The Super-Duper Cheap Bargains Thread

[akebergv]

Another opportunity is Amazon.de once again doing their 3-for-2 sale.

[JBS]

Arkivmusic has a whole bunch of stuff from Warner/EMI on sale for bargain basement pricing. A lot of it is 100 Adagios sort of stuff, but there's also Icon boxes, mono opera issues, German Electrola stuff, etc
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/AlbumGroup?album_group=20

[Todd]

Arkivmusic has a whole bunch of stuff from Warner/EMI on sale for bargain basement pricing. A lot of it is 100 Adagios sort of stuff, but there's also Icon boxes, mono opera issues, German Electrola stuff, etc
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/AlbumGroup?album_group=20

That is one of the best sales I've seen.  Almost 2000 titles are discounted, some to crazy prices.

Zacharias' Schubert sonata set is available for $8, for instance. 

[Richard]

Arkivmusic has a whole bunch of stuff from Warner/EMI on sale for bargain basement pricing. A lot of it is 100 Adagios sort of stuff, but there's also Icon boxes, mono opera issues, German Electrola stuff, etc
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/AlbumGroup?album_group=20

Agreed. I am astounded by some of these discounts. Not so much on the singles and especially not on budget labels like Apex, but on hundreds of highly esteemed catalogue titles: Classic EMI (now Warner) operas, Icon Composer and Vocalist box sets, and classics like Scott Ross' Scarlatti Cycle, the Celibidache boxes, Furtwangler's Ring, Harnoncourt's symphony cycles, the big Messaien box from EMI, etc.

I'm heartsick to think how much more I paid for many of these titles.

Several of my colleagues have been tracking the progress of physical media in the marketplace. They are looking more at video sales--DVD & Blu-ray--but they also look in regularly at CD and vinyl figures. Certainly, they have noticed a very sharp decline and are predicting the demise of physical media in the next few years.

I am not quite so pessimistic. Still, given the frequency of sales at large volume outlets like JPC (Europe) and Arkiv (Naxos North America) it does seem like they are trying to divest themselves of inventory, especially anything more than two years old.

There is an embarrassment of riches here. Linger and enjoy   There are many treasures to be excavated

This is a great time to be assembling a music library.

[PerfectWagnerite]

That is one of the best sales I've seen.  Almost 2000 titles are discounted, some to crazy prices.

Zacharias' Schubert sonata set is available for $8, for instance.

If you list them by price and then jump to the last few pages (the list is sorted by ORIGINAL not discounted price) you will see the crazy box set discounts. I think all the big discounted items are free at least if you have Amazon Music(you can imagine other sources might be free also) and hence the steep discount.

I am still good on my goal of no cds for 2019

[Brian]

That is one of the best sales I've seen.  Almost 2000 titles are discounted, some to crazy prices.

Zacharias' Schubert sonata set is available for $8, for instance.

Hinrichs Soler for $4 will almost certainly be coming home with me. They are definitely clearing out a whole lot of stock, but I didn't see a ton of stuff that I "need" on first browse. Also, Warner/Erato has gotten better at box set design since those older sets. The Icons are particularly clunky, with the same art on every sleeve and only a summarized track listing on the backs. (I like to take these Big Box paper sleeves in the car on commutes and road trips. The new Warner line, like Heisser's España and the 70s Savall stuff, is nicely done.)

[Todd]

I think all the big discounted items are free at least if you have Amazon Music(you can imagine other sources might be free also) and hence the steep discount.

I assume most are, but sometimes discs are the way to go.  I've tried streaming operas on Amazon Prime, but I get a pause between movements in some instances.  That will not do.  The other items I opted for are such that I want either full resolution (eg, Inbal's Bruckner) or will keep nice ripped copies that I can move to different devices and for those times that I am not online. 

Amazon Prime has been a boon for breadth of listening.  I've taken to working through entire recorded careers in a work week or two for some artists - eg, the Thibaudet or Grimaud I've not heard, all of Batiashvili's available discs - and plan on devouring more discs that way, picking the best of the best for purchase in physical or full res download form.  Now, if only I could get access to all non-US market items in streaming form.  I guess streaming can free up funds for Asian market items, which are becoming scarcer and spendier as I progress in my collecting.

Hinrichs Soler for $4 will almost certainly be coming home with me.

I saw that.  If I didn't have it, I would have bought it.  There were actually quite a few items like that.

[Brian]

Looking through the full clearance sale, and assuming that all of these discs are being deleted from the catalog, I have to assume that a big box of "Leif Ove Andsnes - Complete Warner Recordings" is on the way soon. He's with Sony now, so they can do it; his chamber partners like the Tetzlaffs are with other labels now too; and there is a ton of Andsnes on clearance there. And also, I now kinda want to wait for the hypothetical box.

