How satisfied are you with those big box purchases?

[bigshot]

I just got the Horowitz box in the mail from Amazon.de. The lid of the box was split at the corner, but I guess I don't really care because the contents seem to be fine. The album covers are MUCH better than the ones in the Heifetz box, further verifying that my Heifetz box may be a Chinese knockoff. I really don't get the book. It pictures each one of the covers full page in B&W. I would have much rather had them devote space to liner notes in a readable font size. Well, I finished ripping Karajan 60s, so I'll start ripping this. My music library on my media server is getting to be enormous!

[Mookalafalas]

I just got the Horowitz box in the mail from Amazon.de. The lid of the box was split at the corner, but I guess I don't really care because the contents seem to be fine. The album covers are MUCH better than the ones in the Heifetz box, further verifying that my Heifetz box may be a Chinese knockoff. I really don't get the book. It pictures each one of the covers full page in B&W. I would have much rather had them devote space to liner notes in a readable font size. Well, I finished ripping Karajan 60s, so I'll start ripping this. My music library on my media server is getting to be enormous!

  I've had several boxes arrive with splits.  I don't mind either, however, as I don't keep them in the boxes.

[Moonfish]

  I've had several boxes arrive with splits.  I don't mind either, however, as I don't keep them in the boxes.

Same here. The Living Stereo boxes as well as the Decca Analogue. The "top hat" style lid easily crack at the vertical edges/corners. Quite annoying! I easily prefer the hinge type lids that DG make as well as the clam box shells.

[king ubu]

As of now ....

Archiv Produktion 1947-2013
Interesting, but not nearly all in there is essential ... however, after comparing with what I have and what is in there, I felt it might be a good addition also in respect of some more recent recordings. Guess it really is, and some of the old stuff is very intriguing, but still I don't think I'll be listening to those parts of the box all that often. (I guess I've not yet played 12-15 of the discs, including the Richter St Matthew)

Vivarte Collection
This one to me is a mixed bag ... if the price hadn't dropped to 40€ once and if I hadn't caught that in time, I might not have gotten it. But then there's plenty of excellent stuff in there (Tafelmusik!), though hardly anything of which I don't already have other mighty fine recordings of. Some of the chamber music is rather plodding to these ears, but other is excellent and of course I made some discoveries thanks to this box, too - like Weiss' lute music. (Prob. around 20 unplayed discs, some of them I've got elsewhere though)

Aldo Ciccolini - Enregistrements EMI 1950-1991
Masterly stuff, all the way through! (Only things I didn't listen to yet are the songs towards the end of the box.)

Arthur Rubinstein - The Complete Album Collection
Huge in every respect ... have played all the solo and chamber recordings but not nearly all concertos yet. Most happy to have this one though, that's for sure. Lots of wonderful Brahms, Chopin, the Mozart quartets (and KV 491 w/Krips!), the trios with Heifetz/Feuermann and Heifetz/Piatigorsky etc. Don't quite get his Beethoven though ... I go elsewhere for that anyway. But then again his D 960 is wonderful, and so is the other Schubert and the Schumann.

Marcelle Meyer - Ses enregistrements 1925-1957
Indispensable! Not all of, mind me, but there's no other way to get this and I badly need her Rameau, Debussy, Ravel, Chabrier ... and enjoy at least the "Inventions and Sinfonias" as far as her Bach goes. And the Scarlatti is quite wonderful, too! And of course the modern stuff of her era (Stravinsky, Milhaud etc.). Less or no use for her Mozart, Schubert, Rossini, though some of it has its charms at least.

The All-Baroque Box
YEAH! This was the first of these "mixed" multi-boxes I got, and it's a real treasure trove! Again I've not made my way through all of it yet (probably 15 discs missing), but I don't think I've heard anything bad from this (and had virtually no duplicates as it came early in my classical days and I was well aware I'd get this). This sent me on quite some trips - like getting the entire Venexiana Monteverdi Madrigals (not listened to in their entirety quite yet), other recordings of "Orfeo" etc.

