The Complete Symphonies

[Shrunk]

Of whom?  Everyone!  Well not quite.  No Bruckner or Sibelius.  Still, 100 discs for $149.98.  For those who want an instant classical music collection, I guess.

[marvinbrown]

Of whom?  Everyone!  Well not quite.  No Bruckner or Sibelius.  Still, 100 discs for $149.98.  For those who want an instant classical music collection, I guess.

  WOW  I am overwhelmed just reading about it!  I think a massive boxset like that would give me anxiety attacks!!

  marvin

[Harry]

Not a bad set at all, and for a beginner as well as someone beyond that.
Most of it I have allready, and if not I would certainly buy this set.

[MDL]

The Mahler looks like a mixed bag, but Barshai's Shostakovich is good, sometimes great, and very well recorded. Has anyone heard the Nielsen set? It's going for a tenner or less in the UK.

[Harry]

The Mahler looks like a mixed bag, but Barshai's Shostakovich is good, sometimes great, and very well recorded. Has anyone heard the Nielsen set? It's going for a tenner or less in the UK.

The Nielsen set is a no brainer. Its recorded well, and the performance is as good as any in the field.

[dirkronk]

Good lord. I will say that there are some very good things in the box, and obviously at a very good price. Yes, I'm cruising for "understatement award" with that comment.

But there are surprising choices, too, I think. Such as offering only 8 and 9 from Dvorak's symphony cycle--some of the earlier ones have music that shouldn't be missed--while offering all of Nielsen! MDL's right about the mixed-bag aspect of the Mahler (though the Horenstein 3rd is one I do love). And I'm curious about the choice for Brahms, a group and leader I don't recall hearing before. And no Bruckner, no Rachmaninoff, no Prokofiev, no Sibelius, no Tchaikovsky! They managed Clementi, Borodin and Rimsky...but no Elgar, Vaughan Williams or even Franck?

Folks, I see strange marketing forces at work here.

Dirk

[(poco) Sforzando]

Good lord. I will say that there are some very good things in the box, and obviously at a very good price. Yes, I'm cruising for "understatement award" with that comment.

But there are surprising choices, too, I think. Such as offering only 8 and 9 from Dvorak's symphony cycle--some of the earlier ones have music that shouldn't be missed--while offering all of Nielsen! MDL's right about the mixed-bag aspect of the Mahler (though the Horenstein 3rd is one I do love). And I'm curious about the choice for Brahms, a group and leader I don't recall hearing before. And no Bruckner, no Rachmaninoff, no Prokofiev, no Sibelius, no Tchaikovsky! They managed Clementi, Borodin and Rimsky...but no Elgar, Vaughan Williams or even Franck?

And no Pettersson!!

[MDL]

I mean, Clementi? WTF? A complete Bruckner series would have bulked out the set somewhat, but surely they could have found space for Sibelius.

[MDL]

And no Pettersson!!

Post of the day. 

[karlhenning]

But there are surprising choices, too, I think. Such as offering only 8 and 9 from Dvorak's symphony cycle--some of the earlier ones have music that shouldn't be missed--while offering all of Nielsen!

I agree entirely, Dirk, that Dvořák is wofully underrepresented by only two symphonies.

Your indignation about Nielsen puzzles me, though 

[dirkronk]

Or Bizet! Or Boyce! Or...or...

OK, I know we could get silly and go alphabetically...no Alfven, Arne, Arnold, Attenburg, et al...but I don't guess that's any sillier than the Brilliant marketing forces leaving out so many truly major works. Other than simply coming up with enough "symphony" discs to reach the magic number 100, what COULD they have been thinking?


Dirk

[dirkronk]

I agree entirely, Dirk, that Dvořák is wofully underrepresented by only two symphonies.

Your indignation about Nielsen puzzles me, though 

No indignation intended. Just puzzlement over the apparently unweighed choices by people who put this package together. I really do have to think that they were cobbling things together from overrun discs in their inventory and hit on a "magic 100 CDs of symphonies" theme.


Dirk

[Harry]

But apart from all asides, this box represents good value for the money you pay, and lets not forget that.
But I certainly agree, that this box should have least 500 cd's, to store all the major Symphony cycles.

[karlhenning]

No indignation intended. Just puzzlement over the apparently unweighed choices by people who put this package together. I really do have to think that they were cobbling things together from overrun discs in their inventory and hit on a "magic 100 CDs of symphonies" theme.


