Mozart Complete Works - Brilliant Classics?

[ddroit2005]

Hi,

I found Brilliant Classicis' Mozart Complete Works from Amazon,fr. It has 170 CDs and its price is around 87 euop (=$109 US). So it looks like a very attractive deal.

Has somebody tried these complete works? Could you give me your opinions?


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Mozart Edition, Complete Works
Mozart Edition September 2005 Brilliant Classics
Mozart Edition, Complete Works
Cat.No.: 92540
EAN Code: 5028421925400
Format: 170 CD
Serie: Mozart Edition
Label: Brilliant Classics
Composer: Mozart


Additional information:
Mozart Edition, Complete Works

Mozart 1756-2006 250 Years

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
complete works
l’oeuvre intégrale / gesamtwerk

SYMPHONIES - CONCERTOS - SERENADES - DIVERTIMENTI - DANCES - CHAMBER MUSIC - CHURCH SONATAS - STRING ENSEMBLES - VIOLIN SONATAS - KEYBOARD WORKS - SACRED WORKS - CONCERT ARIAS - SONGS - CANONS - OPERAS

ARTISTS:
Orchestras:
Mozart Akademie Amsterdam, Jaap ter Linden
Philharmonia Orchestra, Paul Freeman
English Chamber Orchestra, Raymond Leppard
La Petite Bande, Sigiswald Kuijken
Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, Eduardo Marturet
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras
Mozarteum-Orchester Salzburg, Leopold Hager
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Sir Colin Davis
Camerata Bern, Thomas Füri
Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim, Florian Heyerick
Musica ad Rhenum, Jed Wentz
Radio Kamerorkest, Ton Koopman
Staatskapelle Dresden

Choir:
Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Nicol Matt
Ensembles:
Rotterdam Philharmonic Wind Ensemble
Wind Ensemble of the European Chamber Orchestra
Franz Schubert Quartet of Vienna
Orlando Quartet
Brandis Quartet

Soloists (instrumental):
Salvatore Accardo, violin
Klára Würtz, piano
Derek Han, piano
Peter-Lukas Graf, flute
Emmy Verhey, violin
Herman Jeurissen, horn
Bart Schneemann, oboe
Harmen de Boer, clarinet
Karl Leister, clarinet
Bart van Oort, fortepiano
Ursula Dütschler, fortepiano

Soloists (vocal):
Christiane Oelze, Monica Groop, Barbara Hendricks, Ann Murray, Helen Donath, Teresa Berganza, Soile Isikoski, Nancy Argenta, Sandrine Piau, Sylvia Geszty, Gloria Banditelli, Arleen Auger, Edith Wiens, Anneliese Rothenberger, Edda Moser, Johannette Zomer, Dagmar Schellenberger, Francine van der Heyden, Nicola Wemyss, Miranda van Kralingen, Thomas Hampson, Anthony Rolfe-Johnson, Peter Schreier, Jerry Hadley, Robert Lloyd, Thomas Allen, Markus Schäfer, Huub Claessens, Klaus Mertens, Paul Agnew, Nikolai Gedda, Christoph Prégardien, Werner Hollweg, Harry van der Kamp, Robert Holl

 

[mbhaub]

I saw this at Costco this week, and was curious, too, but decided against it since I already have the symphonies included in the set. Here's what I think of the symphonies:

These are very, very historically accurate and if you don't like that approach stay away. They are all extremely well prepared and recorded and as good as it gets. Some of the later symphonies (39, 40, 41) are especially well done. Vibrant, energetic, probing readings to be sure. BUT: small string choir, no vibrato, natural horns. The sound of the orchestra can be very irritating at times. It's worlds away from Mackerras on Telarc, not to mention the Bruno Walter, Erich Leinsdorf, Josef Krips recordings. I keep the set in the car -- they're great to drive to!
There's also a complete Mozart set on Philips, but it costs about 7-8 times as much as this one. But for getting to know the music, and see what you like, this price is impossible to beat.

 

[ddroit2005]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbhaub I saw this at Costco this week, and was curious, too, but decided against it since I already have the symphonies included in the set. Here's what I think of the symphonies: These are very, very historically accurate and if you don't like that approach stay away. They are all extremely well prepared and recorded and as good as it gets. Some of the later symphonies (39, 40, 41) are especially well done. Vibrant, energetic, probing readings to be sure. BUT: small string choir, no vibrato, natural horns. The sound of the orchestra can be very irritating at times. It's worlds away from Mackerras on Telarc, not to mention the Bruno Walter, Erich Leinsdorf, Josef Krips recordings. I keep the set in the car -- they're great to drive to! There's also a complete Mozart set on Philips, but it costs about 7-8 times as much as this one. But for getting to know the music, and see what you like, this price is impossible to beat.

Thank you, mbhaub. I think the merit of this set is the impossible price. Just caluculating the price, one CD is cheaper or almost as same as a blank CD! And I found from Amazon.de that the brilliant classics would release Bach Complete Works this November. This price is similar to the Mozart one. It has 160 CDs. The Bach set is more attractive than Mozart.

 

[Bunnyears]

I think the Bach set has been available for a while, but I may be mistaken. I have seen some ads for it, anyway. I'm hoping the Harnoncourt Cantatas will be re-released by Warner Classics which has also released his Mozart Symphonies with the Concertgebouw in a complete set that includes the early symphonies done by Ton Koopman and some fillers by Ray Leppard. It's pretty reasonably priced and is interesting because of Harnoncourt's work with the Concertgebouw.

 

[jagorev]

I think this might qualify as "too much of a good thing."

You'll probably never digest such a behemoth. Better to go about your collecting through great individual performances and works that interest you.

