GMG Classical Music Forum

Well?  :D

I'm positively sure I didn't.  ;D

No, about 15 - 20 % of my collection are still unlistened to. The explanation is, that I purchase more CDs than I can manage to listen to at the same time. But my slogan has always been: Purchase while you have the money and the CDs are available, and listen when you get the time.

Probably not.  I have some boxes with disks I wanted that also had ones I didn't,  and I probably never got around to those.    :-\

   🤠😎

A new category is needed: Yes, except for new purchases in the to-hear pile/folder/queue.

Absolutely not. I have a backlog a mile long at this juncture I'm sure. But this is okay, I'm in no rush. I have found the more I just take my time with new purchases or music I haven't heard before, the more I get out of the music. It's not a rat race. Music should be a pleasurable experience not something that becomes a chore.

Cds have been going out of print for years now and some only had limited runs.  It behooves anyone interested in cd purchasing to keep buying now even if you have a backlog.

I see backlogs as great and not terrible.  I have them in music, movies, games, books.  It means that I can turn to what I want when I have the time and interest.  And it naturally happens when I buy discounted or I stream.  Having choices is great and we should never feel some kind of burden or guilt over it.

I don't listen to the documentary/rehearsal excerpt type of CDs in some sets, and there are sometimes CDs in a set which I know I'm not interested in (Havanaise transcribed for trombone? I'll pass, thank you.)

There are some opera recordings, mostly Wagner boxes, I have yet to listen to even though I've had them for years. Eventually...

Plus a small pile of new purchases waiting their turn to be heard.

Quote from: JBS on May 14, 2022, 07:32:29 AMThere are some opera recordings, mostly Wagner boxes, I have yet to listen to even though I've had them for years. Eventually...

Which Wagner sets are waiting to be heard? I'd love to go through Karajan's Ring again, but they're just so time consuming. I love the music don't get me wrong, but, man, are these operas long with the exception of Das Rheingold, which is roughly only two hours. :)

Quote from: Mirror Image on May 14, 2022, 07:39:59 AM
Which Wagner sets are waiting to be heard? I'd love to go through Karajan's Ring again, but they're just so time consuming. I love the music don't get me wrong, but, man, are these operas long with the exception of Das Rheingold, which is roughly only two hours. :)

Which is why they remain unheard...
I like to listen to operas all in one session, but usually don't have enough time to set apart a three hour or more block of time to do it.
In my case, I have Barenboim's complete Wagner recordings, the set of Solti's Wagner recordings (some of them I've heard as individual issues), a Sony set of great Wagner recordings, the last 40% or so of the Philips 44 CD set of all of Mozart's operas, and the set of Callas's studio recordings (again, some of which I've heard via individual issue).

There's also a bunch of opera DVDs I've not watched.

Quote from: DavidW on May 14, 2022, 07:00:22 AM
Cds have been going out of print for years now and some only had limited runs.  It behooves anyone interested in cd purchasing to keep buying now even if you have a backlog.

I see backlogs as great and not terrible.  I have them in music, movies, games, books.  It means that I can turn to what I want when I have the time and interest.  And it naturally happens when I buy discounted or I stream.  Having choices is great and we should never feel some kind of burden or guilt over it.

Yes. In reply to the poll: it's a no-stress work-in-progress.

Quote from: JBS on May 14, 2022, 07:53:26 AM
Which is why they remain unheard...
I like to listen to operas all in one session, but usually don't have enough time to set apart a three hour or more block of time to do it.
In my case, I have Barenboim's complete Wagner recordings, the set of Solti's Wagner recordings (some of them I've heard as individual issues), a Sony set of great Wagner recordings, the last 40% or so of the Philips 44 CD set of all of Mozart's operas, and the set of Callas's studio recordings (again, some of which I've heard via individual issue).

There's also a bunch of opera DVDs I've not watched.

