The Super-Duper Cheap Bargains Thread

[Elgarian]

Never mind - just got the shipment email. Hooray!!!!

Hoorah! So it was neither a day too soon, nor a day too late, but exactly the right day after all!

[Karl Henning]

Just that very day!

[Elgarian]

Just that very day!

Perhaps that very minute!

Truly, the Universe unfolds in mysterious ways.

[Karl Henning]

It's all in the Shed.

[hemmesjo]

Patience is indeed a virtue, apparently. I ordered the Dvorak set on April 21; lo and behold, it is now in transit and will be with me tomorrow.

This is good news.  I got mine a while ago.  But I ordered a set on 24 April and another on 5 May for friends.  They have to be getting close.

Dan

[kishnevi]

While looking up the images for a post in the Purchases Today thread, I noticed that the Neumann Dvorak box has suffered a  huge price increase.  It's now listed for $12.21 US.

[Elgarian]

[asin]B002NZOLFA[/asin]

http://www.amazon.es/Broadway-Musicals-Porter-Berlin-Various/dp/B002NZOLFA/ref=pd_sim_m_52

13 wonderful discs for 22 Euros!

Erato, mine arrived today and I started listening to Showboat, and I couldn't get past track 10 ('Can't help lovin' dat man').  I just put the track on repeat and played it over and over, thrilling to its sheer generosity of musical spirit.  The performance gives, and gives again, and then tops that. Teresa Stratas, Frederica von Stade et al, pouring out this abundance of melody with voices so lovely and expressive as to bring tears: unbelievable. Thank you very much indeed for recommending this box.

[Elgarian]

While looking up the images for a post in the Purchases Today thread, I noticed that the Neumann Dvorak box has suffered a  huge price increase.  It's now listed for $12.21 US.

Looks like blatant opportunism to me, Jeffrey.

[stingo]

I didn't realize how variable prices at amazon were until I found a site that tracks their blu-ray/dvds. I wish something like that was available for CDs too.

[Opus106]

I didn't realize how variable prices at amazon were until I found a site that tracks their blu-ray/dvds. I wish something like that was available for CDs too.

A couple I came across thanks to this forum:

http://camelcamelcamel.com
-- Email and Twitter alerts, based on your price preference
-- Firefox add-on

http://pricenoia.com/
-- A single display of numbers and graphs of prices from all the Amazon stores
-- common currency
-- calculates shipping, but does not deduct for VAT (yet... I've suggested the feature in their feedback form)

[stingo]

Many thanks - I knew about pricenoia but about camelcamelcamel.

[The new erato]

Erato, mine arrived today and I started listening to Showboat, and I couldn't get past track 10 ('Can't help lovin' dat man').  I just put the track on repeat and played it over and over, thrilling to its sheer generosity of musical spirit.  The performance gives, and gives again, and then tops that. Teresa Stratas, Frederica von Stade et al, pouring out this abundance of melody with voices so lovely and expressive as to bring tears: unbelievable. Thank you very much indeed for recommending this box.

I do love a fair amount of US music; Pistons symphonies, Schumans violin concerto, Barbers sonata, Rochberg, Porters string quartets, Bernstein theatre works, Gershwins and Rodgers stuff, Joplin rags etc etc; but I firmly believe that Showboat is the best - and most important - thoroughcomposed music ever written by an American composer, and McGlinns recording is absolutely brilliant (I have it in three different incarnations, including on LP). If there were even one disc in this set I didn't own, I would buy this set and feel I got a good deal. But I own them all since a long time ago.

[Elgarian]

I do love a fair amount of US music; Pistons symphonies, Schumans violin concerto, Barbers sonata, Rochberg, Porters string quartets, Bernstein theatre works, Gershwins and Rodgers stuff, Joplin rags etc etc; but I firmly believe that Showboat is the best - and most important - thoroughcomposed music ever written by an American composer, and McGlinns recording is absolutely brilliant (I have it in three different incarnations, including on LP). If there were even one disc in this set I didn't own, I would buy this set and feel I got a good deal. But I own them all since a long time ago.

The sad thing I have to admit is that I'd always dismissed this kind of stuff as 'boring old musicals' from my parents' generation, and paid no attention to it. You've lifted the lid, here, for me, on something huge! I am still playing 'Can't help lovin' dat man' on repeat!

Does the booklet for the original 3-CD set of Showboat have the full texts, erato? If it does, I'm inclined to get one.

[The new erato]

The current GROC issue doesn't unfortunately. Luckily I have the glorious LP set....:-)

And what a series; Make Believe, Ole Man River + Can't help Lovin that man as track 8, 9 & 10.

You should fastforward to Bill to one of the funniest and most touching lyrics ever (by PG Woodehouse)..., but "fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly; I'm gonna love that man till I die" - Hammerstein could write lyrics too (as he also did gloriously for Rodgers).

Both Kern and Richard Rodgers (both with Hammerstein and Hart) are a treasure trove. Bryn Terfel has a wonderful Rodgers compilation on DG. This stuff isn't staid at all, and at its best just as timeless as Mozarts operas.

[The new erato]

The lyrics to Bill:

I used to dream that I would discover
The perfect lover someday,
I knew I'd recognize him if ever
He came 'round my way.
I always used to fancy then
He'd be one of the God-like kind of men
With a giant brain and a noble head
Like the heroes bold
In the books I've read.

But along came Bill
Who's quite the opposite of all
The men in storybooks
In grace and looks
I know that Apollo
Would beat him
All hollow

And I can't explain,
It's surely not his brain
That makes me thrill --
I love him because he's wonderful,
Because he's just my Bill.

He can't play golf or tennis or polo,
Or sing a solo, or row.
He isn't half as handsome
As dozens of men that I know.
He isn't tall or straight or slim
And he dresses far worse than Ted or Jim.
And I can't explain why he should be
Just the one, one man in the world for me.

He's just my Bill, an ordinary man,
He hasn't got a thing that I can brag about.
And yet to be
Upon his knee
So comfy and roomy
Seems natural to me.
Oh, I can't explain,
It's surely not his brain
That makes me thrill --
I love him because he's -- I don't know...
Because he's just my Bill.

[Opus106]

We need a separate thread for musicals.

[Elgarian]

We need a separate thread for musicals.

You're right; the bargain thread isn't the place for carrying on this interesting discussion. I'll start one.

[stingo]

While looking up the images for a post in the Purchases Today thread, I noticed that the Neumann Dvorak box has suffered a  huge price increase.  It's now listed for $12.21 US.

It's up to $60.62 now...

[asin]B0077DDWEE[/asin]

[flyingdutchman]

Amazon doesn't even have it any more.

[hemmesjo]

Re:Neumann Dvořák Box

The saga continues.  Yesterday it was up to $60.00 and available in 7-12 days.  Today it's gone completely from in house availability.  I still have two orders outstanding and they are still in the 'we will email you' status.  I thought when orders placed the 21 Apr started shipping that I was going to get mine soon.  Any thoughts?