Д.Д.

I'm not a Naxos enthusiast (so shoot me... ), but Konstantin Scherbakov's Naxos recording of Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues was excellent, so I'd expect his volume to merit hearing. Listened to samples, and liked Vol. 3 (Jeno Jando) and Vol. 5 (Benjamin Frith). These should do for now, as far a piano is concerned. Now, to harpsichord!

Legendary Russian Pianists 25-CD Brilliant box available for €11 from amazon.de Track list from the Brilliant website.

Any recommendations for the Naxos recordings (they have a running project of recording the complete set of Scarlatti sonatas - 25 CDs, each by different pianist, and it is half way through)?

David, you will probably enjoy Duo Sonare CD called "Duo Sonare plays Zappa, Debussy, Albeniz, Piazzolla" or something like this. It is a classical guitar duo, and they play excellent arrangements for two guitars. Zappa and Debussy pieces are really well done. The CD is long OOP, I got my copy from one of the musicians directly.

In general you are right but sometimes there are surprises. BTW: Also on some EMI Icon sets, the sound quality is disappointing (Alfred Cortot for example). But EMI and others sort of have the legal rights to the stuff, and possibly perhaps maybe who knows - the musicians (or their estates) might even be getting something from these reissues on majors. Or, I hope they paid the musicians at least once during the initial recording. Brilliant is legally licensing their stuff from majors (or commissioning new recordings). Membran and the likes are just leeches. I try to avoid such shit as long as there is an alternative (and normally there is). Thinking about it, I am pretty sure that Soviet musicians (such as Oistrakh, Richter, Gilels and many others) recorded by Western majors got nothing for their recordings. At least, not directly.

Just ordered the Brilliant Classics Russian Legends 100-CD box from amazon.fr market seller for EUR 54. I doubt I will ever go through the whole box, but for this price... http://www.amazon.fr...0&condition=new

Excellent! Thanks.

I got this one and gave a few CDs a spin, and can highly recommended it. Sure enough, most of the choices are trivial (and some, while obvious, don't qualify as masterpieces - Carmina Burana, really?), and the strictly chronological sequencing sometimes creates annoying juxtapositions on the same CD, but most of the works are great and the performances are excellent (Strauss' "Four Lieder", which I have never heard before sent shivers down my spine).

I highly recommend Alicia De Larrocha EMI 8-CD Icons set - very tasteful playing of Spanish repertoire. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-EMI-Recordings-Alicia-Larrocha/dp/B003D0ZNJC/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1307781337&sr=1-1

And it's even cheaper here in Europe: €8 at amazon.de

Ligeti - Works - 9CDs (Sony) - €23 at amazon.de

EMI 20th Century Masterpieces (16 CDs) for £29 at amazon.co.uk Here is the link to the EMI website with track listing: http://www.emiclassics.co.uk/release.php?id=5099921750021

You might as well get the complete Shostakovich quartets performed by the Borodin Quartet for just a bit more: €26 at amazon.de Are you familiar with this set? No. I have the complete set of Shostakovich quartets played by .. hmm... the Shostakovich Quartet (on Regis), and I am very happy with it.

Youri Egorov, Master Pianist - EMI - 7CDs - £14 at amazon.co.uk. Anybody knows Egorov? Never heard of him.

You might as well get the complete Shostakovich quartets performed by the Borodin Quartet for just a bit more: €26 at amazon.de For sure, if you're in Europe! That particular set (as well as the Beethoven Quartet's cycle, which doesn't seem cheap anywhere) is hard to find and considerably more expensive in the USA than the Fitzwilliams'...I was just watching a set that went for $125 on eBay, although a touch of "eBay madness" was likely involved. Shipping from amazon.de or amazon.co.uk to the US should not be too expensive (amazon.fr, on the other hand, seems to have crazy shipping rates - even though everything is often shipped from the same warehouse). Moreover, you will get the EU VAT deducted, which is another 15-20% off.

You might as well get the complete Shostakovich quartets performed by the Borodin Quartet for just a bit more: €26 at amazon.de

There is also an EMI Messiaen 14-CD box available at amazon.co.uk for £25 I am not that much of a Messiaen fan to go for it, though. I am always baffled by the price disparity between different amazons. The same set at amazon.com costs $71 (also not too much for a 14-CD set, to be fair) - basically, 80% more.