8) Maybe next time you take a vacation, you can knock out the Solti set. :)

Quote from: Mirror Image on May 14, 2022, 07:39:59 AM
Which Wagner sets are waiting to be heard? I'd love to go through Karajan's Ring again, but they're just so time consuming. I love the music don't get me wrong, but, man, are these operas long with the exception of Das Rheingold, which is roughly only two hours. :)

Yes, but Rheingold (which is really closer to 2 1/2), is in one act, though at home you can just listen to a couple of scenes at a time. But sitting through it live in the opera house can be a real ordeal. The others can be heard one act at a time, with only Gotterdammerung I lasting about two hours and the shortest acts being Walkure I and Gotterdammerung II.

No. According to iTunes, there are 34,631 tracks I have never listened to (out of 191,980), totalling 807 GB. The actual number is lower than that because there are a number of albums I listened to in full before buying/obtaining, and a much larger number recently added as replacements for old MP3 files, but is still probably in the neighbourhood of 20,000 tracks/600 GB, or about ~2,000 CDs worth, out of ~14,000.

I see my purpose as being building a library that I'll continue to dip into for most of my life, however long that may be. So it doesn't particularly bother me that some of the music I have has yet to be listened to in full; I'll probably get to it eventually.

The only things I have no intention of hearing are discs in Big Box Sets which aren't interesting. For example, I regularly listen to about 30 CDs from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra box, but will never listen to the album where a countertenor sings British and Irish folk songs.

Quote from: Brian on May 14, 2022, 05:46:23 PM
The only things I have no intention of hearing are discs in Big Box Sets which aren't interesting. For example, I regularly listen to about 30 CDs from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra box, but will never listen to the album where a countertenor sings British and Irish folk songs.

You are the second person who has said that to me, and I also have the box. I absolutely must listen to that countertenor.

Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on May 14, 2022, 07:30:21 PM
You are the second person who has said that to me, and I also have the box. I absolutely must listen to that countertenor.

Be prepared. You need high tolerance levels of both countertenors and folk songs. Nor does it help that the singer is not only not British or Irish, but isn't a born Anglophone. (Though he's nowhere near as bad as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's foray into British songs arranged by Haydn and Beethoven.)
I played the first three tracks of that CD, and shut it off.

Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on May 14, 2022, 07:30:21 PM
You are the second person who has said that to me, and I also have the box. I absolutely must listen to that countertenor.

I will listen to it unhesitatingly, if you recommend it!

I'm positively sure I didn't

I bough in France, they had such beautifull covers so a lot is neve rplayed

Quote from: Brian on May 14, 2022, 07:56:31 PM
I will listen to it unhesitatingly, if you recommend it!

He who hesitates is lost.

Quote from: Todd on May 14, 2022, 05:37:09 AM
A new category is needed: Yes, except for new purchases in the to-hear pile/folder/queue.

That's where I'm at but it's not a large queue and will be all played as I cycle through so I voted Yes.

Quote from: steve ridgway on May 14, 2022, 10:21:46 PM
That's where I'm at but it's not a large queue and will be all played as I cycle through so I voted Yes.

Same here. They are separate from the rest and will all be played eventually, so yes.

As regards big boxes (Complete works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, or Schubert+Schumann+Brahms vocal music, Boccherini quintets, CPE Bach piano works etc.), I haven't listened to all of it yet, for example.

And latest purchases too.

Hearing a piece only once doesn't necessarily make me able to 'judge' it, or of course remember it later on. Especially as regards new music. Whereas very conventional or predictable works from earlier times can make me immediately dislike the music, from one hearing.

Single discs; yes. Larger sets are usually bought for convenience and low cost per disc, and I play what I am most interested in. So I am 110% sure I have lots of unplayed discs. Though I recently played disc 12, the final disc, in the Dowland box I bought more than 25 years ago (probably around 1996).

