[scytheavatar]

Stuff like Zinman's Beethoven symphonies, you know really cheap and yet just as good if not better than the full priced sets. I am open to anything, be it Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Chopin, Wagner, anything under the sun.

 

[Henry Flower]

Brilliant Classics sets are an obvious option - there's a great set of the Sibelius symphonies by Kurt Sanderling, and a collection of violin concertos by Oistrakh. Ones I don't have myself, but worth investigating, are John Lill's set of the Beethoven piano sonatas and the Rostropovich box, to name a couple.

 

[Currawong]

The label I always remember was Naxos when it comes to cheap classical. They have a ton of recordings, many of them of less well known orchestras.

 

[vcoheda]

the brilliant box sets are probably the cheapest out there.

 

[Uncle Erik]

First, visit www.archive.org. They have a large catalog of classical that's free and 100% legal to download. Second, look into classical on vinyl. Old rock and jazz records are hotly sought after, but classical on vinyl isn't. You'll be able to haul away boxes of it for next to nothing.

 

[FlyingFungus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif The label I always remember was Naxos when it comes to cheap classical. They have a ton of recordings, many of them of less well known orchestras.

I second that. Naxos has quite a lot out there thats pretty good.

 

[FinnishFlash]

I agree about Brilliant and Naxos, but wish to point out that also classical powerhouses like Universal (Deutsche Grammophon, Philips and Decca) and EMI have excellent budget boxes that, at least when bought on discount or used through the Amazon marketplace, rival many of Brilliant's issues when it comes to bang-for-your-buck. Also their twofer lines (two discs for the price on one mid-price cd, like Emi Gemini, Philips Duo, Double Decca etc.) can often be had for a very reasonable per-disc price.

 

[lwd]

There are some good deals going on Karajan's Symphony Edition from DG. 38 cds covering the 'standards' (Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Schumann etc). In the UK you can get it for 35 pounds and I think there are similar deals in the US.

 

[Drosera]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henry Flower /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ones I don't have myself, but worth investigating, are John Lill's set of the Beethoven piano sonatas and the Rostropovich box, to name a couple.

Don't get John Lill (Snoozeville), get Friedrich Gulda (stormy Beethoven with jazzy inflections), also reissued by Brilliant Classics.

Better yet, if you want to get a whole lot of Beethoven in one go (including Gulda), get the complete works from Brilliant Classics. I don't think there's a subpar performance in the box. (Well, okay, perhaps the folksongs could have been done better.)

 

[milkweg]

170 Mozart CDs for $129.99. That's hard to beat.

Amazon.com: Mozart Edition: Complete Works (170 CD Box Set): Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Bruce Abel, Christian Tchelebiev, Christof Fischesser, Ezio Maria Tisi, Gottfried Hornik, Hermann-Christian Polster, Klaus Mertens, Manfred Bittner, Peter Schneyder

 

[scompton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkweg /img/forum/go_quote.gif 170 Mozart CDs for $129.99. That's hard to beat. Amazon.com: Mozart Edition: Complete Works (170 CD Box Set): Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Bruce Abel, Christian Tchelebiev, Christof Fischesser, Ezio Maria Tisi, Gottfried Hornik, Hermann-Christian Polster, Klaus Mertens, Manfred Bittner, Peter Schneyder

I have the piano sonatas from that set, played by Klara Wurtz, and I really like them. If the rest of the set is up to that quality, it's a great deal.

I have the Sony Beethoven boxed set Amazon.com: Beethoven: Complete Masterpieces (Germany) (60 CD Limited Edition Box Set): Beethoven: Music

I got it when it first came out and was $25. It's still a good deal at $70. It includes the Zinman symphonies. Not everything is up to that caliber. I'm afraid that's probably a problem with all of these huge boxed sets. There's going to be some clunkers in amongst the great.

 

[Drosera]

Quote:

Originally Posted by scompton /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have the piano sonatas from that set, played by Klara Wurtz, and I really like them. If the rest of the set is up to that quality, it's a great deal.

Some parts of it are, some parts of it aren't. The problem with the Complete Mozart set is that when Brilliant Classics was assembling it, they weren't able to get any licenses for material from Universal, because it was Mozart year and Universal was trying to sell their own Philips Complete Mozart budget reissue. Brilliant Classics didn't have this problem when assembling the Beethoven edition, which makes that edition of a more consistent quality.

Still, 170 cd's for that kind of money. There are more than enough gems in there to warrant the purchase.

 

[scompton]

For me, the other problem with the big boxed sets is that there are a lot of discs that I'll never listen to again. The Sony 60 disc set has a few, like Songs from the British Isles. A larger set will have even more. My local library has the DG Complete Beethoven set. It's an incredible set, but there's quite a bit that I doubt anyone bought unless they bought the whole set, such as small vocal works and piano works. Still the price is incredible even with a few discs you won't listen to again. Even if you end up liking only half of 170 discs, it's a great deal.

 

[calaf]

if you are in the US, consider signing up to yourmusic.com. Their web site sucks but you get "full-priced" Universal and Hyperion CDs for $6.99 shipped. There is too much there to choose from, but, off the top of my head, you could start by adding to your list a few CDs of Angela Hewitt playing Bach or Giuliano Carmignola playing Mozart or Vivaldi, or any CD with Carlos Kleiber and Claudio Abbado conducting, and you should be all set for a few months!

Since you mentioned Wagner, and we are talking box-sets, the Decca/Bayreuth box-set is great quality *and* value at ~$2/CD
Amazon.com: Wagner: The Great Operas from the Bayreuth Festival: Richard Wagner, Karl Bohm, James Levine, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Silvio Varviso, Birgit Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek, Anja Silja, Waltraud Meier, Astrid Varnay: Music
Besides the famous Tristan, I love Bohm's Ring in there: to my untrained ears it sounds more alive, more "musical theater" than the reference Solti.

 

[scompton]

I forgot about the Wagner boxed set. I bought it a couple of months ago and I really like it. Meistersinger didn't thrill me and I haven't listened to Gotterdamarung or Parsifal yet. I'm sure Gotterdamarung is as good as the other Ring performances. Parsifal didn't get good reviews which is a shame because it's my favorite opera.

I also own the Puccini Decca boxed set and really enjoy it. It doesn't contain the most highly acclaimed versions but I like them and a good deal at $3 a disc. Amazon.com: Puccini - The Great Opera Collection [Box Set]: Giacomo Puccini, Alberto Erede, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Franco Capuana, Lamberto Gardelli, Tullio Serafin, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra, Saint Cecilia Academy Orchestra, Santa C.

I also see a Verdi boxed set on Amazon that looks interesting, but one review complains about the SQ. They're live recordings
Amazon.com: Verdi: The Greatest Operas (Macbeth, Rigoletto, Il trovatore, La traviata, Aida, Otello, Falstaff) [Box Set]: Giuseppe Verdi, Carlo Maria Giulini, Carlos Kleiber, Claudio Abbado, Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Mario Rossi, Nino Verchi, F

And if you like Callas, there's the 69 disc set of the complete studio recordings for $1.50 a disc Amazon.com: Maria Callas ~ Complete Studio Recordings: Giacomo Puccini, Vincenzo Bellini, Hector Berlioz, Georges Bizet, Giuseppe Verdi, Alfredo Catalani, Gustave Charpentier, Luigi Cherubini, Francesco Cilea, Maria Callas: Music I have checked out a number of the Callas recordings from my local library and enjoyed them. I don't know that I'm up for 69 disc of her singing though.