Collections and Sub-Collections

[Jo498]

I don't collect anything in the strictest sense. That is, I do not  strive to acquire all or most recordings of an artist or of a work. Some pieces I was or am somewhat obsesses with and I got a dozen or more versions (or they somehow piled up not quite intentionally) but I usually consider more than 10 a lot and if I have so many I usually stop getting more (or at least get more more slowly). I also get sometimes rid of recordings I find superfluous to save space even if the recordings are not bad. E.g., I gave away 3 recordings of Haydn's "Paris" symphonies (Weil, Kuijken, Wolff) and still have Bernstein, Marriner, Harnoncourt, Brüggen, Fey as well as Fischer's in the big box and half of Goodman's.

Some things that piled up (not all of them)

Messiah: Davis I, Marriner I, Somary, Mackerras (Mozart), Hogwood, Harnoncourt I, McCreesh, Minkowski, Jacobs

Art of Fugue: Koroliov, Sokolov, Hill, Guillot, Gould, Pommer, Scherchen, Bergel and the one on Arte Nova with 4 different ensembles

Beethoven symphonies: Scherchen 1950s, Cluytens, Karajan 1962, Leibowitz, Norrington/EMI, Brüggen/Philips, Harnoncourt, Gielen, Wand, Järvi (DVD), Bernstein (NYPO: 2,3,4,5,7 Vienna: 1,3,6,8,9)
also Weingartner (except 1+2), Furtwängler (except 2+8), Toscanini (except 6)
and so many singles that I probably have about 20 or more of each symphony.
Similarly for some Beethoven piano sonatas and string quartets.
Missa solemnis about 10, Fidelio: Walter, Furtwängler, Fricsay, Karajan, Bernstein, Klemperer

But the main bulk does not come from the things I have 10 or 20 recordings of, rather the many more pieces I have ca. 3-7 of.

[kishnevi]

I don't collect, either.  But I do accumulate.
Beethoven symphony cycles, about 35
Mahler symphony cycles, about 15
Mahler 2 and 9...about 30 each, in addition to the ones contained in the cycles
Beethoven piano sonatas, piano concertos, and string quartets, 10-12 each.
Bach solo violin works, at least 10.
If I looked, I might have similar numbers for some Chopin and Shostakovich.

Been a while since I attempted an actual census.

[amw]

I don't like duplicates tbh.* However I have sort of accumulated a few things, mostly by accident—9 Kreislerianas (I thought I had 10, but evidently got rid of one somewhere down the line), 7 Kinderszenen...en, 6 Hammerklaviers, 5 6 Schumann Fantasies, 6 Schumann Fantasiestücke Op. 73, 5 Ravel Piano Trios, 5 Davidsbündlertänze, 4 New World Symphonies, 4 of each Brahms violin sonata, 4 Rosamundes and Death and the Maidens, 4 Brahms Clarinet Quintets, 4 Bruckner Symphony 6s, 4 Shostakovich Quartet 13s. I'm sure there are other things I have 4 or more of and just don't know about.

I acquired something like 40 Schubert String Quintets for the blind comparison, but most weren't purchases exactly, and only six are retained in my library at the moment.

* Well, I say that. But I'm side-eying the Annie Fischer Beethoven cycle (which would be my 3rd integral of piano sonatas!) and the Brentano's late quartets (my 4th recording of those works!). And maybe a third Nielsen symphonic cycle as well! I don't know why, tbh. I have little enough hard disk space as it is.

[Pat B]

Today I realized I have 18 Rites of Spring -- but only 2 standalones. I have the 10-version Sony set (same cost as a single mid-priced CD) and 6 in other sets.

[Todd]

Well, I say that. But I'm side-eying the Annie Fischer Beethoven cycle (which would be my 3rd integral of piano sonatas!)

Stop eyeing, start buying.

[Wanderer]

Well, I say that. But I'm side-eying the Annie Fischer Beethoven cycle (which would be my 3rd integral of piano sonatas!)...

Sample before buying. Over-hyped, imo.

[Green Destiny]

I guess my main sub-collection would be String Quartets. Im not sure of the numbers but I have the String Quartets of most Composers I am interested in.
I also love Russian, French and British Romantic-Contemporary music and have increased my collection in these areas a fair bit over the last few years.

