I've been looking for a Scarlatti complete sonatas box on piano without success. I can't stand harpsichord.
Even though it's showing as backordered and more likely than not to be canceled, I took this as my opportunity to try to score the Complete Columbia box for Glenn Gould at a decent price. Fingers crossed they get stock, but I'm not ranking my chances as high.
Good try and wish you good luck. Now I have owned almost all boxes I want to have. I use the money I saved to buy more single discs lol.
This set is down to $157 via amazon third party seller Classical Music Superstore (Naxos.) That's $43 less than what I paid for mine. Amazon.com: Buying Choices: Rudolf Serkin - The Complete Columbia Album Collection
I'm considering it. I've been meaning to sit down and do a comparison with other Decca boxes I've got (Decca Sound, Analogue Years, Ashkenazy 50 Years) to see how much duplication there is with the Piano box, but haven't had the time to pull all the contents lists. Has anyone had the chance to look into it?
My big box from Presto Classical has just arrived, and this included The Herreweghe Harmonia Mundi Years (30 CDs). With Amazon so often having lots of empty space in their boxes I was once again astounded by Presto carefully wrapping everything in bubble wrap, with some more on top to ensure that nothing would bounce around.
I got that one a few weeks ago as well. I'm really enjoying it so far -- esp the Faure, Campra, Mahler, and Brahms.
Anyone have the new Pavarotti box and want to talk me out of ordering it? I don't really need it, but, come on, it's Pavarotti.
I've been eyeing this one, too. Presto and JPC are amazing with their packaging and shipping - I won't order these sets from Amazon anymore.
The Solti Chicago Symphony box is, like the Alfred Brendel collection, an impressive production (and it's slightly larger than the Brendel box because the included book is larger). There are complete symphonic cycles for Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler, with Beethoven done twice. The dozen discs I've listened to so far are well-recorded and produced. The Solti box won't fit on a CD shelf, but it is a nice bookend to the Fritz Reiner Chicago box from RCA/Sony. Speaking of Solti, his Ring Cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic has dropped to a lower price on U.S. Amazon than on the German Amazon site, <$37.
I'm really enjoying the ECM Arvo Part albums that are now streaming on Qobuz (Many Hi Rez). The only box sets I see for ECM label are "Selected works" etc. Anyone aware of any current or past classical, especially Arvo Part compositions, box sets that ECM may have released? I may just have to start purchasing some of these great albums (download) from Qobuz.
It's not a huge box set but Andras Schiff's recordings of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas were released as a complete set (and as individual volumes).
I won't try to talk you out of it but I won't buy. Originally Decca announced it was doing several sets-presumably one for each decade of his career. They issued the first box ( which I happily purchased) and then silence for a long time. And now a big box including all the CDs previously issued in the prior first decade box. So duplication and a forced rebuying of the same stuff. Oh and radio silence from Decca as to why they screwed the previous buyers.
Great. I will look up. Although there are many fine recorded performances of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, my all time favorite is still the 1930's recordings by Schnabel. All the hiss, noise, etc...I still enjoy those the most.
Mine is Annie Fischer and Gulda (Amadeo/Brilliant Classics) and Lucchesini, but Schnabel is up there for sure!
Received the Karajan giant set. Got a great price. Discs manufactured in Germany. Disappointed that inside the gatefolds there is nothing printed inside. Just blank. So not true “replicas”. The opera gatedolds have the tracklistings inside but not the original liner notes. The Koreans did it much better. Inside gatefolds with original liner notes, and they even used the plastic anti-static inner sleeves. I didn’t get the earlier Karajan sets (other than the Korean 60s), but I am sure these are the exact same sleeves from the EU/USA boxes. DG album replicas do not have a spine, unlike Sony and many other labels. They feel cheap. For the price DG should have pulled out all the stops. This seems more like a way to get the most out of their earlier Karajan discs and sleeeves, repackaged in a big box, than a tribute to the artist. Music is great and I am happy to have it all, but I feel it is not worth the list price. The price I paid (~$700 including shipping) I feel is warranted for the music, as the couple discs I’ve listened to sound fab.
Funny, talking about Gulda's Brilliant Beethoven set, this is what I just posted elsewhere on this forum: To my ears Gulda's Beethoven Sonatas cycle that was released by Brilliant Classics is generally competent and certainly not bad, but not much more than that, he more or less stays on the surface, i.e. doesn't go very "deep" into the music. There are more rewarding sets in my opinion, like 1960s Arrau, Kempff's 1950s mono cycle (his 1960s stereo remake isn't bad either), the incomplete Gilels and Solomon, and Sviatoslav Richter and Rudolf Serkin have done several sonatas. Brendel's second and third cycles, both on Philips (now Decca), and András Schiff's recent cycle are personal favourites, but they are an acquired taste. Lucchesini is good, and Brautigam is the one to get if a good sounding fortepiano is preferred. It took me a while to appreciate François-Frédéric Guy's cycle, but it's grown on me. There are more, of course, but let me stop here P.S. Annie Fischer's cycle is good, but maybe a bit too "constructed" - ske kept redoing stuff over and over again because she was never satisfied, and maybe that did the music more harm than good in the end. Schnabel's Beethoven belongs in every classical collection in my opinion.
I need to amend my review. Some of the gatefolds do have the liner notes inside. I had not had the set long enough to look at all of the disks.
