Building a Collection

[Appy34]

Looking back when you began building a music collection, did you focus primarily on cost or finding the best available recording? Did you purchase single discs or boxed sets?

I have been listening to classical for about six years and I've acquired about 100 titles. At first, I purchased based on recommendations. I then switched to box sets to increase the number of performances I had faster.

I think both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, but I was curious in knowing how others felt about it.

[mn dave]

Looking back when you began building a music collection, did you focus primarily on cost or finding the best available recording? Did you purchase single discs or boxed sets?

When starting out in the Eighties, I concentrated on composer and work (as opposed to performer) and usually purchased single discs unless I was after 32 sonatas or something like that. Price might have been a factor but not much of one.

[Jay F]

It is much cheaper now to buy box sets on CD, so much so that they become the default purchase in the '10s. However, listening to an entire box set in has become an exhausting way for me to take in new music. So, what I'm doing now is to listen gradually and repeatedly to small chunks of box sets. I've got two box sets of Shostakovich's string quartets, and right now I'm on #12. I'm going to listen to it for awhile, then move on to another one. I listen to other, familiar music as well as I learn a new CD.

I like Mahler above all other classical composers. I bought Bernstein's CDs in the '80s individually (some had two symphonies per fatboy box set), and I listened to them individually. And I listened to other conductors' versions. It was a lot easier in the '80s, but it's so much cheaper now to buy box sets. You can get this one for less than I paid for individual 2-CD symphonies back in the '80s.

[asin]B005SJIP1E[/asin]

[Holden]

I also started by looking for the work as opposed to the performer as I was only in my teens and learning to explore new music. I made some very lucky purchases without realising it (LvB PC 4 Gilels/Ludwig for example) but other were just so so with obscure artists like Andre Crust (heard of him?). Most of my early purchases were from World Record Club and they did have some excellent artists as part of their discography.

It was when I started to read magazines such as Gramophone that I became aware of the concept of interpretation. If I hadn't done this would I care today about the level of performance?

[jochanaan]

When I began, my first focus was on building repertoire.  As my "performance standards" grew, I focused more on getting the best recordings I could.

[mn dave]

When I began, my first focus was on building repertoire.  As my "performance standards" grew, I focused more on getting the best recordings I could.

Yep.

I agree with whoever said, the only bad performance is a boring performance. 

[Daverz]

Yep.

I agree with whoever said, the only bad performance is a boring performance. 

Trainwrecks aren't boring, I suppose, at least the first time around, but they aren't generally considered good.

When I first started collecting, I stuck mostly to classic recordings on the major budget and mid-price labels.  i still don't like to pay more than $12 for a CD or download.  Nowadays you have have all the super-budget mega-boxes.  But some of those aren't very well assembled, so I would still go by recommendations.

[Centropolis]

When I began, my first focus was on building repertoire.  As my "performance standards" grew, I focused more on getting the best recordings I could.

I am pretty much the same.  I think I focused a little more on the budget boxsets at first but also considering the reviews of these boxsets from recommendations on the internet.  So it's a bit of combination with a slight lean towards cost in the beginning.  I do want to get some newer recordings based on magazine reviews but a lot of time the cost of one new release is the cost of 3 or 4 discs of an older re-issue set. 

[Mirror Image]

I started off buying single releases or those two-fer sets before eventually expanding to full-on box sets. I think, in the beginning, buying individual releases is the way to go as so many of these recordings have been reissued at budget prices. I tried to focus on certain composers but soon found myself going a bit all over the map, but I became overwhelmed and started to scale back a bit. Each new composer I discovered I would buy several recordings based mainly off of sound samples and reviews. Now, of course, I take reviews with a grain of salt, but when you're first starting out it's hard to know who's right or who's wrong other than to try the recording yourself. Now with websites like Spotify or Naxos Music Library, I can sample a recording I've been looking at before I buy it and can, in turn, save myself some money if I'm not particularly impressed with the performances. There's always going to be some kind of risk involved with making new musical discoveries because you're basically going into the music blind without any prior knowledge of it which is why I like to do a lot of research on the composer and, in particular, the works I'm interested in before clicking that purchase button.

[RebLem]

It is much cheaper now to buy box sets on CD, so much so that they become the default purchase in the '10s. However, listening to an entire box set in has become an exhausting way for me to take in new music. So, what I'm doing now is to listen gradually and repeatedly to small chunks of box sets. I've got two box sets of Shostakovich's string quartets, and right now I'm on #12. I'm going to listen to it for awhile, then move on to another one. I listen to other, familiar music as well as I learn a new CD.

I like Mahler above all other classical composers. I bought Bernstein's CDs in the '80s individually (some had two symphonies per fatboy box set), and I listened to them individually. And I listened to other conductors' versions. It was a lot easier in the '80s, but it's so much cheaper now to buy box sets. You can get this one for less than I paid for individual 2-CD symphonies back in the '80s.
[asin]B005SJIP1E[/asin]

Am I the only one who thinks that particular pic of Bernstein makes him look more like Tony Bennett than himself?

[Chris L.]

I've been seeing so many new/sealed discs for between $5 and $10, even box sets at around $10-$20, that I'm not really focused on one genre or period right now. I'm in experimental mode, just grabbing all I can while trying to keep a decent selection between composers, genres, and all the different periods. It's all been very overwhelming, but fun! On top of the already cheap prices, I'm getting a lot of them from 15% to as much as 50% off on occasion from my local Half Price Books stores (what would I ever do without them?). I've also seen some newer budget titles appearing at Barnes & Noble, of which I have their 20% off member card.