[Jo498]

I have absurd numbers of some Chopin pieces although I consciously bought only a few. I think I only bought one disc with the b flat minor sonata because I wanted that sonata (Sokolov, but even here the Etudes op.25 are maybe the main piece of the disc for me now) but among the big Francois and the big Rubinstein boxes I got already about 7 or so more version. Of course I have listened only to a fraction of them.

Some Schumann piano stuff I probably also have in low double digits without purposeful collecting: Carnaval, Symphonic Etudes, maybe Kinderscenen.

With the Schubert quintet I went from about three recordings to 10 or more even before the comparison and I got another one or two since then (but I also got rid of the rather bland Villa Musica/Naxos):
Alban Berg, Melos/Rostro, Petersen, Hagen, Casals, Weller, Vogler, Heifetz, Archibudelli, Orpheus, Vellinger, Tatrai, Marlboro (Frank, Galimir etc.), Budapest and one in the Heimbach festival box.
(unlike those boxes of Beethoven symphonies or sonatas I have actually listened to all of those quintets at least once, usually more often)

I also have too many trout quintets, Unfinished symphonies and B flat major sonatas.

But since several years ago I tend to avoid boxes and cycles. I only bought a couple or so each of Zinman's and Barenboims Beethoven, completely ignored Thielemann, Chailly and other more recent cycles. Nowadays, I usually do not buy any Beethoven symphonies at all.

I never bought a complete Mahler or Bruckner symphony set. When I started listening to that stuff 25 years ago, complete sets were to expensive for a high school student and this music was also difficult enough that I needed time to get to know it. Later on I bought alternative versions but never a cycle. I probably have about 10 recordings each of Bruckner's 7th and Mahler's 9th but only two of Mahler's 8th because I do not much care for the piece.

[amw]

I didn't actually own a complete Beethoven cycle until this year (?—I wasn't keeping track) when I obtained Gardiner's—I started out by inheriting a collection containing several individual recordings (Szell 3/8, Kleiber 5/7, Abbado 6/8, a couple of others) and a complete cycle of which one disc had gotten lost (Dohnányi). As for Bruckner and Mahler, I currently have 1x Bruckner 3rd, 1x 4th, 2x 5ths, 4x 6ths, 2x 7ths, 3x 8ths and 1x 9th (with original versions of the 3rd and 4th en route); and one of each Mahler symphony except #2.

(Actually I lied because I have the Bernstein symphony box which gives me complete Beethoven and Mahler cycles. I'll admit I never bothered to listen to the former though, and only parts of the latter, and most of it remains undigitised and therefore not "part of the library".)

For a while my approach was actually to choose recordings based on duplicating as few pieces as possible. Usually if the only way to get a piece I wanted was to also buy a duplicate of something I already had a recording of, I just wouldn't bother. With cds acquired from libraries I would often rip only the pieces that I didn't have in my collection. (I would also skip anything that had singing in it.)

[Jo498]

When I started buying CDs in 1988 they were still fairly expensive for someone relying on odd jobs and pocket money. My first complete Beethoven symphony set was Kegel's because even as an Xmas present most other options would have been too expensive. As a teenager Beethoven was my favorite composer by a huge margin and I had had only 3,5,6,9 on LP or MC I really needed a cycle soon. (And I stupidly believed in the superiority of "digital" for a year or so...)

The first I bought myself when I had a little more money was Harnoncourt's in 1991. With Mahler and Bruckner I got single discs, sometimes also as presents (if I wanted the expensive ones), e.g. Giulini's Bruckner 8 which was on two discs and cost about 70 hard Deutschmarks.
And of course for many years I was mainly interested in getting music I did not know, not in alternative recordings. This only started in the mid/late 90s with reading too much stuff on the internet (usenet at that time) and CDs getting comparably cheaper all the time.
When boxes became really cheap in the early/mid 2000s I had already sufficient recordings of e.g. Mahler and Bruckner, so I never felt the need for a complete box (I also had and have very strong favorites and considerably less liked pieces among their symphonies which is another point against boxes).

