The Super-Duper Cheap Bargains Thread

[North Star]

I personally think that they have mis-priced this one, as it should £113.10, or something similar, so it could be a typo or a mis-entry, in which case they cancel it and say sorry.

However my order has been outstanding for a few days without cancellation, so we will have to wait and see...

Note that there are other retailers which take more care and don't make such elementary mistakes 

They had a similar pricing for the Solti Ring and delivered it. I'm quite sure they will honour the pricing now too. The decimal point displacement is indeed rather plausible, as £.31 is just odd.

[Ken B]

I personally think that they have mis-priced this one, as it should £113.10, or something similar, so it could be a typo or a mis-entry, in which case they cancel it and say sorry.

However my order has been outstanding for a few days without cancellation, so we will have to wait and see...

Note that there are other retailers which take more care and don't make such elementary mistakes 

I just noticed, and mentioned on another thread, your outfit has the Haromia Mundi Baroque opera Goliath for $70. That's a SDCB.

And, long live the typo!

[Paul_Thomas]

They had a similar pricing for the Solti Ring and delivered it. I'm quite sure they will honour the pricing now too. The decimal point displacement is indeed rather plausible, as £.31 is just odd.

Time will tell...

It's a no lose situation, so you may as well stick an order in and see what happens...

[Paul_Thomas]

I just noticed, and mentioned on another thread, your outfit has the Haromia Mundi Baroque opera Goliath for $70. That's a SDCB.

And, long live the typo!

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Harmonia%2BMundi/HMX2908658%252F99

is what I assume you mean - this is an absolutely superb set, bought it long before I started at Presto - if anyone doesn't have it already I can heartily recommend it.

and definitely not a typo on our price!

[PerfectWagnerite]

Happy to co-operate in putting Amazon out of business, since I know nothing about Strauss opera...

Boxes like these tend to not have libretti so buyer beware.

[Paul_Thomas]

Boxes like these tend to not have libretti so buyer beware.

Nope not even on a CD-ROM for this set, unlike many others (including the Opera Baroque set above)

[Syek88]

I bought it for the stupid price 3 hours ago and it's now up to 50+ quid. Perhaps it was an algorithm screw-up? Surely Amazon is too big to do all of its discounting manually?

[kishnevi]

I saw the list of the selected recordings, and actually couldn´t identify any criteria, quality- or repertoire-wise. Except maybe it being for those building on a basic collection, with a few added peculiarities, for little cost:
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Naxos/8503293

I have about 5 of the CDs included there, relatively good quality. I should point in particular to the Summerly Oxford Camarata Tallis: my second favorite recording of Spem in alium, with only the Tallis Scholars beating them out.

[Harry]

I think this counts as a super bargain...117 CD's by maestro Karajan for just 60 euro's. I happen to know that they do not have many in stock, so if I were you I would rush this thing a bit, that is, if you want it! From 140 euro's to 59.99.

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Herbert-von-Karajan-1938-1960-Collection/hnum/4916664

[Parsifal]

I think this counts as a super bargain...117 CD's by maestro Karajan for just 60 euro's. I happen to know that they do not have many in stock, so if I were you I would rush this thing a bit, that is, if you want it! From 140 euro's to 59.99.

Is this a collection of live recordings?

[Ken B]

68 bucks from Amazon right now

[asin]B01FENQ1C8[/asin]

I confess I sinned and bought one.

41 discs, 16 works, all but one performance looks top notch.

[Harry]

Is this a collection of live recordings?

I could not say.....

[Jo498]

Is this a collection of live recordings?

It is mostly pirated (as common with "documents") early EMI studio stuff and probably a few live recordings from that time as well.

[Harry]

Another bargain to get from JPC de. This opera box with 40 cd's on the label Nuovoera. From 140 euro's to 30 euros.

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Opera-Italiana-Operngesamtaufnahmen/hnum/8981613

And another good deal...Rachmaninov, quite a lot of his works in pristine recordings.

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/piano-concertos-box-set/hnum/6032999

And for The Rattle fans....

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/simon-rattle-seine-solisten/hnum/2149216

[albanberg]

It is mostly pirated (as common with "documents") early EMI studio stuff and probably a few live recordings from that time as well.

Most if not all of it is EMI material, but it is not just the early stuff. The contents list, for example, Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande, and HvK's only recording of that piece is his EMI recording from 1978. Similarly, the Schubert symphonies are very likely from Karajan's mid-70s EMI cycle with the BPO. Ditto the Fidelio, which was recorded in 1970.

The real question, I suppose, is how these masterings stack up to what's already available from EMI and its successors.

[Parsifal]

Most if not all of it is EMI material, but it is not just the early stuff. The contents list, for example, Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande, and HvK's only recording of that piece is his EMI recording from 1978. Similarly, the Schubert symphonies are very likely from Karajan's mid-70s EMI cycle with the BPO. Ditto the Fidelio, which was recorded in 1970.

The real question, I suppose, is how these masterings stack up to what's already available from EMI and its successors.

It is almost certainly not the 70's EMI Pelleas since the set is titled 1938-1960. Karajan made a live recording of Pelleas in Rome in 1954. This tends to confirm my suspicion that the set is a compilation of old radio broadcast recordings.

[Jo498]

It has to be before early 60s because one cannot just pirate later stuff without getting into trouble. At least not from a big company like EMI/Warner. The earlier stuff could in principle be transferred from old LPs or radio tapes or whatever so it would be legit.

[king ubu]

... pirated (as common with "documents") ...

That was actually my assumption, and I would have bet my grandma's ass on it ... but I heard from a source in the know that they do pay small licensing fees (and do so even when the material is older than 50 years). Not sure if that is *always* the case, but I'd only bet a pint of beer nowadays, I assume.

[kishnevi]

But Membran can also issue some rather deluxe stuff.
[asin]B002AT4668[/asin]
has them as the copyright holders, although the booklet is as much about Gewandhaus history as about anything else...enough to make me suspect Gewandhaus money was behind the project.  But the physical product and sonics are well done.  The only complaint is with the odd dimensions of the packaging: literally a cubit high, it may have to be filed as a book.

[king ubu]

Yes, it seems NCA is yet a different part of the venture ... they have their own recordings but also (licensed, I assume, not old enough for PD!) reissue others. My edition of the Gewandhaus Beethoven bwt is a small capbox that has nothing deluxe about it, but the price was quite right, so I won't complain