Dirk

Ah, I follow you now.

[Shrunk]

I am kind of interested in the marketing aspect here.  I was only half-joking when I said it seems geared to people who want an instant collection.  It doesn't sound like anyone here is seriously thinking of plunking down the money, as great a bargain as it is.  (Harry says he would have, but we all know he's a special case  ).  I'm not either.  I already own the Shostakovich set, and complete sets of most of the other composers represented.  $150 is still $150, and CD shelf space is an even scarcer commodity than money.  So I wonder who actually does purchase a set like this?

[dirkronk]

So I wonder who actually does purchase a set like this?

I think that this--and a lot of the Brilliant products, actually--seem geared for the same demographic group today that back in the '60s, '70s and '80s bought the various mail-order "chunks of culture" (complete Beethoven Edition; the various Time-Life and Reader's Digest classical series; the Book-of-the-Month Club sets; the International Preview Society issues; and so on). Those items, too, offered some superb performances mixed in with a few mundane items, but pre-selected for folks who might doubt their own depth of knowledge, served up at low or midprice and packaged in ways that looked good on the bookshelf. If actually played, they would offer good performance and good sonics, but the fact is that most were sold and displayed in the home but never put on the turntable...more's the pity. You can see the proof in used bookstores and thrift shops all around the US (and elsewhere, too, given what online friends have told me).

Back to the present. Here in Texas, a lot of Brilliant products have ended up in Half Price Book stores, sold at pretty much what they sell for anywhere online. Over the Christmas holiday period, one store broke up one of the "complete" Beethoven box sets (my guess is that someone dropped and broke the box) and sold off the individual CD envelopes at a buck or two each. Seeing this, I scarfed up the late quartets by the Yale Quartet and maybe two or three other items that I wanted, without having to duplicate other repertoire that I didn't want. Would I have ever popped for the whole box? No way. And that, of course, is what makes this kind of marketing so odd.

Cheers,

Dirk

[karlhenning]

I think that this--and a lot of the Brilliant products, actually--seem geared for the same demographic group today that back in the '60s, '70s and '80s bought the various mail-order "chunks of culture" (complete Beethoven Edition; the various Time-Life and Reader's Digest classical series; the Book-of-the-Month Club sets; the International Preview Society issues; and so on).

And let us not forget, Dirk: Forty Great Unclaimed Melodies . . . .

[Brian]

Back to the present. Here in Texas, a lot of Brilliant products have ended up in Half Price Book stores, sold at pretty much what they sell for anywhere online. Over the Christmas holiday period, one store broke up one of the "complete" Beethoven box sets (my guess is that someone dropped and broke the box) and sold off the individual CD envelopes at a buck or two each. Seeing this, I scarfed up the late quartets by the Yale Quartet and maybe two or three other items that I wanted, without having to duplicate other repertoire that I didn't want. Would I have ever popped for the whole box? No way. And that, of course, is what makes this kind of marketing so odd.

Cheers,

Dirk

Now I really want to go to Half Price and find some Brilliant. Last time I went they had a box of 10 CDs of Piazzolla playing his tango music live, for $15 (not from Brilliant).

I've noticed that they are breaking up the Decca "Best of [Opera, Piano, etc]" boxes into individual discs. It's mighty odd.

[karlhenning]

Now I really want to go to Half Price and find some Brilliant. Last time I went they had a box of 10 CDs of Piazzolla playing his tango music live, for $15 (not from Brilliant).

Yes, I'm expecting delivery of this this week. (Documents label.)

[dirkronk]

Yes, I'm expecting delivery of this this week. (Documents label.)

Also true. Documents label boxes are currently around at Half Price (the Schnabel LvB sonatas and several more...and lots of jazz items from these and related sources) whereas last fall, you saw lots of the "complete" Mozart boxes and "complete" LvB boxes (red and green, don't recall which is which colorwise), along with smaller Brilliant box items, such as the Oland Mozart sonatas, the Wurtz SACD set, etc. A couple of years back, Half Price got in limited numbers of Music & Arts box sets (wartime Furtwangler LvB, the prewar Arrau "live" set, and so on). You can just never tell what they're going to get in. However, I've noticed that Austin gets things sooner and in greater numbers than the San Antonio stores...no doubt for good marketing reasons. It's been a while since I visited the big "flagship" store up in Dallas, but I'm guessing that market gets massive quantities of everything that the chain buyers negotiate.

FWIW...

Dirk