I have Haskil and Grumiaux performing Mozart sonatas K.454 and K.526 on this 1956 Epic recording-- mono, of course. I'm sure the performances you have on Philips are from later sessions.
Mind you, we are talking about the CSO era, pre-Solti, who was mostly credit for raising the CSO into a first rank and the number one orchestra in the US and we are not talking about the BPO or the CO ...
I have a few Furtwangler's recordings made in the early to mid 40's where I could clearly hear the occasional artillery fire, speaking of extra embellishment to the orchestral sound ...
Saw Rattle as a young lad in 1987 at Sheffield City Hall. The orchestra was the City of Birmingham SO. He conducted some well known Beethoven and Stravinsky, but started the concert with 'Five Orchestral Pieces' by Schoenberg. When the cacophony of noise (sorry, but all my life I have hated Schoenberg !) which was the Schoenberg ended, the audience gave a slightly subdued, polite applause. Rattle seemed very peeved that we hadn't loved the music and performance as much as he obviously had, and showed it. The rest of the concert was a bit cold and soul-less, with a disgruntled Rattle. He was probably happy to hop on to the M6 back to Birmingham..........
I bought all the Davis' Nielsen Symphonies SACD's as singles and really have not gone beyond the first listen ...
Coveted? I'm really eyeing the Bernstein complete DG box - I'd be able to sell off a lot of duplicates, since it also includes all the Unitel videos. It took me a long time to track down the Cleveland Orchestra box sets (Szell Centennial and Orchestra at 75) at a reasonable price, but those were on my most coveted list for a long time.
I do not actively go after those mammoth boxes since I already have many singles but do use the occasional big boxes to help fill in the gaps, like buying the Karajan Symphony Edition to get my hands on his Bruckner Symphonies and a few Haydn Symphonies I did not have, as their prices had become quite untouchable. I have a good number of Bernstein boxes on a composer basis but have no intention to buy any of his big boxes. My next target big box is the Haitink Symphony Edition since I only have a small handful of his symphonies and the box will be a great addition, including his Beethoven and Bruckner Symphonies with the RCO from his original Philips analog recordings ...
Yeah...haha! I meant to write "cherished," but my mind was on something else I was writing, which came off as covoted. But coveted works, too! At least it started a fledgling conversation. Edit: On that note, I've been eyeing the second Living Stereo box.
As someone who absolutely loves Mozart I'd say the Mozart 225 set as well. The other candidate would be Deutsche Grammophon's set of Martha Argerich's complete recordings for DG and Philips:
Jules, really formal, eh ? Does that mean they won't let me in with my Ferret and Whippet ? Best wishes from an ex-pat Yorkshireman
I should have at least 300 LP's and CD's of Mozart works between mostly singles and some big boxes and they are my manually created Mozart 225 box ...
I guess you only miss the handful of things that were discovered recently (a new version of piano sonata K331, a song co-written with Salieri, some things I can't remember right now).
I am okay with that since those later discoveries generally broke no new ground, i.e. no new revolutionary works for the given composer. A case in point is the Bach 33 Chorales discovered at Yale University back in the 1980's. While I have the recording, I have listened to it only once in twenty years ... ORGAN PRELUDES ATTRIBUTED TO BACH FOUND AT YALE I am just not the biggest fan when it comes to big boxes. I only focus on some big boxes of some significant conductors who are not already well represented in my collection. But these big boxes are a way for someone who wants to build a meaningful collection for a specific composer without breaking the bank. My sense is my overall Mozart collection probably has more breadth and depth than the DG boxes since they are not limited by labels or artists and include choral and opera works in addition to the standard instrumental works.
Here is the vinyl that I picked up from last week's visit to a Harrogate record store. Took me a while to find them - the classical vinyl is all but hidden in boxes on the floor or in a corridor next door! There is virtually no floor space and apparently the owner has thousands more in storage. My mother managed to pick up some more Wagner Ring Cycle CDs and DVDs. Fortunately at her age she didn't need to rummage around on the floor like I did. Thank the lord I won't have to listen to them! I don't recommend that @DeepFloyd11 visits as she might suffer massive and irreversible trauma - I had to put my hand in my pocket and spend £28 for four. It was a bit painful but the nearly new condition of the vinyl swayed me to purchase. So first up here are two lovely looking Collegium Aureum Bach gatefold doubles on Harmonia Mundi. Thanks to @Wes H for introducing me to this particular Brandenburg! Can't wait to get these cleaned and onto the deck ... A Tchaikovsky 1 with Markevitch on a Philips maroon label from 1966. The cover is in time-warp pristine condition. This was a bargain £2.99. Hope it sounds better than the Muti HMV recording I bought! I adore Gesualdo but don't have any in my collection as he isn't served so well on vinyl, so jumped at this.
For me it's probably this set: I think I got it on sale for $120 and it has been worth every penny; great book, excellent remastering and excellent presentation with all the original album artwork.
Listening on digital: Beethoven’s Ninth conducted by Schmidt-Isserstedt. One of my favourite versions because it’s the only one I’ve heard which has impeccable singing. Source: the Decca box
I have it on LP (along with the other late sonatas), standard CD, and hi-res FLAC files, so I think I'm good. Overall, I like the FLAC's audio the best. Nearly as warm as the LPs, minus the surface noise and no need to flip sides!