Thanks for the advice again George, I just happened to check the website of a Melbourne store and they were selling a new copy of the Decca Piano Masterworks box reduced from AUD $155.00 down to $50.00 ! Sometimes things just work out ...... I'm a happy camper !
I have the Original Jacket box too, but the descriptions on amazon by customers of the new remastering made me go for this at this price. I can always find a home for the earlier box! Love this music.
The New Glenn Gould Box Book: Hardcover; 10 inches x 10 inches; 416 pp. glossy paper Table of Contents is 5 pp., with 3/4 inch thumbnail images of all 81 albums making easy quick referencing. 8 pp. of introductory essay in English, German and French (2 pp. in English original) 370 pp. of complete documentation for all 81 albums. Each album has a full page image (8x8 plus white margins) of the original LP cover, full page images of the historic "label copy sheet", well presented setlist and recording dates, and well presented original liner notes in new typeface. In each album section there are typically two full page (8x8 plus white margins) photos of Gould from that time; all superb photos. (Thus 4-5 pp. for most albums, some less) 15 pp. of a composer-indexed discography, listing compositions, recording dates, CD tracks, original LPs and release dates - very well presented. 7 pp. of an essay by the remaster producer Andreas Meyer (in 3 languages; English is 2 pp.) So, it is NOT a biography or critical assessment of Gould. It is essentially a superb discographical companion to the 81 CDs in a very easy to read format PLUS a whole pile of excellent photographs, all very well presented. You will want another book or two if you wish to have a biography or critical assessment.
I purchased the hi-rez USB box set via AmazonUK, was supposed to be released 10/30 but was notified by AmazonUK that the release date is now in December. Looking forward to the overall sound quality as well as getting into Gould himself, for I never gave his stuff a listen to at any time before this set was released...
I think it is helpful to see Gould in video performance and conversation to better appreciate him. Check that stuff out too!
Re: New Glenn Gould Box I just realized that there are some other things in the older (still available) Glenn Gould Bach Box that are NOT in the new Mega-box. In addition to the six DVDs in the Bach Box that are not in the new mega-box, there are 5CDs of radio, live and outtakes NOT in the new mega-box. These are Bach-CD31: 1954 CBC Radio of Goldberg plus some WTC Bach-CD32: 1957 & 1959 Live in Salzburg & Moscow Bach-CD33: 1979-1981 Previously unissued recordings of Italian Concerto, etc. Bach-CD34: 1965-1980 Previously unissued Art of Fugue andSonata (w. Menuhin) Bach-CD38: 1955 Goldberg Variation studio outtakes The three interview CDs (Bach-CDs 35-37) are in the new mega-box There is also one "Compilation CD" in the Bach Box that is not in the mega-box, but all of its tracks are on other CDs in the mega-box (and also on other CDs in the Bach Box). This is Bach-CD29: Titled "The Little Bach Book" which consists of Glenn Gould's personal favorites that he selected from his issued Bach recordings. All of this doesn't make me fret too much, though I can understand some collectors being frustrated, or maybe pleased that the money spent on the Bach Box was not wasted. Don't sell it or give it away (as I was about to do). But it raises another important question. Outside of the NON-Columbia/SONY discs that exist (CBC etc), what Non-Bach material has SONY issued that is NOT in the new Mega-box? I had never purchased some of the earlier Glenn Gould editions (series of individual CDs and small boxes). The new BOX is essentially a remaster of the "Original Jacket Collection", so if something was later issued that was not part of an LP issued during Gould's lifetime, it is very unlikely to be on the new mega-box. Do we have any Glenn Gould discography experts, or someone with some time to research this?
