Archiv Volume 2 is 62.81 euros at amazon.it https://www.amazon.it/dp/B01BXNXCK2 or 66.99 euros at amazon.de https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01BXNXCK2
Leonard Bernstein DG Volume 2 is £77.59 at base.com Leonard Bernstein - The Leonard Bernstein Collection (Limited Edition 64CD Box Set) (Music CD) »
A useless note. All boxes I ordered from Amazon it at the Black Friday sale are shipped from Czech Rep. with UPS.
Vivarte Vol.2 (6o CDs) is $49.99 at ArkivMusic. Vivarte Collection, Vol. 2 - Sony: 88985332072 | Buy from ArkivMusic »
I'm thinking about it. It's just been released in Europe. At the moment Amazon UK seem to have the lowest price, but with the £ getting a bit stronger that may not last.
Universal/DG will be releasing a 24 CD Pierre Fournier set in Europe in January, the The Pierre Fournier Edition - Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, Decca & Philips.
So I'm thinking of picking up the Verdi: The Complete Works box set. I searched and found some old chatter on it earlier in this thread. Does anyone have any more recent thoughts on it?
Here's the one: Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Ileana Cotrubas, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Mirella Freni, Marilyn Horne, Joan Sutherland, Giuseppe Verdi, Claudio Abbado, Richard Bonynge, Herbert von Karajan, Riccardo Chailly, James Levine - Verdi - The Complete Works [75 CD Box Set] - Amazon.com Music »
Man am I getting old. I read your post as Vivaldi instead of Verdi. I have this; it's great; no problems.
I regret not picking up the Horowitz Complete Jacket box when it was in print. Today I broke down and was tempted to pay the extortionate prices they are asking but one review made me stop. He mentions that there is a lot repeated content in the box and that it's not worth the money. Those of you who have this set, do you recommend it?
Self-recommending/ed box of course. In regards to the review you readq "not worth the money" is of course written by somebody hoping to get a "piano anthology" or "the best of piano" collection. This is the legacy of one of the sacred monsters of the piano of the past century. Of course there are repetitions since Horowitz, as all recording artists having such long term collaborations with a single label, rerecorded the same repertory. I would not complain at all, and was so happy to get also his unissued lice Carnegie recitals or the 1966-1983 box as well. However, I think the box will be reissued sooner or later.
Opinions vary on that. I don't have it myself, but there seems to quite a bit of duplication indeed and the playing time of some CDs seems to be rather short. I've been on the fence about this set, but I'm not a big Horowitz fan, so I passed.
I bought it and several years ago enjoyed a few weeks with my Dad when I was caregiving my parents going through the box and listening together. I was worried about the sound of the earliest material but shouldn't have been, it's very well-mastered. I really like this box set, more than I expected I would and can recommend it.
I learned long ago to ignore music critics, especially when they say something is not worth the money. Their money, perhaps.
I've found that the problem is usually the opposite - magazines wanting the support of labels or critics wanting to keep getting free discs to review - so things tend far more often to be praised when they do not deserve it. Remember that most professional reviewers get the discs for free - and some even get paid for writing the review.
Horowitz is one of the greatest pianists of all time, and figures in most conversations about who is the greatest. That being said, I don't much care for him and passed on that set when it could be had for $70 (I do have the two 10-CD Original Jacket sets--that's plenty of Horowitz for me). If you like him, however, I would purchase the set in an instant, even at the ~$325 I see it offered at currently. There are 70 CDs in the box, and (for me, at least) listening to how a great master approaches the same piece at different points of his career is fascinating, and the main reason I have multiple versions of the same work.
Not anymore. Most reviewers get a download code, or in some cases a CDR with no graphics. And many of those are "tagged" so that if they are uploaded on a torrent, the source is identified. This is the reason that promotional copies are now far less common in used shops or from on-line dealers. There are some free review copies out there, but probably 90-95% fewer than 10-15 years ago. Companies also understand that "all publicity is good publicity" as far as recordings go, or at least a widely published critical review is better than no review at all
You raise an interesting point--sometimes, such as when the artist prepared a "recital" album with carefully chosen works, I much prefer the original album approach, so I can listen to the works as intended by that performer. If the box is artist focused, however, I much prefer the individual discs to contain as much as possible, as this allows me to change the CD much less often.
I agree with RiRill on this and would recommend holding off on paying those prices as for an artist this significant I can't imagine this will remain OOP forever. May come with a different box/packaging but I do believe this will be repressed at some point.
The Horowitz Original Jacket Collection and Carnegie Hall are two boxes I could never be without and two I play most frequently among dozens of other boxes that sit gathering dust, YMMV though
Thanks for all the feedback, I really appreciate it. I'm a huge Horowitz fan and I do have quite a few of his recordings already. I think I'll pick up the live box for now as to not miss out on that and hope for a reissue of the jacket box. I just picked up the Perahia and 3 Richter boxes so I don't have a shortage of classical piano. What do you guys think of the Mozart Edition from Brilliant Classics compared to the Mozart 225 box? I'm not the biggest Mozart fan but I would like to have his stuff for casual perusing. Considering the Brilliant box is going for $100 compared to $330 for the 225, do you think it's a decent alternative?
