# Gaps in your collection



## pianississimo

I have just noticed that my collection contains not one Schubert Symphony! I've heard a couple of them before but have no recordings at all. 
I've got songs and impromptus and sonatas, but no symphonies! 

Any suggestions of good recordings to try?

So this thread is for people to post details of their own gaps and for people to suggest good ways of filling them...


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## Albert7

I am missing so much in my iTunes collections. I need Berg's Violin Concerto etc. etc.


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## Triplets

Well, if you are asking for Schubert Symphony recommendations, I have had two sets. One is Roy Goodman conducting, I forgot which HIPP Orchestra. I was less than satisfied with it and ater burning it to a hard drive donated it to a charity. I am much happier with Blomstedt set with the Dresden Staatkapelle which is also quite cheap on Brilliant Classics.

I think HvK recorded the Schubert Symphonies, but the bit I heard of that set seemed extremely hard driven. There are many fine recordings of individual Symphonies. Keliber did 3 and 6 (I think), Otmar Suitner a superb 5 and 8, and Haitink my favorite 9.
btw, there is a movement to renumber the schubert Symphonies so I am using the old system...


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## phlrdfd

pianississimo said:


> I have just noticed that my collection contains not one Schubert Symphony! I've heard a couple of them before but have no recordings at all.
> I've got songs and impromptus and sonatas, but no symphonies!
> 
> Any suggestions of good recordings to try?


Symphonies 5, 8 and 9 tend to be the most popular and are probably good ones to start with if you don't want to buy a complete set. Sticking with stereo recommendations, which is I think the way to go when you're getting to know works, Szell's recording of the ninth on Sony (not the later one on EMI) is one of my favorites. The disc by Krips and the LSO with 8 and 9 is among the better ones. There is a CD out there by Kertesz and the VPO with 5 and 9 (And if you can find the 8th with Kertesz and the VPO, that is a great recording). There is a set with all three of these symphonies by Solti and the VPO.


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## senza sordino

I think this is an outstanding version of the Berg violin concerto. The Beethoven is good too. 
View attachment 62901


There are many gaps in my collection. I'm looking for the following:
1) Prokofiev string quartets
2) Violin sonatas of Ravel, Shostakovich, Bartok
3) Elliot Carter, but I'm not sure what specifically.
4) Viotti violin concerti
5) Contemporary music, with electronics. Though here I've little idea where to begin.


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## StlukesguildOhio

Schubert Symphonies? I would begin with this:



Schubert demands a Viennese lyricism. He was the master of the song. His symphonies must sing. Here Beecham is unrivaled. If only he had recorded all of Schubert's symphonies... and if only these were all available. Furtwängler's 9th is great... as is Kleiber's 8th (or Szell's for that matter).

As for complete sets... I found Bohm to stately... not lyrical enough. I avoided Karajan for some time feeling that his take would be too "Beethovian"... but I found them to be quite good. My favorites, however, are the recordings of Neville Marriner:










and Marc Minkowski's live recording:


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## StlukesguildOhio

I quite like this Berg:


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## Weston

I have very few Bela Bartok solo piano pieces. I'm especially interested in the "Allegro barbaro." (If you are familiar with progressive rock at all, you'll know why.) I also wonder if the Mikrokosmos studies are listenable.


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## hpowders

No Schubert chamber music. However, that's a conscious choice. Still a gap.


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## SeptimalTritone

hpowders said:


> No Schubert chamber music. However, that's a conscious choice. Still a gap.


Best job I ever had.


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## hpowders

SeptimalTritone said:


> Best job I ever had.


This is only the second job I've ever had.

Still waiting for Angelina to PM me.

Dang she's hawt!!


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## StlukesguildOhio

I currently have 810 items on my Amazon.com "Wish List". I guess whatever "gaps" are in my collection would begin there.


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## MoonlightSonata

A lack of 20th-century music, because the shop from which I get most of my CDs is a bit lacking in that department.


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## brotagonist

pianississimo said:


> So this thread is for people to post details of their own gaps and for people to suggest good ways of filling them...


