# Great Performance, Great Sound Quality, and Cheap Too!



## kmisho (Oct 22, 2009)

Usually I stay away from the bargain basement labels because there's almost always some serious deficiency. If the performance is good, the recording quality is bad. Or maybe the 1st movement of whatever is nice but the 2nd movement is way too slow. Something...

Between us, though, I bet we've found a lot of cheapo CD's that are excellent all the way around. So in these tough times let help each other out with a list. Here's mine.

Ravel - Daphnis and Chloe - Michael Gielen conducting the SWR Symphony

http://www.amazon.com/Ravel-Daphnis-Chloé-Maurice/dp/B000J3FBLQ/

For a long time I thought Boulez did the best Ravel. In some ways I like this cheap version the best of all. Don't believe me, just look at the reviews on Amazon!

I recently bought it directly from Allegre Music for less than $6, but it is apparently on backorder. I wonder if I bought the last one,

http://www.allegro-music.com/online_catalog.asp?sku_tag=ANO3636410

Of course you can always get a used one from Amazon too.

Before I forget, there was only 1 thing I would criticize: no chapters. The CD was released as one 56-minute track.


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## Monte Verdi (Apr 1, 2011)

kmisho,

Things have come a long way in the last 20 or so years from the Baltic regions to the west. I was a buyer at a classical music store and remember being approached by a music distributor back in 1989 to pick up Naxos recordings. At the time I could not justify buying budget CD's with the Lithuanian Symphony Orchestra over say Berlin, NY Philharmonic or Philadelphia on budget reissues from the majors such as CBS, EMI/Angel, (Polygram) DG, Decca, Argo etc. 
Today, that has all changed, Naxos and some others have been recording and producing some of the finest performances of any label in existence today. From orchestral to chamber, early to modern the list goes on and on. Labels like Naxos have completely changed the game of quality versus price where the majors used to have the stronghold, not anymore! I suggest you give them a shot you will be surprised. Oh, the majors still have the stronghold on Opera I believe, but they may end soon as well.

BTW, I have nothing to do with Naxos or any other label for that matter.


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## kmisho (Oct 22, 2009)

Naxos is cool, but I must have good reviews before buying anything.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

kmisho said:


> Naxos is cool, but I must have good reviews before buying anything.


Many reviewers are fools. Some have their own agendas. In ALL cases the review will reflect their tastes to some extent. Their taste is almost certainly going to be different from yours.

While reviews can be useful, they should not be regarded as sacrosanct or as pre-requisite before buying a CD (and I write this as a regular reviewer of CDs). There are some very fine CDs which, for a variety of reasons, simply have not made it onto any review pages. Will you deny yourself the opportunity of ever exploring these?

I trust my ears, my experience and my knowledge of the performers. And, of course, sometimes, there is only one lone recording of some works available.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Before online retailers like Amazon Marketplace and Berkshire Record Outlet, one was severely limited to, "Great Performance, Great Sound Quality, and Cheap Too!" For main core or obscure composers, the easy recommendation for many was Naxos. Many now defunct brick 'n mortars weren't interested in selling used, close-out, OOP CDs, or too many new or reissued budget-priced CDs. They wanted what they perceived to be a bigger profit margin. Used CD stores flourished for a while, but increased rents put many of those out of business.


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## kmisho (Oct 22, 2009)

Delicious Manager said:


> Many reviewers are fools. Some have their own agendas. In ALL cases the review will reflect their tastes to some extent. Their taste is almost certainly going to be different from yours.
> 
> While reviews can be useful, they should not be regarded as sacrosanct or as pre-requisite before buying a CD (and I write this as a regular reviewer of CDs). There are some very fine CDs which, for a variety of reasons, simply have not made it onto any review pages. Will you deny yourself the opportunity of ever exploring these?
> 
> I trust my ears, my experience and my knowledge of the performers. And, of course, sometimes, there is only one lone recording of some works available.


It's always better if I can listen rather than work from reviews. With Naxos, I look mostly for multiple "bad recording quality" type remarks. Enough of those, and I normally hold off.


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## kmisho (Oct 22, 2009)

Vaneyes said:


> Before online retailers like Amazon Marketplace and Berkshire Record Outlet, one was severely limited to, "Great Performance, Great Sound Quality, and Cheap Too!" For main core or obscure composers, the easy recommendation for many was Naxos. Many now defunct brick 'n mortars weren't interested in selling used, close-out, OOP CDs, or too many new or reissued budget-priced CDs. They wanted what they perceived to be a bigger profit margin. Used CD stores flourished for a while, but increased rents put many of those out of business.


The Legacy Of The CD: Innovation That Ate Itself

CD's were an overpriced cash cow for most of their existence. I still buy CD's but used more often than not. Online marketplaces make it oh so easy to buy tons of great music cheap if you're willing to take a chance on used.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

kmisho said:


> It's always better if I can listen rather than work from reviews. With Naxos, I look mostly for multiple "bad recording quality" type remarks. Enough of those, and I normally hold off.


Sometimes you can listen to little chunks of works on Amazon and iTunes, although you only get between 30 seconds and a minute - not really long enough to give you much of an idea of an interpretation. But better than nothing in some cases...


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Apart from Naxos, great bargains can be found in the Brilliant Classics boxes - often reissues of more famous labels at bargain price.


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## Ralfy (Jul 19, 2010)

I look at the annotations of various awards and ratings received for various works in the downloadable Naxos catalog (in PDF) as well as _Penguin Guide_.


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## Monte Verdi (Apr 1, 2011)

kmisho said:


> Naxos is cool, but I must have good reviews before buying anything.


Check out reviews of Georg Tintner's Bruckner cycle. Many consider it to be amongst the finest historically thus far.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

HM's Musique d' Abord (now 'Gold'), Apex, Eloquence (Int'l and Australia), EMI Encore, Sony Classic, Regis, Alto, Helios can yield good inexpensive results new or used, but as with anything do your homework and don't buy blind. MDT (new product only) is often a good online retailer for the inexpensive labels.


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