The Super-Duper Cheap Bargains Thread

[Elgarian Redux]

Just want to make clear that I am not in any way knocking big boxes. I raised the question (a purely personal one) merely of whether I wanted the Menuhin Big Box, and decided against it, in favour of paying more attention to what I already have.

[Brian]

I have the Silvestri Box. I listened to his Rinsky-Korsakov May Night Overture. Astonishing. I listened to his Stravinsky Symphony in 3 Movements, my notes say "truly amazing."

The Silvestri box is astonishing. Just about everything in it is a thrillride and a joy. Not many conductors today have quite so much fun.

I'm sorry you regret the Rubinstein box. The effect for me is similar to what you describe - I enjoy Rubinstein's Liszt, Brahms, and Schumann recitals enough to justify the whole big thing. And I'm glad to have the occasional oddity like his Szymanowski Symphony.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

The Silvestri box is astonishing. Just about everything in it is a thrillride and a joy. Not many conductors today have quite so much fun.

I'm sorry you regret the Rubinstein box. The effect for me is similar to what you describe - I enjoy Rubinstein's Liszt, Brahms, and Schumann recitals enough to justify the whole big thing. And I'm glad to have the occasional oddity like his Szymanowski Symphony.

When I got the Silvestri box I had never heard a single one of his recordings, I had never heard of him at all. I liked the sound of his name. That's my most successful decision method for the big boxes!

The Rubinstein box, I've not listened to a single disc. I don't think I've even opened it up and looked inside. It is so ugly, but it was so cheap! I should crack it open.

Other boxes that have not been listened to at all yet, the Decca Mono Box and the Deutsche Grammophon Mono Box. But they are very pretty and it gives me pleasure to know all of those obscure recordings are there.

[Ken B]

I own a bunch of big boxes. The only one I can think of that I regret is the big pink thing (Rubinstein).

I feel no compulsion to listen to all of the discs in any given box. They are there for me to dip into, and the cost is typically low enough that it is a good value when I consider money paid per disc actually listened to. I have the Ciccolini complete box. I listened to the old mono recordings with French orchestras. It is mind expanding to hear the performance style of that era.

I have the Cluytens complete box. I listened to a Schuman 4 from 1952 (and they say French orchestras did not have high standards for virtuosity, it put that canard to rest). I listened to two different mono recordings of Ravel's Pavane pour un infante defunto. My lord, you'll never hear a French horn play like that again.

I have the Samson Francois Box. I listened to he Debussy Preludes. Wow, a very individual interpretation.

I have the Silvestri Box. I listened to his Rinsky-Korsakov May Night Overture. Astonishing. I listened to his Stravinsky Symphony in 3 Movements, my notes say "truly amazing."

I have the Karajan complete EMI Box. His first recordings of the Pini di Roma and Liszt tone poems are amazing, and his old recording Stravinsky's Game of Cards (I won't butcher the French again).

I have the Pollini complete and Karajan 60, 70, 80 boxes. Those were an indulgence, since I already had most of the recordings in a hodgepodge of editions. It is nice to have the stuff complete and ordered. And I've made a project of listening to Karajan recordings of things he is supposedly bad at and which I would not consider buying. Actually I got a lot of pleasure from that stuff. He even has a unique way of being bad.

Maybe I've only listened to five discs or so from a lot of these boxes, but I find them worth it, and I get a palpable pleasure from knowing that these huge libraries of recordings are on the shelf, waiting to be indulged in. They are like a hardcopy streaming service.

My attitude too. The Silvestri box is a marvel. My favorite scheherazade. Brimming with great recordings.

[Mookalafalas]

The Rubinstein box, I've not listened to a single disc. I don't think I've even opened it up and looked inside. It is so ugly, but it was so cheap! I should crack it open.

Sell it on ebay!! It's worth several hundred dollars now.  I sold the Heiffetz big box for $600. 

[PerfectWagnerite]

Sell it on ebay!! It's worth several hundred dollars now.  I sold the Heiffetz big box for $600.

Nobody really listens to these megaboxes. I think i sold the Gould box three times the past 10 yrs.

[Mookalafalas]

Nobody really listens to these megaboxes. I think i sold the Gould box three times the past 10 yrs.

My interest in classical coincided with the advent of megaboxes.  They comprise 99% of my collection and I literally play them 10 hours a day. Perhaps I'm the only one (although looking above on this page, it sounds like I'm not).

[Martin H]

Reading all the thoughts (and reflecting on Elgarian's further comments), I cancelled my order for the Menuhin.
I'm not in the same league of mega-box collections as many here, but I have enough waiting to entertain me for the foreseeable future.

It was a huge bargain, but another 90-odd discs is an unnecessary indulgence!

[Elgarian Redux]

Reading all the thoughts (and reflecting on Elgarian's further comments), I cancelled my order for the Menuhin.
I'm not in the same league of mega-box collections as many here, but I have enough waiting to entertain me for the foreseeable future.

It was a huge bargain, but another 90-odd discs is an unnecessary indulgence!

My dear fellow, I feel your pain. Very precisely, in fact!!

[André]

Great sale of the Sterling label at JPC. Check the complete Huber symphonies (5cd set) for 7.99€  !


https://www.jpc.de/s/Sterling+jetzt+günstig?searchtype=campaigntext

[Pat B]

When I got the Silvestri box I had never heard a single one of his recordings, I had never heard of him at all. I liked the sound of his name. That's my most successful decision method for the big boxes!

The Rubinstein box, I've not listened to a single disc. I don't think I've even opened it up and looked inside. It is so ugly, but it was so cheap! I should crack it open.

Other boxes that have not been listened to at all yet, the Decca Mono Box and the Deutsche Grammophon Mono Box. But they are very pretty and it gives me pleasure to know all of those obscure recordings are there.

