# Where is Your Collection Growing Fastest?



## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I was just now shelving a large number of discs recently purchased. After giving them 2 or 3 hearings I place them on the shelves. In this process I began to notice which eras and which genres were growing the fastest in my collection. Music from the 20th century is unquestionably the fastest growing part of my collection. Among recent purchases I counted Ned Rorem, Walter Piston, David Diamond, William Bolcom, Steve Reich, David Lang, John Cage, George Crumb, Charles Griffes, Peter Lieberson, James MacMillian, John Tavener, and a good number more. Obviously American composers seem to be the nationality increasing the fastest. Vocal music... "art songs", choral, and opera is certainly the genre growing the quickest. After this? French 19th century music. Late 19th and early 20th century British music, and then medieval music. My collection of German and Russian and Italian composers is already quite sizable and most of my purchases in this area are of boxed sets... especially of works for solo piano and string quartets and chamber music (where my collection is particularly weak.

So...


1. Which era is the most rapidly growing in your collection?

2. Which nation accounts for the lion's share of your most recent purchases over the last year or so?

3. Which genre is growing the quickest?


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## Gangsta Tweety Bird (Jan 25, 2009)

im not going to look back a whole year but since the begining of 2010 my biggest period has been baroque music with post-wwii music close behind. almost half from german composers. as far as genre goes keyboard music (piano, organ and harpsichord), choral music (mostly a capella) and chamber music (all different kinds, from string quartets and baroque trios to clarinet sonatas and weird percussion music) are all about equally prominent


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

(1) Steady in my collection because I have pretty much stuck with the same period; Baroque to early Romantic. That's the general nswer.

(3) More specifically, Vivaldi operas have grown significantly. This is due to the resurgence of those works by HIP artists (after the market has recorded all of Handel's 40 or so operas and two dozen or so oratorios). So my collection is correlated with that.

(2) As for nations, difficult to say. The German and Italian monopolies still stand pretty much!


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## Jaime77 (Jun 29, 2009)

French music from 1800 to 1925 seems to be the biggest growth area.


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## Mozartgirl92 (Dec 13, 2009)

Despite having Mozart as the favorite composer the biggest part of my collection contains music from the romantic period and after.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> I was just now shelving a large number of discs recently purchased. After giving them 2 or 3 hearings I place them on the shelves.


Wow....!

I have a fairly sparse collection which I don't really wish to expand to huge collector's sizes. Part of this is space restriction. The other, is probably because I'm thankful I dumped all of the Mozart/Bach/Beethoven and stereotypically 'classical' genre music I listened to over 15 years ago.

It's enabled me to specialise and appreciate (mostly) early 20th century Russian; Polish; Hungarian; Czech and Scandinavian music.

ANYWAY. My collection is probably growing most rapidly in duplicates. Or alternative versions of famous pieces (or famous for me ) i.e. 6 different versions of Szymanowski's two string quartets lol.

Lion's share: the former Soviet bloc countries.

Genre: String quartet. Everything else pales in comparison


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## ForAlMighty (Dec 27, 2009)

I purchase music not according to time but to performers and my favorite composers. 

For composers: Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven. For performers: Pollini, Karajan, etc.

Thus, my fastest growing collection always bear these great figures' names.


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

Why would you specialise Head Case? You lose all peripheral vision and have less perspective.

For me the lions share is also former soviet block countries.
Specifically Russian orchestral music from Rimsky-Korsakov to Shchedrin.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

emiellucifuge said:


> Why would you specialise Head Case? You lose all peripheral vision and have less perspective.


Intensity; emotion; profundity.

Depth of musical experience, which general tip tap music cannot offer.

It's not that I'm not aware of conventional orthodox classical music; far from it. Conventional/orthodox classical music just doesn't offer me very much, other than background music.


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## ozradio (Oct 23, 2008)

I'm still building my basic repetoire, but am becoming more and more interested in opera. No specific eras or composers yet.


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## KaerbEmEvig (Dec 15, 2009)

Right now I will be buying (online as it offers better price in general) Bach English Concert by Arkiv and a collection of Vivaldi's works (preferably his string works); as for non-classical music: Cymande anthology, Opeth's Morningrise and Damnation, Mahavishnu anthology. I will see where it goes from there.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Actually I'm starting to explore more various Mahler recordings, but it is quite difficult to enjoy many of them after listening to Solti's set at first place.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

More specifically, Vivaldi operas have grown significantly. This is due to the resurgence of those works by HIP artists (after the market has recorded all of Handel's 40 or so operas and two dozen or so oratorios). So my collection is correlated with that.

Vivaldi has grown a bit for me as well. I'm no stickler for HIP... but I have purchased a number of recordings of the works that are part of the cache of scores only recently unveiled. I will most certainly be exploring his operas and other vocal music in the near future. As for Handel... his operas are most surely the most glaring void in my collection. Not that I have nothing, but I most certainly need a good many more. While Bach is still God, Handel and Vivaldi have long been underrated as a result of the fact that a great majority of their operatic efforts and other vocal works are not as well known as they should be.