The gaps in my collection are mostly intentional :tiphat: I have no intention of getting every work by every composer I like. I am trying to pick the pieces I appreciate the most. Naturally, over the years, I have filled in lots of gaps: listening made me want more of a composer; or I decided to introduce a composer to my collection.


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## arpeggio

Too little baroque and Schubert Lieder.


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## Bulldog

No gaps in my collection; all the cd covers touch one another.:tiphat:


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## pianississimo

Thanks for the recommendation. I've gone for the Blomstedt set. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DMNMKBE/ref=pe_385721_37986871_TE_item#

Very inexpensive and good buyer reviews. Good old zoverstocks! They get so much business out of me!


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## joen_cph

> (...)
> 5) *Contemporary music, with electronics. Though here I've little idea where to begin*.


Would highly recommend Tristan Murail´s _L´Esprit des Dunes_, for Electronics & Small Orchestra. Also, very "listener-friendly" and cinematic.


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## Morimur

Of course everyone will have gaps in their collection-it'd take a sizeable fortune to have absolutely _everything._


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## Figleaf

I don't have enough really good acoustic era operatic 78s which haven't been reissued in modern format. Most of my shellac was bought piecemeal and pretty randomly when I was a kid, and while there were a few bargains you wouldn't find now, it's mostly not stuff I would buy knowing what I know now. Fewer and better is the way to go.


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## Fagotterdammerung

My collection is all gaps. I don't think I have complete anyone ( well, maybe Varese and Webern ). I'm honestly not much of a collector, and the combination of poverty and Youtube is not hugely motivating unless it's something I really love.


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## brotagonist

Fagotterdammerung said:


> I don't think I have complete anyone ( well, maybe Varese and Webern ).


Difficult not to have  Numerous performances, even!


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## pianississimo

true but I mean a gap that bothers you particularly and you're not sure how to fill it.


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## pianississimo

arpeggio said:


> Too little baroque and Schubert Lieder.










this is one I bought recently for listening before a particular concert. Awesome singing and a great variety of pieces.

Also this is one of my favourite cds of all.


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## Fagotterdammerung

pianississimo said:


> true but I mean a gap that bothers you particularly and you're not sure how to fill it.


Sometimes I think I want to be completest on the Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues. Every recording ever done by everybody!

I usually mellow out before hitting the purchase button, though.


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## PetrB

If I had a collection, and it were laid out end to end chronologically, starting with medieval on the left, I imagine that between Schubert and the little bit of Schumann, there would be a gap from there to Mahler wide enough to drive a wide-load truck hauling a small house through.


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## Radames

I don't have any Lithuanian opera.


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## Centropolis

I wouldn't know where to begin with my gaps. The problem is, there are so many composers and there will always be some gaps no matter what. Looking at my current collection, considering that I've only been listening and buying for 18 months of so, I am missing mostly early music and modern ones. But I cannot listen to too many Pre-Bach music without getting sleepy so I am not intending to buy much.

I once said that I think I have most of the main repertoire covered at this point but then I look again.....well maybe not. But it all depends on what you think it's "main repertoire". I just bought a set of Martinu symphonies today. Would that be consider main? I have no idea.


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## pentaquine

I would recommend Karl Bohm


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## Albert7

I have way too many gaps in my collection I've noticed ... Lots of iTunes albums still waiting to be purchased. I need to get more Bach and Vivaldi into my iPod.


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## elgar's ghost

Thankfully this list, although by no means definitive and only includes composers of whom I already have a fair amount of their work, is rather shorter than this time last year:

Hindemith - Cardillac, The Long Christmas Dinner and songs with chamber ensemble
Hartmann - Concerto funebre and works for solo violin and solo piano
Messiaen - Catalogue d'oiseaux
Britten - Owen Wingrave and Prince of the Pagodas
Prokofiev - The Fiery Angel
Schoenberg - Die Jakobsleiter and Das Buch der hängenden Gärten
Reger - solo violin works
Schnittke - Life With an Idiot and Peer Gynt
Weill - Der Protaganist and The Tsar Has His Photograph Taken
Kodaly - various chamber works, esp. the two string quartets


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