Purchases Today

[Madiel]

For me, the biggest waste come from the historical recordings, which I mostly likely will never listen to, but also the two discs of transcriptions and arrangements isn't of particular high interest.

Exactly. This habit of padding out boxes with "historical recordings" in particular seems to me an utterly cynical exercise in trying to force people to buy more of a company's catalogue without getting a significant benefit from the purchase.

[Mirror Image]

Very nice John - two great discs. I love 'In a Summer Garden'.

I think In a Summer Garden is Delius' orchestral masterpiece. Of the vocal works, I'd say Songs of Sunset is the one that has affected me the most. I can't praise this work highly enough.

[Mirror Image]

Exactly. This habit of padding out boxes with "historical recordings" in particular seems to me an utterly cynical exercise in trying to force people to buy more of a company's catalogue without getting a significant benefit from the purchase.

Indeed. There's nothing worse than being force-fed something that you don't want, but this is what you get with so many box sets nowadays.

[Symphonic Addict]

Just bought:



I was surprised to learn that I didn't already own this --- I definitely had to rectify this immediately. Langgaard + Oramo + Wiener Philharmoniker? Yes!!!

I thought the rendition of the Symphony No. 2 was excellent, but I didn't think the same about the No. 6. It's a valid performance for what it is, but in my own experience, it's not as exciting as, for example, Järvi's account, which I consider the most compelling overall.

Nevertheless, I hope you'll enjoy the entire disc.

[The new erato]

Indeed. There's nothing worse than being force-fed something that you don't want, but this is what you get with so many box sets nowadays.

You are not being forcefed anything. You get an opportunity to buy the discs you are interested in at a cheaper price than individually, with the rest a free bonus. You are free to collect only the things you want, after all that is why it is called collecting. I can hardly see the labels making a number of versions of these boxes for all the various collecting needs out there.

[JBS]

Some of the "historical recordings" in these boxes are more interesting than others. Warner's Stravinsky Edition has four CDs of recordings in almost all of which Stravinsky himself appears as either conductor or pianist, and which date from 1928-1938. Without diving into a discography I would suspect at least some of them were the premiere recordings of the works involved.
True, Warner included a version of Petrushka for two accordions, but that does not balance out the interesting stuff.

[T. D.]

After long wait/search, saw this for reasonable price on Discogs from a European seller and ordered.
Hope the order goes through...

[Madiel]

You are not being forcefed anything. You get an opportunity to buy the discs you are interested in at a cheaper price than individually, with the rest a free bonus. You are free to collect only the things you want, after all that is why it is called collecting. I can hardly see the labels making a number of versions of these boxes for all the various collecting needs out there.

A "free bonus" is not how people think of it. Apple and U2 gave everyone a "free album" some years ago, and people didn't like it, because there's a fundamental psychological difference between being offered something for free or as a bonus, and being told you're having the "free bonus" whether you want it or not. See also how Microsoft 'offered' Windows users a free upgrade to Windows 10... and got increasingly persistent and downright tricky with users who tried to say no.

It's also very different if the "bonus" is something you can't readily dispose of if you don't want it. If you gave me a bunch of separately packaged discs I could give away, okay fine. But it's fanciful to suggest that's the same as saying that if I want a box of 20 discs, the only way I can get it is by buying a box of 30 discs where we all know that 10 of them are a lot less valuable but it's packaged in such a way that all 30 discs have equal status. The surplus discs just sit there. If I do somehow get rid of them, the box forever reminds me that it's a box for 30 discs that has some empty space in it now. It's basically impossible to convert the offer of the 30 disc box into the 20 discs I actually wanted.

I don't know about you, but I don't need to willingly accept additional clutter into my house just because the clutter was described as a "free bonus". Saying that it's called collecting in no way identifies what you're collecting. Maybe you're happy to collect clutter, in the form of compact discs you have no desire to listen to, but I think there are fairly strong grounds for suggesting that it's not normal to collect things you don't actually find desirable.

It should also be fairly obvious that it's NOT a "free bonus" anyway. A box with fewer discs in it would be cheaper. It might well be the case that a box with 30 discs is cheaper than buying 20 individual discs, but a box with 20 discs would be cheaper still. The box with 30 discs does not represent good value for its cost, and you seem to be falling for exactly the psychological trick that companies regularly employ to get people to buy something more expensive than they should, just because it's better than a deliberately overpriced option.

Assessing something simply on price rather than value gets you into a situation brilliantly skewered in a comic strip many years ago, where a television tells a character to "buy and save", and then to "buy more and save more", and he ends up "saving" so much that he's broke.

[Madiel]

Some of the "historical recordings" in these boxes are more interesting than others. Warner's Stravinsky Edition has four CDs of recordings in almost all of which Stravinsky himself appears as either conductor or pianist, and which date from 1928-1938. Without diving into a discography I would suspect at least some of them were the premiere recordings of the works involved.
True, Warner included a version of Petrushka for two accordions, but that does not balance out the interesting stuff.

