Boycott EMI.

[Mirror Image]

By the way, I'm perfectly fine with being called twit. I know I've been called much worse!

[North Star]

Yeah, how...irrational.

But not lacking in twittyness...

[scarlattiglenross]

For about a day, I had 'em beat on Amazon UK...

[snyprrr]

EMI is the king daddy of repackaging its vaults,... but, what is this dreadful development?: I'll use their Roussel and Ibert sets.

Look how the earlier 2cd sets had more interesting stuff, and then they rereleased them, eliminating the most choice pieces.

Roussel #1:

http://www.amazon.com/Roussel-Symphonies-2-3-4/dp/B000HWZAR4/ref=sr_1_9?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1346512700&sr=1-9&keywords=roussel

Note the Symphony No.2. Then, Roussel #2:

http://www.amazon.com/20th-Century-Classics-Roussel-Symphonies/dp/B002ZBTWME/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1346512758&sr=1-8&keywords=roussel

Notice, the Symphony No.2 is gone, replaced by only HALF of the cd containg the Piano Concerto. They didn't even put the whole cd on the reissue?!? wtf?? What a mish mash.


Now look at the old Ibert compilation:

http://www.amazon.com/Ibert-Divertissement-Escales-Concerto-Symphonie/dp/B0013D8K78/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1346512864&sr=1-8&keywords=ibert

It has the Petre cd, and the other cd, whole, plus the Don Quixote settings and the Flute Concerto (Pahud). Now, the newer reissue:

http://www.amazon.com/Ibert-Jacques/dp/B004ZARXTW/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1346512930&sr=1-1&keywords=ibert

Again, they cut portions of the one cd, replacing it with still more 'other' recordings (do we have to keep changing the volume knob with these things?), but, look at what a mish mash this one is compared to the earlier release.

Whoever is doing these reissues can't be the same person that did the earlier ones. Where is the quality control? The cover is nice, but, hey, that's the cover.


They DID manage to make a 3cd set of Lutoslawski that culls most all of their vault. Can you declare HOW many incarnations these recording have gone through since their initial 'Matrix' release? I'm going to say 4-5 times. That's pretty funny. Same recordings, repackaged over and over again within 15 years. Sigh.

Can ya feel me?

[Brian]

Roussel #1:

http://www.amazon.com/Roussel-Symphonies-2-3-4/dp/B000HWZAR4/ref=sr_1_9?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1346512700&sr=1-9&keywords=roussel

Note the Symphony No.2. Then, Roussel #2:

http://www.amazon.com/20th-Century-Classics-Roussel-Symphonies/dp/B002ZBTWME/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1346512758&sr=1-8&keywords=roussel

Notice, the Symphony No.2 is gone, replaced by only HALF of the cd containg the Piano Concerto. They didn't even put the whole cd on the reissue?!? wtf?? What a mish mash.

Instead of Symphony 2, they added "Resurrection" and "Pour une fete..." so it's not a total loss.

But I agree: EMI's survival on repackaging CDs endlessly is very, very sad. It reached a tragicomic climax earlier this year, when the "EMI Masters" line that looked like this:


(September 2010)

was replaced by a completely identical "EMI Masters" line that looked like this instead:


(January 2012)

because somebody at EMI realized the covers looked better with a vinyl record on them. Of course, the "EMI Masters" line had already had vinyl records on them previously:


(March 2000)

[kishnevi]

Instead of Symphony 2, they added "Resurrection" and "Pour une fete..." so it's not a total loss.

But I agree: EMI's survival on repackaging CDs endlessly is very, very sad. It reached a tragicomic climax earlier this year, when the "EMI Masters" line that looked like this:


(September 2010)

was replaced by a completely identical "EMI Masters" line that looked like this instead:


(January 2012)

because somebody at EMI realized the covers looked better with a vinyl record on them. Of course, the "EMI Masters" line had already had vinyl records on them previously:


(March 2000)

To be fair, the vinyl record on the cover or the CD labels seems to have been copied by a few other folks--Universal (I have the meme on DG, Philips and Decca//London re-releases),  even Harmonia Mundi (look at the newest incarnation of their budget Musique d'abord series).

[mc ukrneal]

Instead of Symphony 2, they added "Resurrection" and "Pour une fete..." so it's not a total loss.

But I agree: EMI's survival on repackaging CDs endlessly is very, very sad. It reached a tragicomic climax earlier this year, when the "EMI Masters" line that looked like this:


(September 2010)

was replaced by a completely identical "EMI Masters" line that looked like this instead:


(January 2012)

because somebody at EMI realized the covers looked better with a vinyl record on them. Of course, the "EMI Masters" line had already had vinyl records on them previously:


(March 2000)

I do like the newest (middle) one best.