As for nations, difficult to say. The German and Italian monopolies still stand pretty much!

I sincerely doubt that the dominance of the "German/Austrian axis" will be superseded in my collection anytime soon. My Bach collection surpasses that of most other nations (as it should be) and then we have all the lieder of Schubert and Schumann and the endless music of Mozart and Haydn... to say nothing of Wagner, Mahler, Richard Strauss, and even Henze.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

String quartet. Everything else pales in comparison

String quartets and quintets and trios and other such are admittedly the weakest aspect of my collection. While I have long had the odd disc of this or that essential work (ie. Schubert's _Death and the Maiden_) I have only recently set about filling the gap with box sets of the quartets by the major players: Mozart, Bartok, Shostakovitch, Beethoven, Schubert, etc... I've yet to get around to Dvorak and have a solid collection of Haydn, but I sincerely doubt I;ll be purchasing much in the genre by obscure Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, and Scandinavian composers.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I purchase music not according to time but to performers and my favorite composers. 

Of course. But after attaining a more than sizable collection of my favorites I have branched out into exploring other possibilities. I don't believe I've ever made a conscious effort to simply purchase music from a given era or genre because I recognized that my collection there was somehow lacking... but rather because the music interested me. My current predilection for 19th century French music, for example, is the result of my simply branching off from Debussy and Faure (whom I dearly love) into the exploration of composers who may have had something similar... yet different... to add: Duparc, Saint-Saëns, Satie, Koechlin, Massenet, and dare I say it... Alkan.


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## Orgelbear (Jan 2, 2009)

An interesting question that makes us think critically about where we put a lot of money...

I used to collect to have a "representative" library. But my collection is big enough I don't have to do that any more. And I'm old enough I can buy what I want without apologizing.

In reverse order,

3. Which genre is growing the quickest? 
Probably a tie between choral and organ, the two areas where I put my performing efforts as a chorister and a keyboard duffer.

2. Which nation accounts for the lion's share of your most recent purchases over the last year or so?
England, with USA coming in a close second.

1. Which era is the most rapidly growing in your collection?
20th & 21st century, with late Baroque coming in second because of my organ music preferences.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Ooooh! Orgelbear... I'd be interested in any recommendations you might have beyond the more obvious with regard especially to contemporary choral music (vocal music is undoubtedly my first love) but also contemporary organ.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

1. Which era is the most rapidly growing in your collection?

20th century, hands down. Might be the only one that's actually growing, unless one counts the Mahler... which I suppose one might.

2. Which nation accounts for the lion's share of your most recent purchases over the last year or so?

German and (more recently) French.

3. Which genre is growing the quickest? 

Orchestral is first, opera second.

Lately I've been tending a lot toward Boulez's CDs. His Sony CDs are being rereleased in very inexpensive boxes, so I'm kind of starting there, supplementing those with the DG recordings of stuff that isn't on his Sony CDs (Wagner, Mahler, Bruckner, etc.). The four Sony boxes I've gotten so far have been dominantly orchestral (ballet for the Stravinsky set) with a bit of opera (the Berg and Debussy boxes have Wozzeck and Pelleas et Melisande). I've been getting into opera anyway, but haven't gotten many opera CDs, so I think this is a great deal for me.


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## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

Actually I like to ask this kind of question before, just to see how the member of this forum's musical taste.

My answers :
1. Which era is the most rapidly growing in your collection?

I started my classical music listening by getting lots of "top ten" CD, like the sony greatest hits etc. After a while I begin to regret and started collecting cd/mp3 in more specific way.

My favorite era is Classical to Late romantic. it is like between Haydn era and finished in Dvorak type of Late Romantic.

2. Which nation accounts for the lion's share of your most recent purchases over the last year or so?
Mostly Europe.

3. Which genre is growing the quickest? 
Fastest growing genre is STRING QUARTETS, followed by chamber works and lastly a piano works. reason for specializing in string quartet is lack of time to listen to other genre.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

