Box Blather

[vandermolen]

This is a handsome cover. Very classy.

I have that double LP Janacek set - picked up for 25P when I was at university in the mid 1970s (apparently stock from a bombed-out shop in N. Ireland).

[Leo K.]

Hmmm...I happen to love many of Solti's performances. For example, his Das Lied von der Erde with Kollo and Minton (and the CSO) is one my favorite performances of this work.

A very good performance indeed, one of my first recordings of the work too. I am team Solti.

[ritter]

Every major label back in the day had a "superstar" conductor who was marketed as being the best at just about anything and everything - your one-stop-shop for musical nirvana.  This still happens to this day with labels creating "house conductors" who turn doing any and all repertoire.  And who in their right mind (and any conductor must be an egotist by definition) is going to turn down the chance to do big repertoire with big orchestras.

I don't have a problem with Solti - or Karajan or Rattle - two other condcutors who folk love to damm because I choose the repertoire that I think suits their talents.  And yes there were/are very talented.  A bit like with football managers everyone else is an expert/critic but couldn't do the job themselves.  Specifically with Solti I find it interesting how good he can be in repertoire which the easy/lazy narrative would say he would not be - Mozart operas/Haydn symphonies etc.

Actually my reason for coming on this thread was to talk about this box;



which I managed to recently get for around 50p a disc (22 CD's for under £11.00).  A rhertorical question; is there any "the composer conducts" set that is a better/more comprehensive survey of a major compoer's work?  The easy answer is no - possibly Elgar comes close but compromised by the available technology.  Walton conducts Walton - possibly but not as important.  I suppose Britten conducts Britten on Decca is the only other one......??

Well, there's this as well:



BTW, great purchase, the Stravinsky box! A landmark in the history of the gramophone.

[JBS]

Every major label back in the day had a "superstar" conductor who was marketed as being the best at just about anything and everything - your one-stop-shop for musical nirvana.  This still happens to this day with labels creating "house conductors" who turn doing any and all repertoire.  And who in their right mind (and any conductor must be an egotist by definition) is going to turn down the chance to do big repertoire with big orchestras.

I don't have a problem with Solti - or Karajan or Rattle - two other condcutors who folk love to damm because I choose the repertoire that I think suits their talents.  And yes there were/are very talented.  A bit like with football managers everyone else is an expert/critic but couldn't do the job themselves.  Specifically with Solti I find it interesting how good he can be in repertoire which the easy/lazy narrative would say he would not be - Mozart operas/Haydn symphonies etc.

Actually my reason for coming on this thread was to talk about this box;



which I managed to recently get for around 50p a disc (22 CD's for under £11.00).  A rhertorical question; is there any "the composer conducts" set that is a better/more comprehensive survey of a major compoer's work?  The easy answer is no - possibly Elgar comes close but compromised by the available technology.  Walton conducts Walton - possibly but not as important.  I suppose Britten conducts Britten on Decca is the only other one......??

I'm not sure how much of his work is not in this set, but there's Carlos Chavez

And with Bernstein there were two options (the DG is OOP)

[Karl Henning]

Every major label back in the day had a "superstar" conductor who was marketed as being the best at just about anything and everything - your one-stop-shop for musical nirvana.  This still happens to this day with labels creating "house conductors" who turn doing any and all repertoire.  And who in their right mind (and any conductor must be an egotist by definition) is going to turn down the chance to do big repertoire with big orchestras.

I don't have a problem with Solti - or Karajan or Rattle - two other condcutors who folk love to damm because I choose the repertoire that I think suits their talents.  And yes there were/are very talented.  A bit like with football managers everyone else is an expert/critic but couldn't do the job themselves.  Specifically with Solti I find it interesting how good he can be in repertoire which the easy/lazy narrative would say he would not be - Mozart operas/Haydn symphonies etc.

Actually my reason for coming on this thread was to talk about this box;



which I managed to recently get for around 50p a disc (22 CD's for under £11.00).  A rhertorical question; is there any "the composer conducts" set that is a better/more comprehensive survey of a major compoer's work?  The easy answer is no - possibly Elgar comes close but compromised by the available technology.  Walton conducts Walton - possibly but not as important.  I suppose Britten conducts Britten on Decca is the only other one......??

That box is a treasure!

[San Antone]

Actually my reason for coming on this thread was to talk about this box;



A rhetorical question; is there any "the composer conducts" set that is a better/more comprehensive survey of a major composer's work? 

I can think of three: Boulez Complete Works; Bernstein Conducts Bernstein; and Copland's series of recordings conducting his catalog.

[André]

No need to twist your neck: composers are:

Mel Bonis, Lili and Nadia Boulanger, Marthe Bracquemond, Cécile Chaminade, Hedwige Chrétien, Marie-Foscarine Damaschino, Jeanne Danglas, Louise Farrenc, Clémence de Grandval, Marthe Grumbach, Augusta Holmès, Madeleine Jaeger, Marie Jaëll, Madeleine Lemariey, Hélène de Montgeroult, Virginie Morel, Henriette Renié, Charlotte Sohy, Rita Strohl, Pauline Viardot.

I've had that 8cd set for a while now but haven't gotten to it yet. Any thoughts ?

[Roasted Swan]

I can think of three: Boulez Complete Works; Bernstein Conducts Bernstein; and Copland's series of recordings conducting his catalog.

Good shouts all!

[Brian]

Amazon US is tempting me dropping the Fricsay big box to $163...

[DavidW]

Amazon US is tempting me dropping the Fricsay big box to $163...

I can't wait for you to discover streaming!   Unless you're a doomsday prepper...

[Brian]

I can't wait for you to discover streaming!   Unless you're a doomsday prepper...

Oh I stream all day at work and have since leaving college. But I do dream of some day moving to work-from-home, holing up in an office, and proper "owning" my whole collection, not relying on streamers to stay in business and keep selling a good product!

[Spotted Horses]

Oh I stream all day at work and have since leaving college. But I do dream of some day moving to work-from-home, holing up in an office, and proper "owning" my whole collection, not relying on streamers to stay in business and keep selling a good product!

I dream of working in an office.

Fricsay isn't much of a temptation to me. The complete Kubelik was.

I am a streamer now, but I am still tempted by the boxes which collect a curated pile of music by an artist. Often they are not loaded into streaming services intact, and you have to search for the contents piecemeal.

[Todd]

Unless you're a doomsday prepper...

I've mock-entertained the idea of buying two old military bunkers near the Black Hills.  One could be my living quarters and one could store my physical media collection and food.  The bunkers are not very expensive and they are close to one of the most beautiful places in the world.

[Brian]

That's an even more committed mock-entertainment than my father's retirement plan to buy and drive an Edsel.

[Mookalafalas]

Brian spoke very highly of this box a few years back. I'm just now getting around to it. So far, it's batting .1000 (perfect, for those who don't know baseball).
  The breadth is not completely unequalled in box sets, but the quality across genre's may be. The jazz is really good, as is the semi-popular vocal music and film scores. But so is the standard repertoire, and even chamber stuff. Actually, I'm mixing in some of his Philips and DG stuff, which I've acquired elsewhere, but overall, Previn really seems to have the magic touch.

[Madiel]

So far, it's batting .1000 (perfect, for those who don't know baseball).

I don't know much about baseball, but I know that your decimal point isn't in the right place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batting_average_(baseball)

[Mookalafalas]

Whoops. You are right. Of couse, no one has ever batted a thousand before....

[Maestro267]

Either that or it's dreadful and it's batting well under the Mendoza line.