200 Ans de Musique à Versailles
One of the most recent acquisitions ... around 5 or 6 discs to go (not in order, mostly missing the opera stuff yet), but this for sure was a most worthwhile addition! Plenty of obscure stuff, and again it sent me to look for some other things, too (most recently the Desmarest disc by Christie that just got here on Friday).

Dame Janet Baker - The Great EMI Recordings
Too cheaply made presentation-wise, but after having amassed much of this by way of her "ICON" and some other releases, I had to go for it. No idea how much of it I've not heard yet, but she's one of my very favourites!

Lumières - La musique du XVIIe siècle
This was, I think, my very first monster box, before the "All-Baroque" one landed. Again tons of things to discover in there, some mighty fine, but then some of the more commonly known pieces I prefer in other recordings, of course. Still have to tackle some of the larger oratorios/operas included, but this was dirt-cheap and with the fine booklet it sent me on various further trips (one of the discoveries spurred by this box that comes to mind right away are the wondrous Mondonville sonatas with soprano and violin accompaniment).

Gardiner: Bach Cantatas (The Complete Live Recordings from the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage)
Still making my way through this, but yeah, I love it! Gardiner is very often on top here, can't help it (I know many see or rather hear that differently, but I have my ears, not those of many ).

Arturo Toscanini - The Complete RCA Collection
I feel like I only just scratched the surface of this ... the Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven symphonies, some Verdi operas ... intriguing for sure, and I guess I'll enjoy working my way through the rest of it as the time goes by.

Yehudi Menuhin - Great EMI Recordings
Another treasure trove full of wonderful things ... the early concertos with Enescu, the chamber music with Hephzibah ... not too big a fan of his baroque stuff (but that applies to those baroque violin showpieces in general ... I can listen to plenty of Kreisler and other encores, but Tartini etc. I don't really need all that much), but his Bach concertos from Bath again are wonderful (they're not included in full in the box - at 50 discs it's not even complete!)

Sviatoslav Richter - Solo Recordings
Another recent acquisition ... don't think I'll ever be firmly in the Richter camp and circled around this for months before finally jumping at it (yeah, you guessed it: the price was right and I couldn't resist). Love his Schumann a lot, less sure about his baroque (the new-agey Bach on EMI is horrible, kinda Keith Jarrett-y, forgive me) and classical (though I enjoyed the Haydn and Mozart way more than I'd have expected ... and the "Diabelli Variations" are terrific). Still need to dig into the exclusively Russian discs, the only ones I've never yet played. Anyway, definitely a worthwhile acquisition!

The Teldec Recordings - Thomas Zehetmair
Very good, all the way!

Leon Fleisher - The Complete Album Collection
Not quite played it all (but most), but I guess this goes down as essential, if only due to all the concertos w/Szell (the Schumann)! But there's more great stuff, his D 960 (how can a young man pull that?!?), the Mozart solo disc ... alas, why didn't he tackle KV 491?

Kathleen Ferrier - Centenary Edition: The Complete Decca Recordings
Deep. Another favourite ... not all might be perfect (some surely is far from), but I just love her voice.

Glenn Gould - The Complete Bach Collection
Again I'd say essential. No one ever quite got such a tone ... the clarity, the cantabile ... not made my way through all of it, this needs lots of time to sink in.

Maria Callas - The Complete Studio Recordings 1949-1969
Essential again, I guess ... though I'm pretty slow in absorbing operas, usually want to compare various versions from the beginning. Listened to the studio recitals several times, and of course to some of the operas as well (best "Tosca" ever?), but still plenty to discover here and I'm looking forward very much to that!

David Oistrakh - The Complete EMI Recordings
Not quite sure what it is with Oistrakh ... I got this and all three of his Brilliant boxes and I wouldn't say I really love it more than I do other versions of nearly all music to be found there (though to be honest the Brilliant boxes contain a lot of music I don't have other recordings of). Anyway, I still keep listening to Oistrakh, so something's clearly there, I just can't really pin it down yet.