[PerfectWagnerite]

I am sure this has been mentioned before but the 45 disc Fricsay set is available for $80.



https://www.grooves-inc.com/ferenc-fricsay-fricsay-saemtl-aufnahmen-vol-ltd-edt-deutsche-grammophon-cd-pZZa1-1899201332.html?language=en&currency=USD&utm_source=froogle_us&utm_campaign=froogle_us&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwZXNwvHV4AIVlIqzCh393g0KEAQYBiABEgKJtvD_BwE

Neither sound nor playing is often the greatest but Fricsay gets to what the music is really about better than most. There was a time when Dvorak's 9th doesn't sound like Massenet. If it isn't free free with Amazon Music I would have pulled the trigger already.

[Pat B]

I am sure this has been mentioned before but the 45 disc Fricsay set is available for $80.

https://www.grooves-inc.com/ferenc-fricsay-fricsay-saemtl-aufnahmen-vol-ltd-edt-deutsche-grammophon-cd-pZZa1-1899201332.html?language=en&currency=USD&utm_source=froogle_us&utm_campaign=froogle_us&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwZXNwvHV4AIVlIqzCh393g0KEAQYBiABEgKJtvD_BwE

Neither sound nor playing is often the greatest but Fricsay gets to what the music is really about better than most. There was a time when Dvorak's 9th doesn't sound like Massenet. If it isn't free free with Amazon Music I would have pulled the trigger already.

My favorite big box, at least among the back-catalog-reissue category.

I haven't seen grooves mentioned very often, but I have bought from them several times with no problems.

[PerfectWagnerite]

My favorite big box, at least among the back-catalog-reissue category.

I haven't seen grooves mentioned very often, but I have bought from them several times with no problems.

I don't believe there is any Mahler, Bruckner, DSCH, or Sibelius in there which is hard to believe.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I don't believe there is any Mahler, Bruckner, DSCH, or Sibelius in there which is hard to believe.

Presumably DG had other conductors that they felt were more marketable in that repertoire. They had Kubelik and Jochum Mahler and Bruckner cycles going and probably they thought the market was not big enough to bear much competition. But Fricsay did do some 20th century stuff, Bartok, Stravinsky, Hindemith, Kodaly, Hartmann, Honegger, Francaix, Henze. Mainly I like Fricsay for his Bartok. 

[JBS]

Fricsay recorded the Ruckert Lieder with Maureen Forrester. It's the companion Opera and Choral Works box.

[André]

Fricsay recorded the Ruckert Lieder with Maureen Forrester. It's the companion Opera and Choral Works box.

For my taste it is THE version of the Rückert Lieder.

[MyronM]

German Amazon has the Complete Sony and RCA Recordings available for about 27 euros.

[asin]B00J1XNMDO[/asin]

https://www.amazon.de/Claudio-Abbado-Complete-Sony-Recordings/dp/B00J1XNMDO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1551153327&sr=1-1&keywords=abbado+box

[Jo498]

I don't believe there is any Mahler, Bruckner, DSCH, or Sibelius in there which is hard to believe.

It is not so hard to believe. None of these composers was such a staple of the repertoire in 1950s Germany. (People usually do not believe me when I say that when I started listening to classical music in the mid/late 1980s as a teenager all of these 4 were slightly exotic or considered advanced or special tastes and not quite core repertoire in the way Tchaikovsky or Brahms were.) DG had a bunch of Bruckner symphonies in the mono era (mostly Jochum) but I am not sure if they had any Mahler symphony in the catalogue before Kubelik started his cycle. Rosbaud had two mono EPs with shorter pieces, incl. Tapiola but the first symphony recordings on DG were probably with Karajan in the late 60s.
Shostakovich even less. (There is a live or radio recording of the 9th on the EMI Great Conductors volume that is however a rather mixed bag and not as easily recommendable as many of his DG recordings. I don't know but I doubt that Fricsay ever conducted a symphony by Sibelius, Mahler or Bruckner as so many of his radio broadcasts have come to light and these seem always more likely to serve alternative interpretations of his staples, like Bartok or core repertoire like Tchaikovsky and Mozart).
And Fricsay was still fairly young when he died so while his recorded repertoire is very broad it is not so surprising that there is quite a bit missing. The next projects on schedule at the time of his untimely death were Brahms' symphonies and a Verdi opera (I think).

[Abuelo Igor]

I don't believe there is any Mahler, Bruckner, DSCH, or Sibelius in there which is hard to believe.

In at least three cases it could be considered an advantage. 

[Pat B]

And Fricsay was still fairly young when he died so while his recorded repertoire is very broad it is not so surprising that there is quite a bit missing. The next projects on schedule at the time of his untimely death were Brahms' symphonies and a Verdi opera (I think).

Right. Fricsay's DG recordings spanned only a dozen years, late 1949 to late 1961. He was remarkably prolific, and his repertoire decently diverse, for such a short duration.

His DG bio states that both Mahler and Bruckner were in the plans, along with Brahms.

[Jo498]

And even in these 12 years one has to be aware that he missed some time because of his illness even before 1961. He must have been a workaholic and very efficient.

Still, I think many of today's listeners are unaware that some works and composers that seem staples today or even since the 1980s were not such standard fare 60 years ago and also regional differences were more pronounced.

[André]

The Fauré set on Erato is on sale at JPC. 12 discs for 24.99€ (21€ Ex-VAT).