Did they ship it with the factory packaging or did they just throw box set in an amazon box? If it came in the factory package, was it protected with styrofoam?
Excited to find a proto-mega box set today, a 25 CD number (jewel cases!) from Philips entitled "Golden Baroque": It is full up from the gilded age of classical CDs, with brass hinges on the box top, gold discs and CD trays, and the foil Philips labels. Cost me about $60 in a used shop - 20 of the 25 CDs are still sealed.
Whats the status on the complete Mozart box set? Are all the available copies in japanese or something?
I assume that like earlier, if you buy from a German-speaking country the books will be in that language, otherwise in English. I bought mine last year from CD.ON, a Swedish seller, and it was in English.
Not sure how available sets in English are for a reasonable price. Jpc.de has both German (300 Eur) and English (500 Eur!). And I just saw a Japanese edition at Tower earlier today if you want one.
Those are probably as good prices as they come today. CDON. com now charges about 650 Eur for it (English ed. I assume).
Amazon Italy has the English version for Euro 225 (but you will need to sign up for Prime, which can be cancelled later): http://amzn.eu/3qnlcop For those who speak French, Amazon Germany has that version for Euro 200: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01GR16LO4/ Use the translate feature in Chrome if you need help reading any of the sites which do not offer an English language version (Germany and Japan do, France and Italy do not).
There's a bunch of great box sets at low prices direct from the LSO - shipping to the US is cheap and shipping within the UK should be even cheaper: Box Set Sale The survey of Shostakovich's Symphonies by Kitajenko and the Cologne Orchestra is another must-have on SACD: Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1-15 (complete) - Capriccio: C49545 - 12 SACDs | Presto Classical There are also a couple of good boxes from BIS (Beethoven Symphonies from Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra, Beethoven Sonatas on Fortepiano by Brautigam) as well as the megabox of the complete Bach Cantatas with Suzuki and his Japanese Bach ensemble, which has been nearly universally praised. Pentatone also has two different Beethoven symphony boxes (Herrewhege and Masur, the later from vintage quad tapes) as well as Mari Kodama's Beethoven Piano Sonatas and Janowski's Bruckner cycle with the OSR. I also like the Bruckner Cycle on Coviello conducted by Marcus Bosch. And the San Francisco Mahler cycle conducted by MTT as well...
Shostakovich: The Complete Symphonies Hybrid SACD on Capriccio Beethoven Complete String Quartets. Harmoni Mundi
I got mine from amazon Germany for $700 with their fastest shipping. If you want this box set don't hesitate ordering from Europe since it's so well packaged I don't see how it could get damaged. All 4 corners of the outer box on mine were dented but the foam perfectly protected the box set. It's a beast of a box set.
Dropping in to see if I can get some opinions on the recent Solti 108 x CD box. The repertoire of compositions looks appealing but how do people here rank this conductor, these recordings and this set overall? (Note: apologies if this set had already been discussed ad nauseam elsewhere in this massive thread.)
Up above I posted a review of the set from the Chicago Tribune. Solti isn't everyone's cup of tea but when he is good, he is very, very good.
Has anyone collected or listened to the mega box "Great Pianists of the 20th Century"? Is it worth to collect?
I think the original poster of the Classical Music Corner thread, @George P has this set or at least parts of it, so I guess you'd have a better chance to get an answer there: Classical Corner - Classical Music Corner
I have the whole set, purchased individually over the years and there’s not a dud in it IMO. My only complaint is that I’ve had to repurchase some of the music when half of an album is in this set. For example, the Moravec set has half of the Debussy Vox Box. Actually the Moravec has half of 4 or 5 albums. Even so, it was great for me because it Was an introduction to a lot of the music for me. For instance, one of the Brendel sets has a disc of Haydn sonatas. I had never heard them before and loved them. I ended up buying Brendel’s box of Haydn sonatas. There is some overlap with other mega boxes.
You hit the nail on the head, there's a lot of duplication with the mega boxes that have come out in the last few years. Another particular problem for me with the Great Pianists series is that I'm not (and never was) too fond of the playing styles of many earlier pianists, it's often too cavalier or idiosyncratic for my taste. To each their own, of course