[aukhawk]

I too have only ever bought one 'complete' box set and that was the Maazel Sibelius Symphonies way back in the days of LP.  I didn't even get the Kertesz Dvorak set from the same label which was an equally good bargain at the time.  Boxes (either LP or CD) don't really sit well on the shelves for me.  I suppose I have much more recently acquired the Cafe Zimmermann Bach set, which is 'complete' for his orchestral music.

However I'm quite ashamed to admit that things have got a bit out of hand lately and, having reported earlier in this thread that I had 5 recordings of Mahler 9, that has now grown to 8 - Elder, Gergiev, Gielen, Haitink/CO, Klemperer, Maderna, Norrington, Sanderling - of these I'd still take Haitink to the desert island with me, which was the first version I bought (again on LP) - er, so I'm unable to explain the rest 
I must also hold my hand up to 21 recordings of Sibelius' 7th ...

[Jo498]

I bought plenty of (complete) sets, just no Mahler or Bruckner.

With today's low box set prices, I think it is usually a good strategy to get one complete set and than singles for different or special interpretations. Especially if one is interested in stuff like Bach cantatas or Haydn symphonies it is usually far more expensive (and also time consuming) to collect everything in single discs (or partial sets).

But for me, I realized that I hardly listen to those big cheap boxes and therefore I stopped buying them, no matter how cheap. (And I will keep to cobble together recordings of Bach cantatas and organ works in a piecemeal fashion )

[kishnevi]

I have absurd numbers of some Chopin pieces although I consciously bought only a few. I think I only bought one disc with the b flat minor sonata because I wanted that sonata (Sokolov, but even here the Etudes op.25 are maybe the main piece of the disc for me now) but among the big Francois and the big Rubinstein boxes I got already about 7 or so more version. Of course I have listened only to a fraction of them.

Some Schumann piano stuff I probably also have in low double digits without purposeful collecting: Carnaval, Symphonic Etudes, maybe Kinderscenen.

With the Schubert quintet I went from about three recordings to 10 or more even before the comparison and I got another one or two since then (but I also got rid of the rather bland Villa Musica/Naxos):
Alban Berg, Melos/Rostro, Petersen, Hagen, Casals, Weller, Vogler, Heifetz, Archibudelli, Orpheus, Vellinger, Tatrai, Marlboro (Frank, Galimir etc.), Budapest and one in the Heimbach festival box.
(unlike those boxes of Beethoven symphonies or sonatas I have actually listened to all of those quintets at least once, usually more often)

I also have too many trout quintets, Unfinished symphonies and B flat major sonatas.

But since several years ago I tend to avoid boxes and cycles. I only bought a couple or so each of Zinman's and Barenboims Beethoven, completely ignored Thielemann, Chailly and other more recent cycles. Nowadays, I usually do not buy any Beethoven symphonies at all.

I never bought a complete Mahler or Bruckner symphony set. When I started listening to that stuff 25 years ago, complete sets were to expensive for a high school student and this music was also difficult enough that I needed time to get to know it. Later on I bought alternative versions but never a cycle. I probably have about 10 recordings each of Bruckner's 7th and Mahler's 9th but only two of Mahler's 8th because I do not much care for the piece.

Do not ignore Chailly's Beethoven.  I think it is the best cycle of any produced by a currently active conductor.  Paavo Jarvi is the runner up on that category.  Theilemann, otoh, deserves to be ignored.  Zinman is also good but given your basic approach, I can understand not having him.

[Pat B]

When I started buying CDs in 1988 they were still fairly expensive for someone relying on odd jobs and pocket money. My first complete Beethoven symphony set was Kegel's because even as an Xmas present most other options would have been too expensive. As a teenager Beethoven was my favorite composer by a huge margin and I had had only 3,5,6,9 on LP or MC I really needed a cycle soon. (And I stupidly believed in the superiority of "digital" for a year or so...)

The first I bought myself when I had a little more money was Harnoncourt's in 1991. With Mahler and Bruckner I got single discs, sometimes also as presents (if I wanted the expensive ones), e.g. Giulini's Bruckner 8 which was on two discs and cost about 70 hard Deutschmarks.