 

[hembergler]

Hmm, 170 discs ripped to FLAC.... not even my new hard drive could take that. (let alone the time it takes to rip 'em all)

 

[ddroit2005]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bunnyears I think the Bach set has been available for a while, but I may be mistaken. I have seen some ads for it, anyway. I'm hoping the Harnoncourt Cantatas will be re-released by Warner Classics which has also released his Mozart Symphonies with the Concertgebouw in a complete set that includes the early symphonies done by Ton Koopman and some fillers by Ray Leppard. It's pretty reasonably priced and is interesting because of Harnoncourt's work with the Concertgebouw.

Thank you, Bunnyears.

Yes, I saw their ads in some sites. But I am not sure whether they have in stock now. At least Amazon.de says the Bach Complete Works are availabe this November.

Also the Brilliant Classics does not have it in their 2006 catalogue.

 

[ddroit2005]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jagorev I think this might qualify as "too much of a good thing." You'll probably never digest such a behemoth. Better to go about your collecting through great individual performances and works that interest you.

Thank you for your advice, jagorev. But it looks a very attractive deal, doesn't it?

 

[ddroit2005]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hembergler Hmm, 170 discs ripped to FLAC.... not even my new hard drive could take that. (let alone the time it takes to rip 'em all)

Not just for hdd space but also for ripping time!

 

[jagorev]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddroit2005 Thank you for your advice, jagorev. But it looks a very attractive deal, doesn't it?

I suppose. Though these appear to be mostly second-rate ensembles. I'd wonder if they can compare to Szell/Cleveland in the symphonies, or Harnoncourt in the Requiem, or Juilliard or Hagen in the quartets (though I will admit that the Franz Schubert Quartet, playing in this set, is actually very decent). My motto's always quality over quantity.

 

[ddroit2005]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jagorev My motto's always quality over quantity.

Thanks, jagorev. It is a great motto! I agree with you.

 

[accwai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddroit2005 Yes, I saw their ads in some sites. But I am not sure whether they have in stock now. At least Amazon.de says the Bach Complete Works are availabe this November. Also the Brilliant Classics does not have it in their 2006 catalogue.

I think this is the same set release during year 2000 together with the Teldec Bach 2000 and Haenssler Bach Edition. I've seen the set on the shelf at HMV in Toronto a few years back. It was something like $700 Canadian dollars at that time. If Brilliant Classics is re-releasing it at the same price range as the Mozart set, the company is probably trying to dominate the bargin price market segment.

I bought the Mozart set a few months back when I saw it at HMV for $170 Canadian. Not as cheap as amazon.fr but still only $1 per disc. I've had the Bach 2000 set for a while so I have some experience with large box sets like this. Some may want to go for quality over quantity. But having access to the completely body of work would change your perspective on the composer. Once you have an idea of where yor interest is, then you go for quality. So for me it's quantity and quality, and in this case, a really cheap initial "cover the basis" set is a real good thing.

By the way, one nice feature about the Moazart set is that the line notes are in PDF form on a CD. So they are searchable and they can be backed up. I wish Bach 2000 is like that.

Now back to the Bach set, the cantata cycle was a rush jobs and the review general wasn't very favorable. But if it's $1 per CD, it's a very good way to start listening to the weekly cantata. I have the Teldec set from Bach 2000 and the in progress Suzuki set. The latter in particular is brutally expensive. Having a cheap way to test the water is a good thing.

And speaking of amazon.fr, I recently bought Signum's complete Thomas Tallis box set from them. It's 78 Euros vs. $238 from amazon.com. So it's worth checking there before a large order.

Andy

P.S. According to the Mozart set liner notes, the guy playing the piano in the piano concertos is currently working on the complete Scarlatti sonata set. So looks like Brilliant Classics is really building up its catalog to play in the big league.

 

[ddroit2005]

Quote:

Originally Posted by accwai But having access to the completely body of work would change your perspective on the composer. So for me it's quantity and quality, and in this case, a really cheap initial "cover the basis" set is a real good thing. Andy

Thank you, Andy. Yes, access to a composer's complete works is really attempting!

 

[accwai]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddroit2005 Not just for hdd space but also for ripping time!

I have the 153 disc Bach 2000 in FLAC and burnt into 12 DVDs. I play directly from the DVD so I don't keep HD copies around. And while it's a lot of work ripping, it's mostly waiting for the rip to finish so you can just set up the disc and come back to check on things once in a while.

The real work is in the play list. The freedb stuff that EAC pulls down is full of errors and formatting is inconsistent as heck. Fortunately I found a completely Bach 2000 playlist on the net and write a set of Perl scripts to reformat to my liking. But there were still a lot of hand fixing involved. Must have spent like 3-4 months on and off for this.

On the other hand, I did the 34 disc Scott Ross Scarlatti sonatas set in a weekend. The freedb stuff was missing the pairing indicator which I dearly would love to have on my playlist. But then I found a very good list on the net, so I write a Perl script to transform the format a little and merge them into my CUE files. The whole playlist was ready in an hour. No big deal.

Now I have the Brilliant classics Mozart set halfway ripped but nothing is done on the playlist at all. I haven't found a good alternate list on th net just yet and I don't have time to hand fix the freedb stuff.

Andy

 

[Bunnyears]

Quote:

Originally Posted by accwai The real work is in the play list. The freedb stuff that EAC pulls down is full of errors and formatting is inconsistent as heck.

Tags from gracenote which is used by itunes aren't any better for classical. I have to do substantial editing when I rip classical cds no matter where the tags come from. The problem is that the tags are submitted by people ripping the music, and everyone seems to use the fields differently. If your tags are really accurate, please submit them to freedb or Gracenote if you use itunes at all!