Embarking on building a classical LP collection...in 2023!

[spiritofmusic]

so, these shop keepers who have been running these stores for years will be clueless about value of LPs and will have left the valuable ones there for 5 euro each?

It's a nice thought. One can dream.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Great thread! I began my vinyl classical collection in 1984 as a struggling PhD student. Princeton Record Exchange was my savior. Acquired great box sets like the fabulous Haydn symphonies by Dorati and the Philharmonica Hungarica for a song, as folks were rapidly dumping their vInyl for newfangled CDs. Penguin Guides were indeed helpful, but they had a strong Euro-centric bias, and an even stronger bias towards British performers.

Foolishly sold my large classical vinyl collection when I moved to the west coast — should have kept it in storage till I bought a house (in the San Francisco Bay Area, house hunting is not for the faint of heart or those with not very deep pockets!). Finally ended up in a large 3500 sq ft house with enough space for my large vinyl collection, except I had none! Been patiently rebuilding parts of it. I find eBay a great resource. Of course, Acoustic Sounds has the warhorses — the RCA Living Stereos etc. — but the joy of owning vinyl is discovering the true gems that no one talks about much. I’m 30 years older, definitely richer, but not as willing to get down on my hands and knees to rummage through estate and yard sales. Then, there’s the pandemic!

I did reacquire the magnificent Haydn box sets from a seller in Europe on the original Decca pressing. The liner notes by H.C. Robbins Landon is itself worth the price of acquisition. Also, the great Haydn Piano Trios by Beaux Arts Trio on Philips — a desert island box set. The vinyl sounds infinitely better than the poorly remastered digital version on Qobuz. Try to get some of the magnificent recordings on Lyrita. Harry Pearson of TAS used to consider the Malcom Arnold English Dances on Lyrita the best orchestral recording ever made. I agree. No recording has ever captured cymbal crashes or the bass drum more effectively. Again, the vinyl to my ears sounds so much better than Lyrita’ s own CD. TAS once had an interview with Kenneth Wilkinson, the legendary Decca engineer who made many of the great Decca and Lyrita recordings. He said the digital remastering was much inferior to the original analog master tapes he made. The digital remastering eliminated the sound of the hall in many cases.

If you like Mahler, get the famous Decca recording of Mahler‘s Second Symphony with Georg Solti with Heather Harper. The opening few seconds with the double basses growling always sends a shiver through my spine. Mike Fremer years ago savaged the EMI Mahler Two by Simon Rattle in its terrible sound in the opening seconds. What should have been the double basses growling was instead a blob of sound, he complained, again referring to the Solti recording.

For opera, definitely get Zubin Mehta’s incandescent Decca recording of Puccini’s Turandot, with the icy princess sung by Joan Sutherland and the young star struck lover prince sung magnificently by Luciano Pavarotti, who manages to solve her three riddles and avoid getting his head chopped off. Stellar recording. Act One has magnificent climaxes, with a huge orchestra and chorus including a boys choir. No one wrote passionate opera like Puccini.

For string quartets, my desert island vinyl box set has been Shostakovich‘s complete quartets by Fitzwilliam quartet on Decca. His quartets to me are the finest since Beethoven wrote his quartets. Number 8 is especially moving, written to portray the horror of war. His quartets are sardonic, but sad.

For ballet music, I highly recommend the magnificent ballets of Delibes, of which Tchaikovsky himself said he wouldn’t have written his famous ballets had he heard Delibes first. On EMI, Mari has recorded the complete Coppelia. Very tuneful.

I could go on…classical vinyl has kept me sane for almost 40 years! It’s a music lovers format. 25 minutes per LP is the right length. Keeps your attention. Getting up to change the record keeps you from sitting in the chair for hours. Then there’s the great liner notes!

Great post!

 

[bonzo75]

The beaux arts trio is still available at reasonable prices. The Solti Mahler resurrection is yuck. His 3 and 4 on decca are better.