I didn't mean to put you (or anyone) on the defensive. I've just found most of the big boxes to be less of a bargain than their per-disc prices suggest.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I didn't mean to put you (or anyone) on the defensive. I've just found most of the big boxes to be less of a bargain than their per-disc prices suggest.

No worries, I don't feel defensive. We all have our own criteria for judging the value of something.

[PerfectWagnerite]

My interest in classical coincided with the advent of megaboxes.  They comprise 99% of my collection and I literally play them 10 hours a day. Perhaps I'm the only one (although looking above on this page, it sounds like I'm not).

Some megaboxes are even available as downloads. For example I have the big Wagner Bayreuth box and I have Amazon Prime so effectively i never opened the box and just stream it via BT on my android phone to either my car stereo or BT speakers.

[Mookalafalas]

As someone who owns several big boxes, I consider 3 discs that I love and often play more valuable than 300 discs that remain untouched, or that I listened to once because they're there.

   That's very reasonable, and I hope everyone feels that way. But when do you have enough "discs that you love," or stop looking for more? I wonder about that a lot.
I was crazy about music in high school and college, first as a rock fan, and later as a jazz fan. However, it had been over 20 years since I had heard any new music that I got really excited about. I still played a lot of Miles Davis, Bill Evans, and occasionally worked up some enthusiasm for some new alternative rock, mostly British--but my overall feeling was that real musical excitement was sort of an adolescent thing I wouldn't experience again.  However, now I literally find something new that I love every day.  I keep a music journal of sorts, and it's almost useless because its so full of exhortations to "play this a lot!" because its "excellent."
   I never dreamed classical music could be this endless. On this damned site I can literally hear about new "must have" musicians, composers, or conductors every day. It's wonderful, but I wonder when you reach the point where you consider yourself "well read" and feel content to just go back and start re-reading Montaigne, so to speak...

[Ken B]

   That's very reasonable, and I hope everyone feels that way. But when do you have enough "discs that you love," or stop looking for more? I wonder about that a lot.
I was crazy about music in high school and college, first as a rock fan, and later as a jazz fan. However, it had been over 20 years since I had heard any new music that I got really excited about. I still played a lot of Miles Davis, Bill Evans, and occasionally worked up some enthusiasm for some new alternative rock, mostly British--but my overall feeling was that real musical excitement was sort of an adolescent thing I wouldn't experience again.  However, now I literally find something new that I love every day.  I keep a music journal of sorts, and it's almost useless because its so full of exhortations to "play this a lot!" because its "excellent."
   I never dreamed classical music could be this endless. On this damned site I can literally hear about new "must have" musicians, composers, or conductors every day. It's wonderful, but I wonder when you reach the point where you consider yourself "well read" and feel content to just go back and start re-reading Montaigne, so to speak...

I don't think I need to consider every disc in a box a gem either. I have the big Lenny boxes. Mostly music I already had, but I enjoy the fresh perspective. I have the complete Seon box, and enjoy everything I pull out of it. I have about 40 left. I have several hundred DHM discs in boxes, have heard most many times. Big boxes make lots of stuff accessible that I wouldn't have. I still treasure my 1947 mono Four Saints in Three Acts, but I also like having every recording Murray Perahia made over a 40 year span.
Quality vs quantity? These recordings ARE quality. And choice is quality too.

[Mookalafalas]

Quality vs quantity? These recordings ARE quality. And choice is quality too.

   Almost miraculous, isn't it? In the old days i would literally buy an occasional classical disc, but almost completely randomly. Some turned out to be good, others not so much. After a couple in a row that I couldn't get excited about, I'd sort of figure I was "classicalled out" and give up on the whole genre for a few years. I bought the first Decca Sound box on a whim, and every disc was like "WOW, WOW, WOW." Warhorses to everyone else, perhaps, but all brand new to me.  Now I know they are all pretty celebrated performances, but at the time I couldn't believe it. It was like if I came out of some Mennonite enclave and bought a box called "pop/rock" and heard the Beatles and Stones and Who and Simon/Garfunkel and Buddy Holly one after another, all for the first time. And that still happens to me, almost every month.
   One thing that makes these box sets more attractive to me than for most here is that I usually have NONE of the individual discs.  For example, I don't own a single disc by Menuhin or Arrau--although of course I can hear them via the net.
   

[king ubu]

Sheesh, that Rubinstein box is fantastic! Not that I've played all of its contents, but there's so much great music in there, I wouldn't want to be without mine 

[Mookalafalas]

Sheesh, that Rubinstein box is fantastic! Not that I've played all of its contents, but there's so much great music in there, I wouldn't want to be without mine 

Amen! The amazing think about that box is how consistently good it is. The earliest recordings, in just-barely-good-enough sound to the ones when he is like 90 years old are all rewarding.

[king ubu]

My main quibble is that these boxes are coming out too fast ... but then the question is: how many of them are still to be done?

I've started skipping some that I'd likely have bought four or five years ago - partly because I've amassed quite some of their content (i.e. the Szell box), partly because I have core portions of them and no need for further austro-german classical repertoire (i.e. the Alicia de Larrocha) ...

The most recent one I bought is the Lenny Vocal Works (though I've barely dug into the two previous boxes - not planning on getting his DG work in big collections though, I've got a little bit of it here and there or on separate releases).

The next one I'll likely get is going to be the Szeryng box (though I've not played all that much of the "In Concert" box yet - overlap I didn't yet check for). I'm generally a lot into historical violin and piano recordings ...

[king ubu]

Oh, and the upcoming Piatigorsky box ... plenty of overlap with the beloved Rubinstein and Heifetz boxes, but still, a no-brainer!