For those of you in Europe just posted these two deals in the coupons thread from amazon.it Glenn Gould Complete Album Collection (81 CD 2015 Remaster) 133.90 euros (c.£98) http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00UOFCNOC Martha Argerich Complete Recordings on DG (48 CDs 2015) 77.90 euros (c. £56) http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B011WEVWYA
Three more from amazon.it Ferenc Fricsay - Complete Recordings On Deutsche Grammophon - Vol.1 - Orchestral Works 66.90 euros (c. £48) http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00K12RE92 Ferenc Fricsay: Complete Recordings on Deutsche Gramaphon - Operas & Choral Works 68.90 euros (c. £50) http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00W6ET93W Sviatoslav Richter: Complete Decca, Philips & DG Recordings 62.90 euros (c. £45) http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00N9MWVVW
For those of you who might otherwise miss it best ever price (?) on this Mercury Living Presence Vol.3 - 66.90 euros (c.£48) http://www.amazon.it/dp/B00RUKV7OG
As I suspected amazon.it is having a classical music promotion. There looks to be some excellent pricing in there but best check with the camel and halfsize me to check whether the bargains are really as good as they seem. https://www.amazon.it/musica/b/ref=...m=A11IL2PNWYJU7H&pf_rd_r=96JE7GGCZ5VDCN0RW1SQ
As far as I can tell these four are not in the amazon.it sale promotion but three are best ever prices for amazon.it and one is a whisker off being a best ever price. Karajan 60s 131.90 euros (c. £95) http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B007IQWQ88 Karajan - 70s 131.90 euros (c.£95) http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00CI49ANE Karajan 1980s 121.90 euros (c. £88) http://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B00M7IR5Q0 Complete Opera Recordings - 121.90 euros (c.£88) http://www.amazon.it/Complete-Opera-Recordings-Herbert-Karajan/dp/B00ULE2W42
Does anyone have news about whether the 49CD George Szell Edition box set, released only in South Korea, will get a broader release? I think some of the past Karajan mega-box sets were originally released only in South Korea, but eventually got a broader release. That box set was discussed here: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/george-szell-edition.338795/
Here's an absolute bargain for any Australian based forum members or really for anyone, as the added postage costs overseas from Australia would still make this a bargain. Mine arrived yesterday, 50 CDs, box comes sealed, manufactured in the EU, discs made in Germany. At the current exchange rate, that's USD $35 !!!! This is a local independent music store, based in Melbourne, so you could only ask about overseas postage, if there's no option at the checkout. http://www.thomasmusic.net.au/music/classical/various/piano-masterworks-50-cd-4780474
The Richter Melodiya box has shown up on jpc.de for a more reasonable 299.99 EUR. Release date of 11/17/15. https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/de...er-the-100th-anniversary-edition/hnum/8424193
From http://melody.su/en/catalog/classic/33445/ RICHTER. The 100-th Anniversary Edition. 50 CD BOX-SET Disc number in the directory: MEL CD 1002270 Release: 2015 Sviatoslav Richter was not “one of” but the most prominent musician of the 20th century. His life was a charter of immunity for the divine criteria in art. Yuri Bashmet For the 100th anniversary of Sviatoslav Richter, Firma Melodiya presents its arguably biggest project in its semicentennial history. The name of Sviatoslav Richter is inscribed in gold in the history of music. He was not just “more than a pianist,” he was even more than a musician. An owner of composing, conducting, artistic, directing and acting gifts, a connoisseur of literature, arts and philosophy, with a will of iron he made all his gifts serve the art of pianism. An “artist of planetary scale,” as of the critics put it, Richter was like that in everything – in his unbounded repertoire that he never stopped replenishing until his last years, in his priestly frenzy of hours-long rehearsals, in the geography and number of performances, – over 3 500 concerts in 770 places of the world for 55 years of his musical career! (“He was somewhat fathomless, Richter,” said one of his famous colleagues). However, after he conquered the world (almost literally), he remained indifferent to ovation and eulogies of the press, painfully experienced each of the “defects” he noticed in his performance, and at the end of his way confessed before the journalist Bruno Monsaingeon: “I don’t like myself.” Of course we inherited numerous recordings from Sviatoslav Richter, live and studio ones (although he preferred the former to the latter). Hundreds of records and CDs have been released on domestic and foreign labels (the first of them, gramophone ones, appeared in the 1940’s while some others became available as late as in this century). However, even the existing body of recordings captures neither his complete repertoire nor the entire essence of Richter’s art – the same pieces could sound differently over the years, or even over a day! And now, Firma Melodiya that recently marked its 50th birthday makes a unique present for both sophisticated experts and a broad circle of music lovers – a 50-CD set of Sviatoslav Richter’s concert recordings! It has to be understood that this collection is far from the complete phonographic legacy of the great musician. Nevertheless, the set includes plenty of