For resurrection the Klemperer Columbia recently sold for 800. ERC also reissued it but sold out. Given it wasn’t recorded with a limiter it’s dynamic range is supposed to be higher, but I saw that crazy range captured only on the crossover less pnoe. Still, i like it a lot on horns with crossovers. I will try to capture it on Cessaro Zeta next trip

 

[oldvinyl]

so, these shop keepers who have been running these stores for years will be clueless about value of LPs and will have left the valuable ones there for 5 euro each?

These days, more of them have a clue.

Years ago, I went to Sikora in Vancouver and picked out a stack of Telefunken Das Alte Werke lp’s. When I went to checkout, they had no idea what the records were or how to price them. We agreed on 2 dollars Canadian each. What a haul. All records were in as new condition.

 

[oldvinyl]

The beaux arts trio is still available at reasonable prices. The Solti Mahler resurrection is yuck. His 3 and 4 on decca are better.

For resurrection the Klemperer Columbia recently sold for 800. ERC also reissued it but sold out. Given it wasn’t recorded with a limiter it’s dynamic range is supposed to be higher, but I saw that crazy range captured only on the crossover less pnoe. Still, i like it a lot on horns with crossovers. I will try to capture it on Cessaro Zeta next trip

I like the Solti Mahler second. Both the original Decca and the reissue have great sound.

‘That said, I think the Bernstein 2nd has more of the gravitas of the piece.

 

[bonzo75]

These days, more of them have a clue.

Years ago, I went to Sikora in Vancouver and picked out a stack of Telefunken Das Alte Werke lp’s. When I went to checkout, they had no idea what the records were or how to price them. We agreed on 2 dollars Canadian each. What a haul. All records were in as new condition.

could you give some examples of these telefunkens?

 

[oldvinyl]

Ah, a gold label Super Analogue Disc, nothing better lol.

The US importer could not sell their remaining stock of the King Super Analog lp’s at the end of the 1990’s. They kept discounting them. I wound up buying dozens of them for $15 each.

Better Records also had the test pressings of some of the King Super Analog records at great prices. I picked up some of those too.

These days, they list for ridiculous prices.

 

[oldvinyl]

could you give some examples of these telefunkens?

Sure ... note the lower shelf, left hand side. That's the singles. Then there's the box sets.

 

[godofwealth]

Interestingly, new vinyl has started being issued by classical labels like DG who were the first to abandon vinyl 30 odd years ago, a turn of events I would never have predicted. Here’s a lovely recent double album of a live Carnegie Hall concert issued on new vinyl by DG. One can stream the high Rez version on Qobuz. The warmth of the concert venue comes across beautifully. The music, the performances and the artists are all top class.

 

[MtnHam]

I had my classical music epiphany in 1962 when I was was in high school and read about Beethoven's Symphony #6 being used as a means of teaching the blind from birth to understand the beauty of the pastoral countryside. I sought out a LP, (Rafael Kubelik, Royal Philharmonic, $5.99- I still have it) sat quietly and listened, and was emotionally moved. That experience opened the door for me to the world of classical music. A college course in Music Appreciation (with the playing in class of recorded samples) gave me the historic perspective. I have been listening and collecting LPs ever since, and now have a collection exceeding 6,000. Many were found in used record stores where I had to get down on my knees to search the 'on the floor' bins where the classics were relegated, but they were priced at $1! Many were in pristine condition as I suspect they were only played once or twice! Several years ago I spotted a classified ad for an estate sale that included a record collection of about 1,000 LPs. The deceased's daughter told me her father was a careful collector who bough selectively, and she wanted his collection to go to someone who would appreciate it. The records were indeed well chosen and in pristine collection. She was happy to settle for $250.

I also stream via Roon/Qobuz/Tidal and have built extensive playlists of many genres of music, with headings such as Piano, Opera, Vocal, Symphonic, Concertos, Vocal, Modern, Guitar, Jazz, Keyboard, Leader, Organ, Choral, Baroque, Sacred, String Quartet, Violin, Early, and individual composers, artists, and more. A feature of Roon is called Roon Radio whereby it selects music based on my listening history. This has led to the discovery of music, artists, composers, etc I had not heard of and greatly expanded my knowledge of the world of music and adds greatly to my musical pleasure and enjoyment. Additionally, Roon provides artists bios, album reviews, and links to similar music and artists.