I would certainly agree that something like Stravinsky conducting is a great deal more interesting in a Stravinsky box than what gets put into many other boxes.

[Brahmsian]

I see both sides of this coin.

For complete composer edition boxes, I would love nothing more than to exclude all of the lieder and vocal works (with a few exceptions), but it's not how it works. 

My collection would be significantly thinner in that case (eg. Brahms complete works of 60 CDs includes about 25 lieder discs.)

[André]

I see both sides of this coin.

For complete composer edition boxes, I would love nothing more than to exclude all of the lieder and vocal works (with a few exceptions), but it's not how it works. 

My collection would be significantly thinner in that case (eg. Brahms complete works of 60 CDs includes about 25 lieder discs.)

I'd never - even under threat - buy a set that forces 25 lieder discs on me. Not only would I not listen to them, I just don't want to have them around collecting dust.

[Madiel]

I see both sides of this coin.

For complete composer edition boxes, I would love nothing more than to exclude all of the lieder and vocal works (with a few exceptions), but it's not how it works. 

My collection would be significantly thinner in that case (eg. Brahms complete works of 60 CDs includes about 25 lieder discs.)

Whereas what I do in equivalent situations is just not buy the complete composer edition box, and buy smaller packages/boxes that better match my interests. Sticking with Brahms as an example, I've got a "complete orchestral music" box (Symphonies, Serenades, Concertos, Overtures), and I'm sure I've seen "chamber works" boxes though what I have is various 1 and 2-CD albums that cover the chamber works.  I don't yet have all the piano works but there are definitely "Brahms' piano works" boxes. etc etc

EDIT: I'm actually considering the Lieder at some point, but that's me...

[André]

Whereas what I do in equivalent situations is just not buy the complete composer edition box, and buy smaller packages/boxes that better match my interests. Sticking with Brahms as an example, I've got a "complete orchestral music" box (Symphonies, Serenades, Concertos, Overtures), and I'm sure I've seen "chamber works" boxes though what I have is various 1 and 2-CD albums that cover the chamber works.  I don't yet have all the piano works but there are definitely "Brahms' piano works" boxes. etc etc

EDIT: I'm actually considering the Lieder at some point, but that's me...

Exactly.

[Florestan]

Such strong aversion towards Lieder and vocal music in general is beyond me --- some of the greatest works ever penned belong to the genre. 

[André]

Such strong aversion towards Lieder and vocal music in general is beyond me --- some of the greatest works ever penned belong to the genre. 

An oversimplification. I like lieder, songs, chansons etc. I prefer to pick and choose as with every other genre. Period.

[Mirror Image]

I thought the rendition of the Symphony No. 2 was excellent, but I didn't think the same about the No. 6. It's a valid performance for what it is, but in my own experience, it's not as exciting as, for example, Järvi's account, which I consider the most compelling overall.

Nevertheless, I hope you'll enjoy the entire disc.

Thanks for the feedback, Cesar. Oramo is usually an excellent, reliable conductor in Nordic music, but like anyone, he has his off days (i. e. I never liked his Sibelius recordings). His outstanding Nielsen cycle on BIS gave me reason to pause, because these performances were just so dynamic and, most of all, exciting.

[Mirror Image]

You are not being forcefed anything. You get an opportunity to buy the discs you are interested in at a cheaper price than individually, with the rest a free bonus. You are free to collect only the things you want, after all that is why it is called collecting. I can hardly see the labels making a number of versions of these boxes for all the various collecting needs out there.

For me, there are two types of people when it comes to music: those actually have a passion for the music and buy recordings with hopes of hearing them and then there are people who collect recordings because they have some kind of monetary value. I'm not a 'collector' by any stretch of the imagination. I am someone, however, that likes to own several performances of the same works, but I never looked at it as a collecting. Yes, we can choose what we want to buy, but do I not have the right to voice an opinion about recordings, box sets, concert performances, etc.? For me, historical recordings, especially ones of the 20s, 30s, 40s vintage are of no importance to me because I cannot enjoy them and will never enjoy them. When a hiss is louder than the music, there's a problem and I know the technology simply wasn't there back in those days, but just because it's 'historical' doesn't mean one will enjoy the listening experience. Anyway, I personally feel that these labels can leave off the historical discs altogether. If this means I only will get 20 CDs of music with a fidelity that is pleasant and a higher price, so be it.

[Brahmsian]

I'd never - even under threat - buy a set that forces 25 lieder discs on me. Not only would I not listen to them, I just don't want to have them around collecting dust.

One of the reasons I got it was that the box was so cheap, like really super cheap (Brahms Brilliant Classics box set, back in 2009).

[Florestan]

[Que]

Definitely like to hear more about that one!