Clara Haskil Edition
I know, some of the orchestras aren't all that good ... but this is some of the finest Mozart I've ever heard, and I wouldn't want to be without it! And then there's the Mozart and Beethoven sonatas with Arthur Grumiaux ... heaven, I'm in heaven! (Again, I was aware of this at the right time and didn't re-buy anything, luckily.)
(If you want my one-sheet-inlay providing an overview of the music, drop me a line - I hate those messy/incomplete infos Decca/Universal so often provide!)

Samson François - L'Édition Intégrale
Indispensable! This is, I guess, the Chopin I need next to Rubinstein's and Arrau's ... I think I've played all of it at least once by now. One of the bestest of these multi-boxes, I also gifted it to a dear friend who had actually made me aware of François in the first place.

Mozart Operas Gardiner
Haven't heard all of it, but loved very, very much what I did hear so far! "Così fan tutte", "Die Zauberflöte" and "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" are the ones I'm really familiar with from this box, never yet played "Idomeneo" at all (neither here nor in any other recordings).

Schubert Lieder on Record (1898-2012)
I'm really a bit on a loss how to deal with this ... but whenever I pop in a disc, I'm deeply fascinated. Never played the complete cycles as I've got my favourites there (Wunderdlich and Hotter ... and Chrstine Schäfer, too), but I definitely need to listen to Schreier doing the "Müllerin".

Great Operas from La Scala
A rag-bag, I guess, but it was so cheap and there are three or four in there I really wanted. Not played it all, but I quite fell for Stella in "Don Carlo"! The "Traviata" is weirdly weak though (and I'm not sure I ever want to hear DFD in Verdi at all).

Giuseppe Verdi - Great Recordings
Lovely box ... far from played it all, but "La Traviata" (Prêtre, w/Caballe) is pretty good and "Rigoletto" (Solti) is more than that, and so is "Il Trovatore", I guess. Also played most of the aria albums and fell deeply for Scotto one ... and am totally clueless why they didn't included the amazing Steber album of Verdi arias as well). Too bad it only contains an excerpts album of "Don Carlo" and of the fine "Aida" with Milanov/Björling. Gladly Naxos has that one on offer.

Verdi at the Met - Legendary Performances from the Metropolitan Opera
Again - as I'm going opera by opera - much of it unplayed yet, but I fell for Rosa Ponselle, totally! Had to get all her Naxos discs after hearing her doing "La Traviata". The "Aida" is quite wonderful, too. Also heard Sayão for the first time here ...

So this is a summary of the boxes I've at least dug into in some serious way .... I could add the Walter Columbia and the Furtwängler Legacy as well, I've played at least half of the Walter. It's a lovely box presentation-wise and the essay in the large-format booklet was very enlightening. I guess that one goes into the essential or nearly so category, too. The Furtwängler is a mess, with lacking informations and all, but again I had this lined-up for acquisition and hence mostly stood away from buying anything Furtwängler before. Played the Beethoven symphonies, some of the operas (the 1951 "Zaubeflöte" would be the very best, I think, if not for the sound).

[Moonfish]

Thanks for that great overview of your boxes King Ubu! 

It must have taken you a while to write?  It was interesting to read your impressions/perspectives as I more or less agreed with your sentiments. I have most of these as well, but there were a few items I was either not aware of or had neglected over the years.
The Schubert box was not on my radar at all (which surprised me). I quickly purchased the Schubert box as it seems a wonderful way to journey through the songs as it integrates the music and an array of artists through time (I very much enjoy the historical approach).

I also realized that I clearly have neglected my Ciccolini, François, Menuhin and Baker sets which I will make sure to remedy in the near future. Of all the sets you mentioned I think I am most attached to Marcelle Meyer's recordings - in particular her Rameau interpretations which are radiant and poetical in her hands. Again, thanks for posting your thoughts on your boxes as I thoroughly enjoyed reading them.