I enjoy Gospel, Blues, Pop, Rock, Hawaiian (Gabby Pahanui) Country (Gilian Welch) Lucinda Williams, Hank Williams, Ry Cooder), Jazz, Americana, Blue Grass, etc. But Classical and Opera remains the core, about 80% of my listening, and my collection continues to grow.




I

 

[tima]

SXL 6512 - Britten Piano / Violin Concerto - Richter / Lubotsky - Decca UK - NM | eBay

Mega bargain.

Indeed. Thanks.

 

[tima]

‘That said, I think the Bernstein 2nd has more of the gravitas of the piece.

Do you prefer his 1960's cycle or 1980's ?


Columbia M2S695

DG 423 295-2

Bruno Walter
Otto Klemperer
Leonard Bernstein
Bernard Haitink


See the Mahler thread in my sig.

 

[bonzo75]

Do you prefer his 1960's cycle or 1980's ?

View attachment 103054
Columbia M2S695
View attachment 103055
DG 423 295-2

Bruno Walter
Otto Klemperer
Leonard Bernstein
Bernard Haitink


See the Mahler thread in my sig.

80s

 

[morricab]

so, these shop keepers who have been running these stores for years will be clueless about value of LPs and will have left the valuable ones there for 5 euro each?

You don't have to have only a dozen or so reference LPs to get good music. A lot of Decca, EMI, DG etc. LPs sound quite good and all have world class performers. And yes, most of them cost 5 CHF or less. I know a couple shops that also have the "good stuff" as well as 10s of thousands of normal classical. I am sure there are plenty of gems in there as well.

 

[morricab]

I wish I was in one of those TV shows where I could say "Honey, book me on the first flight to Zurich, and make sure I have enough luggage for, say, 3000 LPs".

You could box em up and ship them.

 

[morricab]

Sure ... note the lower shelf, left hand side. That's the singles. Then there's the box sets.
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I got some very nice Mozart quartets on Telefunken. Great sound.and performance (Alban Berg Quartet).

 

[bonzo75]

You don't have to have only a dozen or so reference LPs to get good music. A lot of Decca, EMI, DG etc. LPs sound quite good and all have world class performers. And yes, most of them cost 5 CHF or less. I know a couple shops that also have the "good stuff" as well as 10s of thousands of normal classical. I am sure there are plenty of gems in there as well.

The low priced ones are available in many places at low prices. Guidance is required to find either the good ones in them, which others haven't spotted, or to find the expensive ones at low prices.

No one is referring to a dozen, but a few hundred at least.

 

[oldvinyl]

I got some very nice Mozart quartets on Telefunken. Great sound.and performance (Alban Berg Quartet).

Agreed - these are some great performances and recordings.

 

[oldvinyl]

The low priced ones are available in many places at low prices. Guidance is required to find either the good ones in them, which others haven't spotted, or to find the expensive ones at low prices.

No one is referring to a dozen, but a few hundred at least.

I found that the "lists" have been a double edged sword. They created an interest in only the music and pressings on those lists. That sent the prices way up. Some sellers over generalized and thought it meant any classical LP must be worth a fortune. Some buyers were out for a trophy.

It also left the rest of the classical LPs unnoticed. There are many find performances and recordings of early music, Renaissance, Baroque, other composers from the Classical, Romantic and Modern periods. Often, these are just a couple dollars (or equivalent) each. If you are interested in Josquin Des Prez, Leos Janacek, Schubert lieder or opera, then there is a lot available. If you don't know if you are interested in this genre, then it is relatively inexpensive to find out.

I used to travel a lot for work. When I would land, I would head out to the local record stores before checking into the hotel. Sometimes I found great LPs at reasonable prices, other times it was a waste of time.

These days, I only buy specific reissues. No more room to store even more LPs.

 

[oldvinyl]

Do you prefer his 1960's cycle or 1980's ?

View attachment 103054
Columbia M2S695
View attachment 103055
DG 423 295-2

Bruno Walter
Otto Klemperer
Leonard Bernstein
Bernard Haitink


See the Mahler thread in my sig.

The 1964 Columbia.