exclusive, previously unreleased recordings that will make the hearts of even most erudite connoisseurs and collectors rejoice. Most of the featured recordings are broadcasts from the concerts played in Moscow in 1962 to 1983. However, the exceptions are of special interest. These are: – one of the first of his extant concert programmes – Schubert’s last sonata and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (1949); – recording of the concert with Nina Dorliak in Bucharest, in 1958; and – recordings of “home” rehearsals with Nina Dorliak. Alexander Scriabin’s Prometheus, on which he plays a “modest” piano part in an orchestra, is evidence of Richter’s extremely broad musical interests, or the recordings of J.S. Bach’s ensemble concertos together with students of the Moscow Conservatory. Perhaps the listeners will find a number of “repetitive” tracks surprising. Richter played (and recorded) many works time and again. Some of them allow us to track the evolution of the pianist’s art, testify to his constant creative search and dissatisfaction with himself (the interpretations of Berg’s concertos with different performers, different versions of Schubert’s Sonata No. 6, Beethoven’s Third Concerto and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition at an interval of ten and twenty years, respectively). Some other recordings were played in a shorter stretch of time (Beethoven’s Sonata No. 1, Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 2), or in succession – from the mid 1970’s. Considering the growing interest of the public, Richter frequently, fully or partly, repeated his programmes. So, at an interval of one day he played Mozart’s Concerto No. 18 and Rachmaninoff’s Etudes-tableaux. In those unique phonographic documents, a keen ear will detect barely perceptible “atmospheric” changes that captured an inner aura of a certain concert as each of them was a new test for the pianist in terms uncompromising strictness to himself, a new step on the way to Absolute Music. It would be difficult to name all the names of the composers featured in this set. A great amount of 20th century music, both domestic and foreign, perhaps deserves special attention: Richter performs Myaskovsky’s piano sonata, Shostakovich’s violin sonata and selected preludes and fugues, as well as works by Hindemith, Bartók, Britten, Berg, Szymanowski, Ravel and Debussy. There are numerous piano pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin and Prokofiev, a few works by Haydn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, the first volume of Bach’s Well-Tempetered Clavier. Among the rarely performed ones, we should note Dvořák’s piano concerto and Franck’s chamber ensembles. The set includes recordings of many of Richter’s ensemble performances with the likes of David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Bashmet, Oleg Kagan, Natalia Gutman, the Borodin Quartet, the USSR Bolshoi Theatre String Quartet, the singer Nina Dorliak and others. The piano concertos played by Richter are conducted by some of the best Soviet conductors such as Kirill Kondrashin, Evgeny Svetlanov and Rudolf Barshai. The set looks like a black box in the form of a piano with a reading stand made from lined cardboard, containing, apart from 50 CDs, a set of 5 exclusive postcards. The set comes with a hardback booklet in four languages (Russian, English, French, and German), each set is placed in an exclusive bag. The set is released in a limited run of one thousand copies and each box has an individual collection number acknowledged with a Certificate of Authenticity.
The best information I've found on the new Richter box is from MDT in the UK, who are selling it for £285. The PDF contains details of the contents of each CD: http://www.mdt.co.uk/mdtnewsletter/content/RichterBox.pdf
And the boxes just keep on coming ! Due early next year ..... PHILIPS CLASSICS - The Stereo Years http://umusicdirect.com/classics/*/Box-Sets/The-Stereo-Years/4ZMF05VT000 Artists, repertoire, recording locations…These were the key factors that made Philips one of the most firmly established classical labels in the 20th century. What ensured the label’s long-lasting fame was its constant search for sound perfection through the development of its own sound equipment. This 50-CD collection of analogue albums aims to represent the heyday of Philips’ passion for great natural sound – the Stereo Years. There was a firm belief within the label’s team that recording technique was there to serve the music - the Musicians had their own views about how any given piece should be interpreted and how it should sound; the recording team’s job was to grasp that vision and make it a reality. This recording philosophy, combined with great artistry and visionary repertoire policy, created a special chapter in the history of classical music recordings that still inspires artists, sound engineers and collectors alike. Included are some of Philips’ greatest analogue albums, presented with original artwork, plus a 200-page booklet documenting the history of the label. With personal reminiscences by key members of staff, plus a note by former Philips producer David Cairns. Artists featured include icons such as Salvatore Accardo, Eduard van Beinum, Claudio Arrau, Dame Janet Baker, Alfred Brendel, José Carreras, Sir Colin Davis, Antal Doráti, Clara Haskil & Arthur Grumiaux, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink, Orchestre de Paris, Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart and many more.