The rare repertoire of the late 19th + 20th Century has been the focus
of attention for the last months. But I also got some more recordings
of standard works, including a lot of Ansermet, which was hitherto considered
less interesting - a fine, jazzy version of Frank Martin´s "Etudes for String
Orchestra" was a starter. Continued collecting recordings by such artists
as Scherchen (I own the most of his recordings now), early Rubinstein, Stokowski,
Paray, early Dorati etc. 
LPs rather than CDs have been in vast majority; the reason is that they have 
had these massive sales of classical LP stocks with extremely low prices in 
Copenhagen, and prices are still very modest. Before Christmas, I bought 
about 200 LPs for a total price of about 100 Euros, all in good condition and 
including many rarities and original issues, such as the Mercury repertoire 
(discovered two with cowers by the Danish artist Bjørn Wiinblad, 
whom I have written a small article about and plan to do one more, provided 
that at least one more of his LP-covers is found). The second-hand shop 
had bought containers of LPs from the US also, so there were many otherwise 
non-obtainable things in the sales. Another low-budget shop of CDs have had 
constant sales of CDs for 1-3 Euros, so that was tempting as well. And I bought 
some LPs of rare Czech repertoire when visiting Prague in December (Jezek, 
Suk, and Field`s Piano Cti with O´Connor on Fidelio, which I had been looking
for for about 10 years, was also there). Also bought a bit in Lviv in Ukraine in 
October, where the music shops had only a very small selection though,
including Mahler Symphonies 5,6,9 with Kondrashin, and in Cracow on the way
home, including the Sibelius CD symphonies with Maazel, where I wanted the
4th in a CD-version.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

I like Ansermet's wispy rendition of Debussy's orchestral work. I'm constantly told it's not the best version and that it is dated and I shouldn't be liking it. But I do 

The rare late 19th century and 20th century repertoire is a great way to sum it up


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*1. Which era is the most rapidly growing in your collection?*

C20th.

*2. Which nation accounts for the lion's share of your most recent purchases over the last year or so?*

No specific nation, but mainly continental Europe, esp. central & Eastern. I'm beginning to also explore the Americas - Bernstein, Carter, Hovhaness, Villa-Lobos, Guarneri, Chavez, Piazzolla, Ginastera, etc.

*3. Which genre is growing the quickest? *

Concertos, symphonies, chamber works. I'm beginning to get into solo piano a bit as well.


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## Guest (Mar 1, 2010)

1. Which era is the most rapidly growing in your collection?
Currently it would have to be Baroque - specifically Bach, with a little Vivaldi mixed in. I have been enjoying the Bach recordings of Murray Perahia, as well as Masaaki Suzuki.

2. Which nation accounts for the lion's share of your most recent purchases over the last year or so?
Germany/Austria/Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation

3. Which genre is growing the quickest? 
Baroque concertos, symphonies


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## TWhite (Feb 23, 2010)

Well, my collecting has slowed down in the past year or so, but before that, it was piano music from Post-Romantic composers such as Szymanowski, Korngold, Berg (the Sonata), Liapunov (the Transcendental Etudes), and the early piano works of Richard Strauss. Never quite got into Scriabine--nothing against him, he just doesn't quite hit me. 

Then Copland and Barber. And the Lowell Liebermann Second Piano Concerto, which is a kick in the pants, LOL! 

Right now, I seem to be on a Choral Kick, and am seriously looking at and listening to Palestrina. I think I also need a new recording of the Brahms Requiem--the one I have is wonderful, (Schwartzkopf/Fischer-Dieskau) but it's well over forty years old. I'm interested to see what some more current artists have done with it. I have found a relatively recent recording of Walton's "Belshazzar's Feast" (anyone remember that one?) that pretty much knocks me off the couch (Leonard Slatkin). 

Orchestrally, I think I should get some newer Mahler Symphonies, but frankly it would take Hell freezing over to part me with my Solti/Chicago Symphony recordings--though I'm fast becoming a big fan of Gustavo Dudamel's way with the First. 

And speaking of Dudamel, his recording of Latin-American orchestral works with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra is an absolute delight, IMO--especially the Ginastera "Estancia". I like Ginastera a lot, and what those young people do--especially with the concluding "Malambo" is pretty Knock-You-Out-Of-Your-Seat spectacular--which it's supposed to be. 

As far as Opera--I'm looking for a good (or great) Verdi "Falstaff." Any suggestions?

Tom


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

Over the last 5 years I have been amassing a very large collection of American music,specifically composers from the years 1920-1965.To me these are very under appreciated composers.
The major players like Copland and Barber have received their due but the masters such Diamond,Creston,Hovhaness,Piston and the like deserve more current recognition.

Jim
Vancouver,Wa


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Over the last 5 years I have been amassing a very large collection of American music,specifically composers from the years 1920-1965.To me these are very under appreciated composers.
The major players like Copland and Barber have received their due but the masters such Diamond,Creston,Hovhaness,Piston and the like deserve more current recognition.


This is the area I have been exploring a great deal as well.


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## handlebar (Mar 19, 2009)

Thanks to Naxos, there have been quite a few new works presented to the buying public. ALso, Albany Records have been in the forefront of American compositions.

Jim


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## Il Seraglio (Sep 14, 2009)

Mostly romantic music and opera DVD's or recordings (Mozart and Wagner).

Neglected areas would be baroque music and modern music, but I hope to catch up on that area soon. I also intend to expand my opera listening to more Strauss, Verdi and Gluck. Maybe some Bellini too.


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