Me too - that's what may have kept me from buying it, since I have the VHS. Audio and video were said to be identical to the videotape available, I now recall. I also remember someone raised the question why the Zappa family didn't take care of a proper DVD edition. They don't have the rights - neither to the movie, nor to the soundtrack.

As for Tennstedt, there is another EMI box released just a couple of weeks ago: Great EMI Recordings - 14 CDs - available for €30 at amazon.fr

I am eying this Stravinsky box for some time now. I assume it will not be out there for too long (see swift disappearance of the complete Gould box), so I shouldn't procrastinate much longer. It's even cheaper in the US. A couple more boxes I am thinking of - any comments on those would be appreciated: Klaus Tennstedt / London Philharmonic - Mahler Symphoinies - EMI - 16 CDs - available at amazon.fr for €35 Michel Plasson / Orchestre Nationale du Capitole de Toulouse - French Music - EMI - 37 CDs - available at amazon.de for €70

In a last ditch attempt to extract some revenue from the fading CD market major labels are repackaging old recordings into budget packages, often in a form of mammoth boxes. Add to this high-quality budget labels like Naxos and reissue ones like Brilliant Classics, and you get a lot of stuff to choose from. It is becoming less a matter of price, but of over-abundance of choice. Perhaps we could let each other know of worthwhile bargains out there. I already posted my praise fort he Sony / BMG Baroque Masterpieces 60 CD (!) box, available at amazon.de for €47 (non-EU buyers will get the VAT deducted, so it will be even cheaper for them). Of my recent bargain purchases I can also recommend Ravel's Orchestral Works 3 CD set by Orchestre de Paris / Martinon on EMI available for £5 at amazon.co.uk I am considering a few more budget boxes. Can anyone comment on them? Leinsdorf / Boston Symphony - Prokofiev - EMI - 6 CDs - €14 at amazon.fr Mravinsky / Leningrad Philharmonic - Erato - 12 CDs - €16 at amazon.fr 50th anniversary of Liege Philharmonic - Cypres - 50 CDs - €40 at amazon.fr (a lot of Belgian composers I have never heard of) James Levine / Various orchestras - Maher Symphonies - EMI - 10CDs - €20 at amazon.fr

Don't think so. I'm pretty sure he did arrangements himself. He did use people to transcribe solos for use as material for compositions and to copy parts (pre-computer typesetting days). Ali Askin (website) was the guy. He also arranged the follow-up Ensemble Modern disc of FZ compositions "Greggery Peccary...", after Zappa's passing (which is much less successful than "Yellow Shark"). Regarding "200 Motels" DVD, I have read the sound on it is bad.

I think Dog / Meat from Yellow Shark would have pleased Stravinsky... The whole disc is great. Dog / Meat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr3y2MUdq7U&feature=related

This is the reason why I tolerate Chopin in Sviatoslav Richter's interpretation only - not too much Romanticism there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ-NAgDpRVs There are two volumes of excellent solo piano works by Russian / Soviet composers on the early XX century (Roslavits, Lourie, Mossolov, Polovonkin, Protopopov) on hat[now]ART: Then there is Leo Ornstein - very wild stuff. I have this CD - highly recommended.

It's all projection, indeed. I suggest we get on with discussing the music, each in his/her terms (or, as you would probably say, in terms mindlessly borrowed from professional critics). Discussing the music is silly enough, discussing how to discuss the music is plain absurd. A side note on reviews, whether professional of amateur, I tend to hardly pay any attention to those. I somehow can't reconcile the facts that: a) 80% of reviews are positive, b) 90% of released music is crap. There are a few reviewers / forum posters whose opinions have empirically shown to coincide with mine in most cases, and these are the only ones I pay attention to when making a buying decision. Meanwhile, back to Bach - anybody heard Olli Mustonen's recordings of Bach and Shostakovich preludes & fugues (he released a couple of CDs, each mixing Bach's and Shostakovich's works). The concept is quite intriguing.