I'm not too concerned about getting the big box sets right now, unless I REALLY like the conductors/performers, or if it contains a lot of recordings from a specific label I like that I can no longer easily get in any other incarnation. Unfortunately, I have limited funds at the moment, but hopefully that will change in the near future and my collecting can become more focused.

[psu]

Consider spotify. You can explore at low cost, then buy the disks you like a lot. Most basic repertoire is well represented.

This is awesome for Wagner.

[amw]

You can also just listen on spotify and not buy any disks. (Or if 320kbps MP3 isn't good enough for you, get Qobuz hi-fi, which is about twice as expensive.) "Having" things is so last century.

[EigenUser]

You can also just listen on spotify and not buy any disks. (Or if 320kbps MP3 isn't good enough for you, get Qobuz hi-fi, which is about twice as expensive.) "Having" things is so last century.

+1

I have no sentimentality towards CDs, unlike many people here (mine lies in scores which is a shame because they are generally much more expensive ). Spotify is perfect for me. It's cheap and I don't have to worry about disk space on my computer since nothing is stored.

If there was an equivalent for viewing scores, though, I wouldn't want it. It's much more fun to collect them!

[amw]

I actually do buy CDs with some frequency, due to some of my interests lying with either highly specific and esoteric recordings not available elsewhere, or with ECM, MDG, Hyperion, Channel Classics etc (all labels that have 'opted out' of streaming) or ridiculously out-of-print Sony/RCA/BMG/Columbia or Naïve/Astrée/Montaigne/Ambroisie issues which can only be acquired secondhand or through illegal downloads. Still, for fun times there's nothing quite like dropping e.g. the entire catalogue of a particular record label or performer into Qobuz Player and putting it on shuffle.

And if I were just starting out with classical music (or any other genre of music), I honestly wouldn't bother buying any CDs for three to five years or so.

Also because they're a fair bit cheaper than scores, which I nowadays don't bother buying unless I plan to actually play the piece. >.> (And no one sells sheet music in new zealand, all has to be bought online, shipping's pretty expensive too)

[Chris L.]

I actually do buy CDs with some frequency, due to some of my interests lying with either highly specific and esoteric recordings not available elsewhere, or with ECM, MDG, Hyperion, Channel Classics etc (all labels that have 'opted out' of streaming) or ridiculously out-of-print Sony/RCA/BMG/Columbia or Naïve/Astrée/Montaigne/Ambroisie issues which can only be acquired secondhand or through illegal downloads. Still, for fun times there's nothing quite like dropping e.g. the entire catalogue of a particular record label or performer into Qobuz Player and putting it on shuffle.

And if I were just starting out with classical music (or any other genre of music), I honestly wouldn't bother buying any CDs for three to five years or so.

Also because they're a fair bit cheaper than scores, which I nowadays don't bother buying unless I plan to actually play the piece. >.> (And no one sells sheet music in new zealand, all has to be bought online, shipping's pretty expensive too)

Classical music is just too complicated for standard downloads. Having gaps in the music is totally unacceptable to me, and most affordable MP3 players still do not support gapless playback. I neither have the desire nor the time to convert or edit the files to play properly as they should, plus I want all the notes, cover art, etc. Many downloadable albums still do not offer these in the way that I want. Then there's the issues of lackluster MP3 sound quality, and not having any tangle physical assets to later trade or sell (not much of a market for "used" downloads).

No thanks. Until it becomes the norm for all downloads to have at least redbook CD quality, with all notes and cover art easily accessible and automatic gapless playback, I'll just stick with the physical formats. Even then, I will still probably choose the later as long as they remain available and space permits.

[bigshot]

When I started out, I targeted specific conductors and bought records one at a time. But if I was starting out today, I would dive into boxes. The stuff I carefully picked and chose is now in mega boxes for pennies.

[Chris L.]

When I started out, I targeted specific conductors and bought records one at a time. But if I was starting out today, I would dive into boxes. The stuff I carefully picked and chose is now in mega boxes for pennies.

I think most people just starting on building a collection now would be overwhelmed by some of these mega boxes, and end up with a lot of stuff they didn't really want. These boxes are more geared to the advanced collector, and knowledgeable music lovers who know what they're doing, and ones with money at that!

[amw]

No thanks. Until it becomes the norm for all downloads to have at least redbook CD quality, with all notes and cover art easily accessible and automatic gapless playback,

- Presto, in many cases
- Hyperion
- eClassical
- The Classical Shop
- Qobuz, in most cases (sometimes they don't have the notes though)
- increasing numbers of other record labels (e.g. ClassicsOnline has started offering 16bit/44.1khz flacs for limited titles, hopefully that'll expand)

24bit/88+khz quality—better than redbook CD—is on offer for selected titles at eClassical, Qobuz, Channel Classics & others. Usually more expensive, and I can't tell the difference myself, but if you're an audiophile it's likely to be preferable.

I agree that it's not really worth downloading MP3s unless the prices are really good (e.g. the Taneyev Quartet's complete Schubert cycle, which shares the spot of second best Schubert cycle with the Auryns in my estimation, and which I got for $5). But proper CD quality downloads are much easier to come by legitimately these days than they were, say, five years ago. No reason to prefer CDs for me when the cost of shipping is usually much higher.

[jochanaan]

Of course, in a few years everything will be online anyway...