Anyone have any speculative idea regarding what happened with the Herbert Blomstedt - Complete Decca Recordings box set that was in stock for a split second then vanished from the face of the earth as if recalled?
As with Grumiaux or Backhaus. Probably Decca produces much fewer copies of their boxsets than other companies. Just my guess of course.
There are four copies listed on eBay - all from Japanese sellers - caveat emptor on that one - make sure to read the seller reviews - Lowest price offered 121.oo USD.
Japanese sellers are great! I just got a very rare, pristine used CD in the mail from Japan in 7 days. Well packaged. No complaints. I would feel more confident buying from Japan than I would from my local Amazon warehouse.
The same thing that caused Universal to pull in Cyrus Meher-Homji to finish the Ansermet project—incompetence.
AFAIK there is no issue with Blomsted box? May be Blomsted himsekf says : "Hey, I'm still not retired yet, stop issue a box as if it was my recording legacy"
My best guess is that there was a waiting period for Warner to continue offering some releases that contained Capitol/Angel material. Now that we've seen e.g. an Angel album of Kathleen Battle included in an Eloquence box, such a waiting period may have passed, and Universal will reissue Milstein, Rabin, Hollywood Quartet and so on.
I'm thinking as well of Warner's New Vaughan Williams Collector Edition, nearly identical to the old one but dropping a few American tracks for which they no longer have rights.
My caveat wasn't directed towards Japanese sellers in general but rather towards the four specific dealers who were offering up the Blomstedt box on eBay, one of which seemed slightly on the dodgy side.
Another new arrival today … Similar presentation to the some other recent boxes from Decca, such as the Böhm, Blomstedt etc. This one with glossy covers, so at first glance the artwork reproduction looks really nice. Makes a change from the sometimes dismal, washed-out, low-res reproductions we've seen from them (and Warner) in the past. Likewise glossy booklet, with track listings, composer index and some nice photos, but only one essay. Recordings are with Sawallisch as both conductor and accompanist. Included are complete Brahms, Mendelssohn and Schubert symphony cycles, his three Bayreuth operas, Mendelsson's Elias and two Schubert masses, along with lieder from Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and (lots of) Strauss. Some fine artists, like Fischer-Dieskau, but mostly middle-tier orchestras.
I don't think they are doing time based printings, but going by number. Something similar to what Mosaic Records does (though they have have a small handful that they did by time). You can still find Decca boxes from artists that are not that popular going back nearly 10 years (Julius Katchen, 2016). It would be nice if they could continuously keep these in print but someone in this thread also said a major incentive to do these box sets was to get the music on streaming so that would be another source of continuous revenue for the label. A conductor based set I'd like to see is Tennstedt Warner. His live Mahler recordings (though IIRC LPO own these recordings, as the LPO live Mahler box was not on Warner) are among the greatest/most passionate Mahler performances ever, just as good as the best Japanese orchestra ones with Inbal or Kobayashi.
Time to show you my new purchase I felt like buying a new piano mega boxset. I have two big piano boxes (Kempff and Brendel) and a few smaller ones. However, both Kempff and Brendel (much as I love both of them) are very limited when it comes to repertoire. In both boxes they are countless repetitions, especially Beethoven. Many piano mega boxes are now oop (Rudolf Serkin, Claudio Arrau, Maurizio Pollini) and it is not certain if they are ever reissued. And I decided to go for Ashkenazy I unpacked it, listened to a few discs, and it's time for some conclusions. On the pro side: 1. The box is really beautifully done. I mean really beautifully. Original jackets, thick cardboard in the style of Sony jackets (with the number and the contents printed on the spine). The large-format book is also stunning, with glossy paper, printed in full colour. 2. The range of the repertoire is stunning - 89 cds of just solo music. Much better in terms of coverage than both Brendel and Kempff. Lots of Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Bach, Schumann, Scriabin plus a bit of Liszt, Mussorgsky, Brahms, Mozart, Prokofiev, Debussy, Schubert, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and some lesser-known composers. 3. I began with Chopin - and they are stunning performances. 4. There is an interesting arrangement - primarily alphabetically by composer, but within each composer you do not get the usual arrangement as in most other piano boxes (e.g. Beethoven 1-3 on one disc, 4-6 on another, Chopin nocturnes grouped together, etc.). You get the chronological arrangement (by performance) and the CDs I think more or less imitate original LPs. So you get e.g. Beethoven 1 and 7 on one disc, 23, 19, 8, 20 on another etc. It is of course a matter of individual preferences, but I like it, it's refreshing after a more traditional arrangement in Kempff and Brendel. 5. FINALLY a big piano box without lots of repetition. Of course, some things are repeated, e.g. some Beethoven sonatas and some Chopin works are recorded twice, but in general, you do not have a lot of them. This is very different from e.g. Kempff where some Beethoven sonatas are recorded 5 times, if I remember well, or Brendel, where almost everything is recorded at least twice. On the anti side: 1. I notice that on some cds SQ is not the best, which is a bit surprising because the recordings are not that old (1963-2019); besides, I always associated Decca with excellent SQ. 2. Detailed tracklist is in the booklet, but dates and places of recordings are not - these are on the jackets. Strange. 3. There is a chronological index in the book. Good, but the index of works is missing, and it would be useful, too. As you see, there are definitely more good points than bad ones And I definitely do not regret buying it.
Thank you. Beautiful description of the box. So, it seems we have: Complete Solo Box + Complete Chamber & Lieder Box + Complete Concertos Box (2020) . We still need "Complete Conductor box. [Beethoven, Brahms, Shostakovich etc."
I have his complete Shostakovich cycle, but never listen to it. With the likes of Kondrashin, Barshai, Haitink and Petrenko on my shelf, I don't really feel the need. But looking over the rest of my collection out of curiosity, I was actually surprised by how much I have already with Ashkenazy as conductor. Setting aside recordings where he was conducting from the piano (already included in the Concerto box), I have Sibelius, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovksy, Scriabin, his ECO disc with Wagner and Schoenberg, the violin concertos with Joshua Bell and and Cleveland Orchestra. That's already quite a lot. I am curious now to see what else he's recorded as conductor. I'd be open to a box to complete the set in any case, so long as it wasn't too expensive and with too many duplicates.
Brahms Symphonies 1-4 with the Cleveland Orchestra too. Also Stravinsky cycle with the DSOBerlin and St Petersburg PO.
So as conductor Ashkenazy in DECCA: Brahms Symphonies: 2 cds Shostakovich symphonie: 10 cds Mendelssohn symphonies: 4 cds Sibelius: 4 cds Stravinsky: 8 cds Tchaikovsky, 4 cds Rachmaninoff: 3 cds Prokofiev: 5 cds Mussorgsky; 1 cd Scriabin 3cds Concerti: 10 cds? So in total at least: 50-60 cds. I for sure forget something.