PS!
Neat that you fell for Ponselle's vocie with the Met Verdi box!   

[king ubu]

Thanks for that great overview of your boxes King Ubu!

It's only part of my boxes

It must have taken you a while to write?  It was interesting to read your impressions/perspectives as I more or less agreed with your sentiments. I have most of these as well, but there were a few items I was either not aware of or had neglected over the years.
The Schubert box was not on my radar at all (which surprised me). I quickly purchased the Schubert box as it seems a wonderful way to journey through the songs as it integrates the music and an array of artists through time (I very much enjoy the historical approach).

There's some wonderful stuff to discover there, including a few Russian versions! Got to dig it up again soon, too!

I also realized that I clearly have neglected my Ciccolini, François, Menuhin and Baker sets which I will make sure to remedy in the near future. Of all the sets you mentioned I think I am most attached to Marcelle Meyer's recordings - in particular her Rameau interpretations which are radiant and poetical in her hands. Again, thanks for posting your thoughts on your boxes as I thoroughly enjoyed reading them.

The Ciccolini was a bit of a sleeper here, at first ... but as I went on listening, I grew really fond of it ... but I still prefer Meyer's bubbly Debussy (and don't quite get Gieseking there - the little of bit of his Mozart and Beethoven I heard, hellyeah!, but the French stuff, not so much ... I only have his ICON and that amazing Music&Arts Beethoven disc with bombs dropping in the background).

PS!
Neat that you fell for Ponselle's vocie with the Met Verdi box!   

Well, it was the first time I heard her ... another singer I totally fell for is Andréa Guiot who sings the Micaëla in the great, mad Callas "Carmen" (I love it as a counterpart to the near-perfect Victoria de los Angeles one, which is kinda "sane" by comparison) ... Guiot is so amayzing in that one lengthy aria, I'd be all over anything that's easy to obtain, but alas, there's not much at all.

I'll gladly do an update/extended post in a year or so

[Moonfish]

It's only part of my boxes

Yeah, I know what you mean!    If you gave us a complete update you would probably be writing a thesis that would take a week to complete! 

[Ken B]

Yeah, I know what you mean!    If you gave us a complete update you would probably be writing a thesis that would take a week to complete! 

A fish's reach should exceed its grasp, else what's a heaven for?

[Moonfish]

A fish's reach should exceed its grasp, else what's a heaven for?

For all the 78s...

[André]

I've had the big, 12x12 Bruno Walter Edition box for some time now, but have only started yesterday to explore its riches. It will probably take me the rest of the year to listen to everything in there.

[Jo498]

I have the nagging feeling that I wrote about this in another more recent thread but I don't even know how to search for this, so here it goes. Because mid-20th century Bach on piano was discussed in another thread, I got the Marcelle Meyer complete EMI box from the shelf and her Bach (and Scarlatti and maybe most of all Rameau) is wonderful although partly in somewhat historic sound (the later recordings from the 50s sound good enough for my ears).

Altogether I have become wary about boxes because I realized that I tend not to listen to them... I include some middle sized as well

Bach 2000 Keyboard I (Vol.9): I got this fairly recently but like it a lot, especially positively surprised by Wilson's WTC.

Bach 2000 Organ works with Koopman: only listened to a couple of discs, too early to comment

Hänssler Bach Organ works: dito... it will simply take me quite a while to absorb this stuff

Beethoven EMI 50 CD: this is probably my second biggest box. I have not listened to everything yet but overall it was certainly worth it, mainly for piano sonatas (Heidsieck) and chamber music (Hungarian quartet, Trio a cordes francais, Tortelier/Heidsieck, Ferras/Barbizet)

Britten the performer (of non-Britten stuff) I got this very cheaply, have not listened to a lot (and I had had some of the most famous ones like cello with Rostropovich, Pears' Winterreise before). Would certainly not have been worth the list price for me.

