A side-effect of the move away from physical media to streaming media has been the great deals you can get on compilations and box sets.
Streaming media is a horror, of course, along with any of the super-compressed file formats. CDs have gotten their share of criticism over the years, but the quality of many of them is quite good. I also find that the quality of the hardware you need to play them gives pretty good value for the money compared to vinyl, which is still the best readily available media.
Here’s a selection of box sets I’ve picked up on Amazon lately, along with the price-per-disc I paid. They’re not all still available, but other bargains show up periodically.
Compilation of all Boulez’s DG recordings of Mahler. There isn’t a complete 10th or Totenfeier, but everything else is here. $2.45 per disc.
The legendary Vienna set of the complete cycle, $2.28 per disc.
If you can show me better performances of these than by Chicago, I want to know about it. $3.08 per disc gets you 10 symphonies and 3 great choral works.
These 22 discs have almost everything (the recently discovered “Chant Funebre” is obviously missing). At $2.04 per, this fan couldn’t say no.
Another one for “completists,” all the symphonies plus Karelia, Tapiola, Finlandia and The Bard, coming in at $2.65 per disc.
At $1.87 per disc, this gives you a really complete rundown on the great Englishman’s work. All the symphonies and more.
Eight CDs with a rambling assortment of Beethoven, Honneger, Stravinsky, Mahler, Prokofiev, Sibelius and Strauss; plus a whole disc of opera extracts. $2.40 per disc.
The four symphonies plus two concerti. At $6.25 not the best bargain in the world but still far less than any single CD.
(These aren’t all available still; and if they are, not at these prices necessarily.)
