What is the word on these two RCA Living Stereo 60 CD box sets? Recommended? How about the Mercury Living Presence and Decca Sound boxes? Push me over the edge folks and help liberate the money from my wallet.
The first Living Stereo box is outstanding and highly recommended. The second is good as well - especially in terms of quality and performances - however there seemed to have been a philosophical shift between the first and second boxes. On the first, the contents of the original LPs were supplemented with additional pieces from the Living Stereo library, so that nearly every CD's running time went over an hour. Perhaps there was uproar over messing with the integrity of the original LP releases or maybe they just figured they were giving away too much music, but the discs in the second box contain only the music released on the original LP. As a result most CDs are in the 30-40 minute running time, with a handful containing only 25 minutes of music. In some cases this means an opera that could have fit on 2 CDs takes of 4 of the CDs in the box. Just something to be aware of. There's a third Living Stereo box that I don't have yet. Yet. I've got the first Mercury box and the first Decca Sound box, and have been working my way through them - both are excellent so far, but I'm only 8-10 discs in on each one. I'd say you really can't go wrong with any of the boxes you listed. Take a close look a the selections and performers in each box and see which appeals to you most. A lot may depend on where you are in terms of classical music collecting ... the Living Stereo boxes probably provide the better "starter" library. Speaking of starting, I found the thread below useful in deciding which box to get first (I went with the first Living Stereo). Though beware - it discusses a number of other boxes, so can be quite costly: Buy first? Mercury Living Presence or RCA Living Stereo box?
Amazon UK has a listing for a new 13-disc Richter at Carnegie Hall box due out in October from Sony. The current price is GBP 4.92, which is almost certainly a mistake, but I preordered in the unlikely event that they actually wind up fulfilling preorders placed at this price. I think everyone reading this thread can probably figure out what to do. Sviatoslav Richter Live At Carnegie Hall: Amazon.co.uk: Music
Many thanks! Apparently they added to the previous Carnegie Hall discs in the "Sviatoslav Richter - The Complete Album Collection" SONY box, the recital discovered (...) thereafter and included in the Live At Carnegie Hall box set .
It depends what you want. If you're trying to start a classical music collection, the Decca box is superb and I would also recommend the DG The Originals Box 1 and 2. The Philips Classics box is good too. The RCA and Mercury boxes are different - you are basically buying their back catalogues and it's not all classical music. Actually the first RCA box is mostly classical (with a lot of opera thrown in) but the first Mercury box has lots of non-classical and the boxes get more and more eccentric with each one - and as someone already mentioned, the words "rip" and "off" tend to come to mind when looking at the duration of the discs in the second RCA box. If you're an RCA or Mercury completist these boxes are marvellous but if you're only interested in building a classical music collection, I would strongly recommend you study the contents of each RCA and Mercury box very, very carefully before you buy and consider how many of those discs you actually want. There might be a good case for RCA Box 1 but probably not much else.
The first Living Stereo box is a great value, and is widely praised for the remasterings, which I believe are the redbook layers from the SACDs from several years back. I second the recommendations here to get the DG originals boxes, the first Decca Sound, and the first Living Stereo as a starting point. The MLP boxes are interesting for the fact that they add some different repertoire and artists than the other labels, so they are an excellent second or third step for those looking to branch out a bit.
Sounds of the Civil War from the first MLP box was not high on my to listen list. I did eventually and I never will again. The disc 1 sampler in the Living Stereo box is not as bad but I'd still rather have had a real album. The Philips, DG and Decca boxes don't have that type of filler. The just have the it's not to my taste or I already own half the box kind of filler.
I loved the first disc of the Living Stereo box. I think it previews the incredible sound of the discs to come, and samples some music I never would have listened to otherwise.
What is the general take on the second and third Living Stereo boxes here? I have seen the Amazon reviews, but they're decidedly mixed between people who praise the sound and are happy to see anything released and those who were expecting a certain unnamed something more.
I had buyer's remorse with the second box. Great sound, great music, but nothing new to me. Plus I already owned a fair amount of it. Actually, not only nothing new, but nothing I already don't have many versions of. I looked at the third and knew I'd have buyer's remorse for the same reason. I've been good at sticking with only buying boxed sets that have works that are new to me or I only have a few versions of. I'm approaching 10,000 classical albums so YMMV. They are popular on the classical threads.
One can get the Bernstein non-symphony edition for a great price right now at Amazon.it, about €60 for 80 cds. I agree about the redundancy of the new edition, with only a handful of opera, choir and vocal albums not already covered by the two earlier editions. It says "Remastered" but I wonder if they have done a new remastering since the excellent job on the two earlier boxes. Some of it overlaps with the recent Sony Bernstein conducts Bernstein box (also going for a great price at Amazon. it). Having said all this, the new edition looks gorgeous and I will be tempted by it once it drops below the €100 line sometime in the next few years. I have the similarly named complete Glen Gould box and it's a beauty.
Haven't checked lately, but as far as I know the only Bernstein Edition that is OOP is the Symphony one. I may be wrong, of course.
Looks like it's the 1954-59 Philips recordings. 14 CDs. Cheapest right now at amazon.it for around 37 Euros.
The organization of the Living Stereo releases was extremely top-heavy, as others have noted. The first was chock-full of the classics, although it also heavily duplicated the SACD issues. The second box was essentially a supplement to the first - the Living Stereo material that never made it to SACD, stuff like that. I have it and I'm glad I got it, especially since I paid well less than a dollar per CD. There's a lot of great stuff in there, although it's not as concentrated as the first box. The final/3rd/"Remastered Collector's" box is much more of a cleanup release for completists - the general reaction has been more gratitude that transfers were done than wonder at the performances. It's not that the contents of the third box aren't interesting, it's just not on the level of the 2nd, let alone the first (the first being probably the strongest single box set released).
