Living Stereo Box Set

Yikes!

Wrong section.Manek,please move this to the music section.

K

Living Stereo on CD?

Seems to be !
http://www.amazon.co...PEJ2/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt

Dat be da the one.

Get a set while the offer lasts.

K

On cd and sacd.

Neatly done I must say. Though dominated by chicago sym and fritz reiner. Some boston symphony stuff as well.

Some very good stuff on it.....

I have the decca box too. Rca seems to be restored better but the decca musically is better. Decca in its day was known for its sound but the cd's fail to create the recording quality magic, music is superb.

Manek

Going by the listing, the peformances are standard repertoire. Most of this would be therein even a basic personal collection.
Purnendu

Purnendu

Yes, pretty standard stuff but also very popular with US listeners. I guess that's what its primarily aimed at.

A few gems in there nevertheless. Recording quality is above average on the whole. Some of them still sound great by todays standards. Great kit for a person finding his/her feet in the world of classical music, good collectors item for the cso fans and vintage recordings collectors.

We are indeed lucky to find so much good music in one box, albeit from an American point of view.

I haven't dug deep into the decca set yet but seems more promising musically.

I wish there was a similar mercury living presence set.

I wonder if DG has a competitive set to rca and decca ? Maybe they do.

Manek

Hi Manek,
I do wonder if box sets are the best way to get started. My experience has been that recordings of individual pieces over a period of time gets you to know the music better. I have found this to be my experience even with symphony sets.
Most of the collections I have are listened to selectively, i.e. some pieces have nto been heard at all, and others quite a lot.

May be others have had a different kind of experience.
Purnendu

You may be right in a way. When I started out, I started out with a few individual records, then a little later I gravitated to set of records(ormady and philadelphia mostly) which gave me a perspective of different kinds of music and composers. I took to some immediately and some after listening to multiple times but I did that in my own time. It also gave me a point of reference to look for something better. A box set would always come cheaper than the full price individual cd so I got a jump start on my collection and savings also. And then I discovered the british council library and those were my most glorious years :-)
Manek

In delhi there was the Indian Council of Cultural Relations Library with a decent record collection
Purnendu

purnendu schrieb:

Hi Manek, I do wonder if box sets are the best way to get started. My experience has been that recordings of individual pieces over a period of time gets you to know the music better. I have found this to be my experience even with symphony sets. Most of the collections I have are listened to selectively, i.e. some pieces have nto been heard at all, and others quite a lot. May be others have had a different kind of experience. Purnendu

Even I dont Box sets are a good way to get into a new genre of music, especially something as complex as Classical. Yes, one gets variety at his disposal but it is like a huge buffet where one is lost among choices and in the end has a little of everything without appreciating the best recipe. Rather it is much more effective to start with few good pieces which are generally popular and good music and build up from there.

Till date I could not go beyond Beethoven and Mozart . Though I have heard quite a few of other artists like, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Mahler, Stravinsky to name a few but because I have not heard their "recommended" works I somehow could not get myself in. May be you guys can suggest some good ones ?

Au contrair, mon ami

This box set is a very good place to start as any if this genre is unfamiliar to you.

Once you begin to develop a better appreciation for a composer, you can then begin to explore different musicians,orchestras and indeed conductors.

The recording quality is superb to boot.

My two bits...

There is a 51cd mercury box set now available. I got to know today.

Will check out the music and see if its worth it.

Manek

There may be various ways to begin to learn to appreciate a certain kind of music.

Beg, borrow, steal from friend
Box set
Individual cd/records
Radio(cheap and cheerfull)
Music listening sessions
Concerts
Etc

As a kid I had latched onto voice of america jazz hour, and bbc short wave radio for classical. I do still remember taking my nelco radio along with me on holidays to hill stations.

My first intro as a kid to sarah vaughn was via a bbc radio program on a hill top in mahableshwar on my fav nelco radio :-) what an impact that one song had one me, that one song from gershwin "the man I love".
Ofcourse now you have mp3 and internet radio so go explore !

Manek

Lately I have started using youtube for experimental music a lot. Somehow youtube has so many variants to choose from and that too with lots of comments from visitors, it becomes quite apparent if I like the music or not.

Today morning I was listening to some Bach on youtube and interestingly I learnt for the first time that there were two Bachs, Carl Bach and JS Bach, JS being more popular. However I preferred the compositions of Carl Bach a lot. The Symphony 4 was superb.