As someone who got into buying classical music when CD was introduced, I followed the digital cf analog debates carefully. The conclusion I came to is that the listening difference was more about how things were recorded than the technology used. With analog the usual was to try to capture the experience of sitting centre about row 20 - a huge warm sound. With digital the technology change inspired a new sound - and this was as the conductor hears - much closer, and thus crisper and brighter. The conductor hears the bite of the cellos and the attack of the violins. This is 'smoothed out' as you move back. Attending orchestral concerts in the 1980's confirmed this sound difference. Front row centre sounds digital, move back into the hall and it sounds analog. Of course the new technology was perfect on day one - and there is sometimes a bit too much shrillness in some early digital recordings.
Volume one includes bonus tracks on most all the discs. They blend in well with the original release. Volume two presents the albums as originally released. Both set are great, I thought I'd like the orginal release format better, but volume 2 has a lot of 35 minute discs, which seem skimpy to me.
Sorry. Answered my own question. The old Menuhin EMI box was 50 CDs and no DVDs. Oh and that Carnegie box looks really interesting.
The Carnegie box will offer a still unissued Richter recital just discovered and not included in the recent Richter box! Otherwise mostly previously issued things.
Not strictly, though. They split the "Barber of Seville" to 3 disks (as originally on LP), but failed to remedy the shortenings that had to be made when the recording was originally released on 2 CDs Also, "The Vagabond King" in the first set is still missing the overture - then again the first set never meant to replicate the original LPs (and included bonus content - as mentioned above)...
This Box set out of China looks interesting: http://www.amazon.cn/RCA-BEST100大全集..._UL160_SR160,160_&refRID=0GKY2706N5CFTWCQSM5H
Looks almost as good as the Google translation ""RCA BEST100 Roms package" four hundred years, from here to listen; four hundred years, began with the Renaissance after the baroque era, all the way through the classical, romantic, modern nation until, during which the genius men, each other, it is amazing. There are Bach and Handel Baroque era Brilliant Stars; talented Mozart intertwined love to the suffering on earth; there are heroes Beethoven wrote "Tony Nine" in the struggle with the fate of; there is every opponent piano Chopin piano poet and the king of the piano Liszt. No piece of paper can all record their name and glory, four hundred years time, they use music as a weapon to rule the world, they revel in our ear, they occupy our minds today, we bring BEST100 home, start listening here! BEST 100 brings together the beautiful sounds of world music, the music is accompanied by a lifetime treasure!" Maybe a reissue of this?: http://www.*******.eu/3136488119-va-rca-red-seal-best-100-100cd-box-set-2008-lossless.html
I suspect it is counterfeit, based on many hi res downloads of it around the net; but if it is fake then it looks very well made. If it's not counterfeit, I can't find it anywhere else. Anyone have any more info on it?
Well, I finally got all 53 Decca Mono discs ripped and organized into iTunes. I've listened to about 1/3 of them so far and I am enjoying quite a bit. I play classical music when I edit photos (I'm pro photographer) and when I drive.
Two that stick out so far (I'm not listening in any particular order) Mozart Piano quartets -Amadeus Quartet With Clifford Curzon, Piano disc 16 and Shostakovich disc 43 by Quintetto Chigiano
A quick interrupt. The last three boxed sets at approximately 50 Euro each ("Das Alte Werk" + Erato + Teldec) pushed me over the 2000 CD mark ... just via heavily reduced classical boxed sets that were added to the tail end of my collection these past few years ("all things come to those who wait" ... I bought all of them comparatively [dirt] cheap). * foto upload * Now I need two pairs of extra ears to listen to all that music. Anyone got any spares?
Very nice set of shelves. I wish I had more room, but I have three main record/CD libraries (complete rooms for music) in my house already, and more in every other room. If my wife didn't complain, I could turn the bedroom into another library and sleep in the car.
I'm considering getting the Radu Lupu Decca box Complete Recordings, but one of the problems is that I already have his Complete Decca Solo Recordings box that came out in 2010 (I thought it was more recent) and that one is completely duplicated in the newer box. I hate it when record companies do things like that; Decca pulled the same trick with Sviatoslav Richter's solo and complete boxes some time ago, although the Richter solo box turned out to be not complete, which was corrected in the newer box.
When I was a kid (so long ago), I sometimes would fall asleep holding my latest 45. I was the first boy in class to buy records. Never stopped (but really must!)
Agree! It was also frustrating in the 1970's when they started reissuing LPs as "two-fers" and you already had one of the LPs. Not to say that I do not have MANY "back-up" copies
I have lots of shelves in my living room (for a couple of thousand CDs) and 4 shelves in a darker corner of the bedroom to which (older) DVDs were relegated. As visitors often say, I should move into the garage to make room for more CDs in my apartment.
Yes, duplication is a problem. I also find I don't do enough research (anymore) before hitting that "buy me NOW" button when the pressure is on. Dumb of me, I know, but friends would take the doubles (if I gave those to them).
I'm kind of okay with this practice. In fact, I find it far preferable to the alternatives, which include not including older boxes in newer ones or (worst of all) having most of the older content in the newer box but not all of it. Given how low prices are for new boxes, I find that I can often get the new box, flip the old box, and end up having more of the music I wanted, taking up about the same amount of space (given how compact most of the boxes tend to be), and not even be out much money. I recognize that this may put me in the minority, but given that I don't care much about liner notes or packaging (texts are a different story, but those are usually online anyway), I applaud this trend.
