Parsifal either. Damn.

Nonetheless, it's a real bargain too with some outstanding recordings (I love that Kleiber Tristan).  Oddly, it shares some of the same performances with the EMI and Solti boxes....the classical music business is really incestuous!

Sarge

[trung224]

Is #1 the same as #2 + #3?

#1 [asin]B003S9GOWS[/asin] #2 [asin]B000026OW3[/asin] #3 [asin]B0009U55SS[/asin]

Also, any comments about these new Sony budget boxes? I know they don't include liner notes (does that bother anyone else?). Are the remasterings any better than before? Other info I should be aware of? I've got my eyes on that Perahia/ECO set of the Mozart concerti, too, and maybe the Fleisher/Szell box as well.

#2 is the 1991 remastered version and the sound is inferior to  #1 , which is the 1999 remastered version on [asin]B00001O2XZ[/asin]
   the concerto in #2 is the CD layer on #3, which is equally good, unless you have the SACD player.
   I have some of new Sony boxset and the sound is same with the earlier release, except the version which is DSD remastered, like this [asin]B000F6YW6W[/asin]

[admiralackbar]

The Rubinstein/Chopin thing is so confusing! There's a comment on Amazon that says the new budget box (10CD) is the same as the previous "The Chopin Collection," which had 11 CDs. But, apparently, it's not according to you all (who I trust far, far more!). So weird.