Quote from: The new erato on May 15, 2022, 03:35:23 AM
Single discs; yes. Larger sets are usually bought for convenience and low cost per disc, and I play what I am most interested in. So I am 110% sure I have lots of unplayed discs. Though I recently played disc 12, the final disc, in the Dowland box I bought more than 25 years ago (probably around 1996).

This might be the next poll question: What is your oldest purchased recording you have yet to listen to? You are the early leader here! 🙂

For me, that would be 6 years (Varèse complete set and Gorecki box set) though I've listened to one track of one disc of Varèse and one disc of Gorecki.

I had to vote for the last option. BUT: With very few exceptions this only concerns boxes of which I have heard some discs but not all. This even includes cases where I had some of the boxed recordings before and had listened to them often (e.g. in case of the big Rubinstein box) so I didn't bother when I got the box.
There are also boxes/sets I bought when I knew before I was only interested in a subset of the content and might never listen to all of them.

I have one still wrapped disc with some baroque music I got in a a sale but separately purchased single discs are almost always listened to (at least partly) fairly quickly. In former times I sometimes bought too much too quickly but nowadays rarely.

Quote from: OrchestralNut on May 15, 2022, 05:25:20 AM
For me, that would be 6 years (Varèse complete set and Gorecki box set) though I've listened to one track of one disc of Varèse and one disc of Gorecki.

I enjoyed the first track on my first Varèse complete set - Ameriques - the least. Probably due to it being the earliest of his modernist pieces.

I'm trying my best to.

Quote from: Brian on May 14, 2022, 05:46:23 PM
The only things I have no intention of hearing are discs in Big Box Sets which aren't interesting. For example, I regularly listen to about 30 CDs from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra box, but will never listen to the album where a countertenor sings British and Irish folk songs.

I seem to remember finding it all right.

I tend to find some still in their cellophane wrappers  ::)

I nearly gave this item (https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,29166.msg1446023.html#msg1446023) in the Barbirolli box a miss ... but I was glad to hear both the Hob VIIg: C1 and the RVW

Absolutely not

Quote from: vandermolen on May 16, 2022, 03:28:40 AM
I tend to find some still in their cellophane wrappers  ::)

Just watch out your wife doesn't find some still in their cellophane wrappers! >:(

Quote from: vandermolen on May 16, 2022, 03:28:40 AM
I tend to find some still in their cellophane wrappers  ::)

Same here, Jeffrey. I still run into many that are still sealed. :-[

Yes. Much like books, they only enter my library if they are listened to, or read. If not, I don't keep them.

I chose the last option. For example, I bought the 100 CD Russian Legends box and while I wanted to hear Richter, Gilels, Kissin, Oistrakh, Berman, I have no interest in the two cellists Rostropovich and Shafran so they haven't been played and probably won't be.

Another box set that I must complete is the 142CD Rubinstein set. I've listened to over half of it so maybe this holidays I start with CD 1 (which I have heard) and work my way through. Now thats over 142 hours of music so it will a bit of slog.

Many of the Rubinstein discs have LP length, arond 40 min or less, so it is less than 142 hours. But it's a lot and there is so much doubling or even quadrupling of repertoire. A few years ago I made the conscious effort to got through the whole box during summer but I think there are still a few of them left (I put little sticking dots on the ones I had listened to).

Quote from: Jo498 on June 02, 2022, 10:56:58 PM
Many of the Rubinstein discs have LP length, arond 40 min or less, so it is less than 142 hours. But it's a lot and there is so much doubling or even quadrupling of repertoire. A few years ago I made the conscious effort to got through the whole box during summer but I think there are still a few of them left (I put little sticking dots on the ones I had listened to).

I've ripped these in FLAC level 5 onto an external SSD drive so I can listen to them on my PC in order via disc number (though the metatagging threw up some anomalies here). I've already started and will play a couple of disc a night. I have a Schiit Asgard 3/Modi 3 combo attached so the sound quality is as good as it gets.