Busch quartet (and some solo/duo/trio as well as larger ensembles) certainly worth it for the usual Beethoven/Brahms/Schubert suspects, mostly deserving the classical status.

Chopin/DG (from 2010) good bargain to get all the "minor works" less frequently recorded as well as some "classics" (Etudes with Pollini etc.) Otherwise I'd probably go with individual recordings as most Chopin is served very well in a multitude of diverse approaches on separate discs.

Edwin Fischer (EMI Icon) a nuisance because it is not complete, missing some (not only alternative) Beethoven and Schubert recordings. Otherwise obviously essential if interested in the performer and not too big.

Francois complete (EMI): too much for me as I had had his 10-CD-Chopin box before and only listened to a fraction of the other stuff (lots of multiple recordings of e.g. Chopin...)

Skipping a few medium  (10-12 disc) sized ones because they might not qualify as big.

harmonia mundi 25: this was so cheap and contains enough interesting stuff I would have missed otherwise (although I had a handful of the discs already before) Unfortunately almost no documentation which is a downside with to me unfamiliar music like Lassus or Frescobalid

Haydn/Fischer: this was worth it because when I got it in the early 2000s I lacked quite a few of the symphonies. It is a mixed bag although IMO better than its reputation in some symphonies not served too well on disc (50s-70s numbers)

Haydn/Angeles Q. this was also worth it considering the meagre alternatives at the time and I thoroughly enjoyed it but I would give only a qualified recommendation now with more recordings available (although more expensive) because it often tends to favor the 1st violin and a somewhat too "lively and happy" approach.

Legend of Leonhardt (mostly 1990s Philips recordings): have only listened to a fraction, would not have needed it but maybe whe I'll get really into Bach's secular cantatas..

Rubinstein: I am slightly regretting this but it might be worth in the long run. Problem as in some other cases was that I had already the two dozen disc I was mostly interested in and only listened to a fraction of the other stuff so far. In any case this is the biggest one by far of my boxes and made me realize that maybe the huge boxes aren't for me...

Box I missed while waiting for it to become cheaper: Charles Rosen (Sony). Another reason for waiting was that I already owned some of the stuff most important to me (late Beethoven, Goldbergs, Schumann)

[kishnevi]

I try to go through boxes systematically. At the moment, I am going through the Arkiv Analogue box (50 CD), and after that the biggest box still unheard is the Beaux Arts Trio box. Of course I have a number of the performances in the BAT box, including their later Beethoven cycle. There's also the Callas Remastered set.

I have enough boxes that I don't even count anything with less than 30 CDs as big! But lately I have cut down the pace of purchases and try to focus on performer sets or composer sets.  Every set has weaker and stronger performances, but I can't think of any big box I have regretted.

[Herman]

other than the Fischer Haydn box from a long time ago I do not have a single box exceeding ten cds. Oh, yes, the Angeles Haydn string quartets. (You know Haydn just wrote a lot of stuff....)

My experience is (same with books) that the bigger it gets, the less I do with it. So I prefer to buy cds at a single or 2cd rate. I have about threequarters of the Artur Rubinstein collection, but I bought those little booklike cds per single issue. In that case I get to listen to the actual music, rather than just amass stuff "I'll get to hear at some future point"  -  which never happens.

[Autumn Leaves]

I cant think of any box-sets I regretted purchasing? - I like boxes a lot I guess as its an easy and cheap way to get lots of repertoire and they take up less space than a collection of individual Discs.
I can understand why boxes might not be for everyone - I have quite a large musical appetite and can get through them without too much trouble.
I think at this stage I haven't listened much to the 3 big Ansermet boxes I bought a couple of years back but Ill get to them eventually Im sure.