I had a similar timeline and thought process. The first cycle I got was Klemperer's Beethoven in the mid-90s when it came out at mid-price ($40 IIRC). Before that it seemed like cycles cost the same as all the individual discs separately. Now, with bargain pricing for cycles, I have several but still gravitate towards smaller issues.

[Jo498]

For whatever reason, maybe promotion, the Harnoncourt came out at midprice or even lower right away, I don't remember but I think I paid about 80 DM for 5 discs. (It was expensive enough that there was an interview/promotion disc sold before for DM 5!)
I think the Kegel had even been closer to budget price (50-70 DM for 5 discs when a single full price disc was 30-35 Marks) already a few years before that. In any case, a single midprice disc was around DM 20 around 1990 although there were sometimes sales and I tried not to pay more than that. More expensive things I would ask for as presents (from people who didn't really care whether they spend a few Marks more or less...)

[Gurn Blanston]

Actually, I think the OP was interested in things you intentionally collect, something out of the main stream of what you may generally do. It is probably the case with all of us that we have a bunch of duplicates which we have unintentionally amassed over the years. But what have we gone out of our way to collect? For me, it was Classic Era keyboard sonatas, many of mine are the only things I have by those particular composers, and a lot of them brought the thrill of the hunt along with them, being less than commonly available!

[Brian]

Do not ignore Chailly's Beethoven.  I think it is the best cycle of any produced by a currently active conductor.  Paavo Jarvi is the runner up on that category.  Theilemann, otoh, deserves to be ignored.  Zinman is also good but given your basic approach, I can understand not having him.

Try as I might to come up with a Chailly counterexample, the only one I can think of is Barenboim. Abbado and Mackerras are, after all, no longer active.  Dohnanyi is technically active, but when I caught him live in 2011, he seemed to be running on fumes.

Maybe Reference Recordings can convince Pittsburgh/Honeck to record 1-4, 6, and 8-9... *dreams on*

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Try as I might to come up with a Chailly counterexample, the only one I can think of is Barenboim.

For me the nod goes to this one, and not just among live conductors. Flying low low under the radar and of course stubbornly out of print, but "a contenda" nonetheless:



[asin]B0000B1JWK[/asin]

Maybe Reference Recordings can convince Pittsburgh/Honeck to record 1-4, 6, and 8-9... *dreams on*

I'd love to hear a new cycle by the Pittsburg. Crosses fingers...

[amw]

Actually, I think the OP was interested in things you intentionally collect,

Hmm. Apart from Schubert Quintets (just collected another one!), I guess there are a few. I collect a lot of 20th century symphonic cycles, even if I don't necessarily like them much, just for exploration. I collect the works of the "Darmstadt school" (not only major figures like Stockhausen but also lesser-known figures such as Goeyvaerts). I collect a lot of electronic music, including some pieces I've found to be too physically unpleasant for frequent listening (but sufficiently rewarding when I am in the right mood to listen). I collect some artists, not "to completion" but more in a buy-it-if-I-see-it way: the Taneyev Quartet, the Arditti Quartet, musikFabrik, the Leipziger Streichquartett, Steffen Schleiermacher, Accroche Note, Ensemble Recherche, András Schiff, Noriko Ogawa, etc—and some labels in a similar way, with exceptions for pre-existing repertoire: hat[NOW]art, NEOS, Stradivarius, New World, aeon, col legno, Kairos, MDG. Though the label I have the most of in my collection (ahead of any of the majors) is probably CPO, due to all those symphonic cycles.

As for my purpose in doing so, I'm not sure. Something about exploration of overlooked narratives, or something.

[Jo498]

Actually, I think the OP was interested in things you intentionally collect, something out of the main stream of what you may generally do.

That's why the first sentence in my post above was "I don't collect anything in the strict sense", neither main nor sub. And of course the dozen Diabellis or Schubert String quartets did not just happen by accident, so I am kind of collecting those, but not striving to listen to or own every recording and these are of course all mainstream and also from composers my accumulation is focussed on anyway.

10 years ago or so I thought about collecting all the Viennese New Years Day concerts but I gave that up soon because while I like Strauss this was a bit too much. (I ended up with about 10 NYD concerts)