Complete works of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart ....

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Ebay always has listings of 160+ CD boxsets of famous composer's complete works. They are almost always sold from Europe, and tend to sell for about $200-$400. The recording company isn't listed in the auction, but the photos say they are from "Brilliant records".

Has anyone heard any of these collections? Is the recording value good, bad, or ugly? Why don't they sell these "complete works" in America?

 

[anamorphic96]

Chances are they are performed by a small unknown European (somtimes American) based orchestra or ensemble. It tends to be hit and miss with this stuff. In my experience they are not worth it. They get away with the cheap cost since they dont have to pay the peformers much money. If any. The performaces tend to be very mediocre.

Sound quality is hit and miss as well. Even when they are good it's not great like something from Deutsche Grammaphone, London, Phillips or Sony. They tend not to have the budget for good recording equipment and such.

The Naxos budget line tends to be a rare exception to this rule.

I tend to stick with the older recordings from major labels. You can find some amazing performances with great sound at budget prices. Mercury Living Presence along with the RCA Living Stereo recordings are amzing IMO.

The Penquin guide to classical music is a great resource and recommends great full price and budget recordings to choose from.

Hope this helps.

 

[pbarach]

"Brilliant Classics"

I would disagree in part with the first-posted response to your question. Brilliant Classics "big boxes" generally include a combination of recent recordings of lesser-known musicians or groups, mixed with older recordings of well known performers that have been licensed from the original recording company.

In the following examples, I've highlighted the performers who are more broadly known in the classical music world:

"Bach Edition, Vol. 1" includes the following performers:
"Consort of London, Robert Haydon Clark; Emmy Verhey, violin, Camerata Antonio Lucio, Christine Schornsheim, harpsichord; Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum, Burkhard Glaetzner Netherlands Bach Ensemble, Krijn Koetsveld, Anton Heiller, harpsichord; I Solisti di Zagreb, Antonio Janigro."

Bach Edition Vol. 17:
Arleen Augér; Annelies Burmeister; Peter Schreier; Theo Adam; Dresdner Kreuzchor; Dresdner Philharmonie; Martin Fläming; Marion Strijk; Systse Buwalda; Knut Schoch; Bas Ramselaar; Holland Boys Choir; Nederlands Bach Collegium; Pieter Jan Leusink The Sixteen Choir & Orchestra; Harry Christophers; Nordic Chamber Choir; Soloists of the Freiburger Barockorchester; Nicol Matt

Mozart Edition Vol. 11 (here's the Brilliant's description on their website):
Mitridate is a brand new production on period instruments, conducted by Early Music specialist Jed Wentz, and sung by rising star Johannette Zomer, Young-He Kim, Marcel Reijans and Alexei Grigorev.
The other two are high-quality licenses from Berlin Classics, with a.o. Peter Schreier, Dagmar Schellenberger, Sylvia Geszty, and conductors Helmut Koch and Max Pommer.

Beethoven (40 cd box):
Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt - Shoko Sugitani, piano - Berliner Symphoniker - John Lill, piano - Emmy Verhey, violin - Anatoli Krustev, cello - Medici Quartet - Sharon Quartet

In other words, some of these performers are known quantities and likely to be a good value. Others are unknown and--well, unless you want a guaranteed Great Performance, it might be worth the risk and you might discover something wonderful.

I bought the Brilliant Classics box of all the Shostakovich symphonies conducted by Barshai (certainly a well-known performer). All of these performances are more than competitive with higher-priced discs, some are my first choice, and the sound is excellent.

 

[johndoe]

Ludwig van...

I bought all Beethoven's symphonies in a similar way. Performed by a Hungarian orchestra conducted by an unknown Janos Ferencik (I'm sure I got the spelling wrong). Let's just say that the quality is okay, considering the ridiculously low price, and these are perfectly legal cds. I think you're better off buying older recordings from more reputable labels and performers, i.e. an old von Karajan box set might be quite inexpensive, very well recorded, and brilliantly done.

 

[pbarach]

better than Ferencsik

Since you mentioned Beethoven, the Beethoven symphonies in the Brilliant box are performed by the Staatskapelle Dresden, which is one of the finest orchestra in Germany, every bit as good as any European orchestra in this repertoire. The conductor of that set is Herbert Blomstedt, hardly an unknown. He recorded profusely for Decca, and made many fine recordings with the San Francisco Symphony; he was music director there for 10 years (after the 10 years he spent in the same job in Dresden) and is now their conductor laureate.

Obviously, not all of the Brilliant Classics performances are going to be good. In fact they just released a set of Beethovens with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Sawallisch (also a well-known conductor). An online reviewer commented, though: "At super-budget price, there's value in the basic qualities of musicianship on display, but Brilliant Classics has one of the great Beethoven cycles in its catalog, hopefully not to be displaced by this "bigger name" production--namely, Blomstedt's with the Staatskapelle Dresden. That cycle is played and conducted with more character and sheer gusto, especially in the Seventh, and it remains a reference edition at any price." http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=9495