[Opus106]

To be fair, the vinyl record on the cover or the CD labels seems to have been copied by a few other folks--Universal (I have the meme on DG, Philips and Decca//London re-releases)

But their Originals series were "LP'ed" a long time ago, with the CD/booklet cover featuring the LP cover at an angle and the CD surface visually resembling that of an LP.

[kishnevi]

But their Originals series were "LP'ed" a long time ago, with the CD/booklet cover featuring the LP cover at an angle and the CD surface visually resembling that of an LP.

So Universal were the originals with their Originals and EMI merely played copycat?

[Opus106]

So Universal were the originals with their Originals and EMI merely played copycat?

Um, yeah, sure... whatever.

[DavidRoss]

I do like the newest (middle) one best.

Regardless of the cover or how often it's reissued, this is a must-have CD. Mine's the GROC edition. Looks as if the later issues added some Delius. Can you grok it?

[eyeresist]

Again, they cut portions of the one cd, replacing it with still more 'other' recordings (do we have to keep changing the volume knob with these things?), but, look at what a mish mash this one is compared to the earlier release.

But these aren't "reissues". They are part of a series called 20th Century Classics which presumably tries to give a representative sampling of composers via the best ("best") recordings in the EMI catalog.

[snyprrr]

But these aren't "reissues". They are part of a series called 20th Century Classics which presumably tries to give a representative sampling of composers via the best ("best") recordings in the EMI catalog.

No,... "all" recordings in the EMI catalog. If there WERE any others, don't you think the desperados would have released it already? What?, is there going to come some future time when these companies either a) accidentally "find" a cache, or, b)... b)??,... IS there a "b"??

I mean, once "it's" been "boxed", what else is there to do?


The major companies have all painted themselves into a corner, and it should be interpreted as CRIMINAL DECEPTION if they try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes with these endless reissues, blah blah.

[snyprrr]

Instead of Symphony 2, they added "Resurrection" and "Pour une fete..." so it's not a total loss.

But, the Invocations from the same cd are gone, and the Cello Concertino is missing from the other cd. And the Suite in F.

Why couldn't they have just made a 3cd set, like with the Lutoslawski? So, now, with their logic, they have still about 1cd's worth of Roussel material that is now NOT on their culling set. Why not just... oh,... ugh,... nevermind...

[Scarpia]

No,... "all" recordings in the EMI catalog. If there WERE any others, don't you think the desperados would have released it already? What?, is there going to come some future time when these companies either a) accidentally "find" a cache, or, b)... b)??,... IS there a "b"??

I mean, once "it's" been "boxed", what else is there to do?


The major companies have all painted themselves into a corner, and it should be interpreted as CRIMINAL DECEPTION if they try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes with these endless reissues, blah blah.

Maybe you should read what eyeresist posted.  The Roussel CD you are looking at is a part of a special series from EMI which gives a cross section of interesting works by a given composer.   The other release was a collection of Roussel symphonies.  If you want the release with the symphonies, then get the release with the symphonies.  Why, in your brain, does the fact that they released a new collection, take anything away from the existence of the old collection? 

[eyeresist]

The major companies have all painted themselves into a corner, and it should be interpreted as CRIMINAL DECEPTION if they try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes with these endless reissues, blah blah.

Who is being deceived, and how?

[Madiel]

What I'd REALLY like EMI to do is to put the text of Mahler's 8th at the URL where it was supposed to be according to the booklet of the not-very-old CD of Mahler's 8th (Rattle) that I bought.

Or, as a wild alternative, reply to the e-mail that pointed out to them that the printed URL was a dead end.

Grrr.

[North Star]

What I'd REALLY like EMI to do is to put the text of Mahler's 8th at the URL where it was supposed to be according to the booklet of the not-very-old CD of Mahler's 8th (Rattle) that I bought.

Or, as a wild alternative, reply to the e-mail that pointed out to them that the printed URL was a dead end.

Grrr.

Alternatively, you could just search for it in the internetz:
http://www.choralarts.org/data/files/community/10%20mahler%208%20text%20&%20translation.pdf

[Madiel]

Alternatively, you could just search for it in the internetz:
http://www.choralarts.org/data/files/community/10%20mahler%208%20text%20&%20translation.pdf

I've actually already found it, by virtue of Naxos I think.  That's not so much the point as that they promised me something and didn't deliver.  It's actually a LOT more irritating to be told "texts available online" and discover that they're not, than it would have been to have just bought it knowing I'd have to go hunt for the texts elsewhere.

I was reminded of it simply because the Elgar choral works box I'm looking it has online texts, readily available from the catalogue entry on the EMI website.  Which is exactly what was supposed to happen with the Mahler, and didn't.

And EMI simply don't answer e-mails.  They've done it to me before, years ago with pop music.  It is one of the worst things a company can do for its reputation, not answering e-mails.

[North Star]

Well, perhaps they didn't mean that they'd uploaded it themselves, just that it is available online