[Jo498]

I think for me around 15-20 discs is the limit for a box I can still handle well. It also depends on whether it is a real body of works, like the Haydn quartets or Bach organ works, or just an anthology focussed on an artist, often in cases like the big Rubinstein box with 3-4 recordings of some pieces I have heard so often (like the Beethoven concertos) that I hardly ever listen to them anymore and certainly not to alternative interpretations by the same artist within a few weeks or so.

[KevinP]

I avoid complete-works-of-composer big boxes because I just can't accept that all the performances are going to be top notch.  (Small boxes/sets are fair game, like Varese.)

Rilling's cantatas--I have it. It's uneven, but I'll admit I bought it just so I could have it all. Previously I had had Richter's 25-disc set (the complete set of what he recorded, but a far cry from all of them) plus a piecemeal collection of other discs. It does not exist in my collection as the only complete cantatas set I'll ever have, though the import tax I'd have to pay on the other sets becomes a deal breaker.

The best bang-for-my-buck on big sets comes from vocal recitals. I have big boxes by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (31 discs), Emma Kirkby (12), Anna Moffo (12), Callas (13, another 10 coming), Marilyn Horne (11), Richard Tucker (two sets at 24 discs), Leontyne Price (two sets at 26 discs), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (23 + two DVDs), Kathleen Ferrier (14) and Montserrat Caballe (15), and maybe more since I'm not at home looking at my collection (used my Amazon order history). Also awaiting delivery of Fritz Wunderlich (32), Federica von Stade (17).

The bonus is that I usually wouldn't buy a single disc of recitals because 70-or-so minutes can only pack so much, and they're often pieces I'm not particularly interested in, not terribly familiar with, etc. I also don't usually look at the singers/soloists section of the music stores. But a bunch of such discs en masse becomes a horse of a different colour; then it's like having a library, and I'll listen to music I wouldn't have bought single disc sets of (like Leontyne Price singing Barber's Hermit Songs).

[Andante]

I avoid complete-works-of-composer big boxes because I just can't accept that all the performances are going to be top notch.

I agree entirely Unless it is a freebie or a couple of dollars, it is best to find the most acclaimed performance of a work and save shelf space.

[Bogey]

I avoid complete-works-of-composer big boxes because I just can't accept that all the performances are going to be top notch.  (Small boxes/sets are fair game, like Varese.)

Rilling's cantatas--I have it. It's uneven, but I'll admit I bought it just so I could have it all. Previously I had had Richter's 25-disc set (the complete set of what he recorded, but a far cry from all of them) plus a piecemeal collection of other discs. It does not exist in my collection as the only complete cantatas set I'll ever have, though the import tax I'd have to pay on the other sets becomes a deal breaker.

The best bang-for-my-buck on big sets comes from vocal recitals. I have big boxes by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (31 discs), Emma Kirkby (12), Anna Moffo (12), Callas (13, another 10 coming), Marilyn Horne (11), Richard Tucker (two sets at 24 discs), Leontyne Price (two sets at 26 discs), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (23 + two DVDs), Kathleen Ferrier (14) and Montserrat Caballe (15), and maybe more since I'm not at home looking at my collection (used my Amazon order history). Also awaiting delivery of Fritz Wunderlich (32), Federica von Stade (17).

The bonus is that I usually wouldn't buy a single disc of recitals because 70-or-so minutes can only pack so much, and they're often pieces I'm not particularly interested in, not terribly familiar with, etc. I also don't usually look at the singers/soloists section of the music stores. But a bunch of such discs en masse becomes a horse of a different colour; then it's like having a library, and I'll listen to music I wouldn't have bought single disc sets of (like Leontyne Price singing Barber's Hermit Songs).

And then there are all those Lady Day boxes that you probably are pleased with, Kevin.

[KevinP]

How very true, Bogey!

[Jo498]

I have a bunch of boxes dedicated to singers but they are of moderate size (around 10 discs or even less) Fi-Di/DG, Fi-Di/EMI, Norman/Universal, Ludwig/EMI. Of course I have not listened to everything that's in there... but I don't see any difference to (mostly) instrumental music.