I had actually been eyeing up those "Warehouse Deals" boxes before they disappeared into the ether and cursed my luck for hesitating. Even if the books are incomprehensible to me, this is an amazing price for a deep dive into Mozart's music. Now, fingers crossed I get some kind of time frame for delivery. Still entirely possible they'll cancel the order and that'll be all she wrote, but it was too good a possibility to pass up.
I dont believe that is the case. The French copy I just received/returned from Amazon Warehouse US had the CDs and the accompanying track listing books in English....its just the hardcover books that are in the localized language. Several reviews I read also indicated the only difference between the different language versions was the hardcover books.
Amazon UK may be selling vaporware with this Mozart 225: Complete Edition/Various offering. Delivery estimates have changed from 1 to 3 months to "Temporarily out of stock." However, the price has dropped precipitously to £60.29. Doing the math, that's £53.32, or USD $67.32 for 200 discs of Mozart delivered to the U.S. I think this offer is going the way of the Haydn 107 collection, which was listed at a fantastic price, but after months and months was canceled as "unobtanium."
Agreed, it wouldnt be the first time. I had ordered the Brendel box from Amazon UK last summer when it suddenly became "available" from them. After several weeks of the price falling slightly and the "ships in 1 to 3 months" designation it was canceled outright as being unavailable.
It would not be the first time. I posted a deal for Jimi Hendrix's West Coast Seattle Boy set in the Amazon UK deals thread many months ago. A bunch of Forum members ordered, and months later the orders were eventually cancelled -- some did get a voucher out of the process for the delay, so it may still be worth taking a chance on ordering, especially at this crazy price!
I just placed an order for the Mozart. If it gets cancelled then it gets cancelled. I'm out nothing and if it doesn't then it's a great deal. So I have nothing to lose.
There are many out there, though not many of the 'free' variety - if you buy from HDTracks, those usually come with liner notes. A number of the mega boxes came with CD-ROMs or download links for libretti. I believe Hyperion makes their liner note pdfs available for public download, and I seem to recall the Gardiner SDG recordings (e.g., Cantatas) were freely available at one point.
All those of you who rushed to buy the Mozart 225 at 60.29 should have waited, it is now down to 60.15!
Though I really do not need the Bach 333 box, I would probably have to buy it if it ever got to that price just for the booklets! I'm currently reading Bach Music in the Castle of Heaven by Gardiner (spend a bit more and get the hardcover it's beautiful) and it is a very good read, one of the better classical books. I believe he contributed to the text in the Bach 333 box.
Employees at Amazon UK have a pool going to guess the number of posts they can generate in various internet bargain threads? Or, Amazon UK was trying to induce those of us who received delivery dates for the boxes purchased at £93 to cancel their orders and re-buy the never-to-be-shipped boxes at £60 (successful in my case).
There's a long history of hatred between the Brits and the French and this will no doubt have the gilets jaunes once again taking to the streets in protest!
Happy Christmas to my fellow Classical Box Set enthusiasts! I hope Santa has brought you some fine 'building bricks' for your CD libraries!
I've been listening to the Wagner Complete Operas set this weekend, which I've had for some time but haven't really played a great deal. Have got through Tristan and Rienzi over the last couple of days. Not sure why, but Tristan always seems one of the more accessible mature Wagner operas to me. Not sure everyone agrees with that, I might add!
We're all in this together. Crossing fingers they actually manage to fulfill these orders because that would be a solid belated Christmas gift.