# What are the works of which you have the most performances?



## Algonquin

Since my entire collection happens to be situated on a NAS, I took the opportunity to quickly scan through my favourite composers to answer the above question and the answer was surprising. Ready for the big reveal? I own 9 copies each of Beethovens 4th Piano Concerto, his Violin Concerto and Mozart's 17th Piano Concerto. I own 10 copies each of Mozart's 20th Piano Concerto and his 21st Piano Concerto. I own 11 copies of his Sinfonia Concertante and 12 of his 25th Piano Concerto. The most copies of one work is 13 and I was surprised to find that they're both by Tchaikovsky; his Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 6. The opera of which I had the most copies is La Boheme and the Ballet (and this too surprised me) was Gayne. I shall leave the counting of Choral, chamber and instrumental to another day.
Check it out yourself, it could surprise you. I can't remember the last time I listened to Tchai's Violin Concerto.


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## Art Rock

50+ versions of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.
50+ versions of Mahler's Symphony 4.

These are the only two that have spun out of control. Usually I go for 1, maximum 2, versions.


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## joen_cph

Art Rock said:


> 50+ versions of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.
> 50+ versions of Mahler's Symphony 4.
> 
> These are the only two that have spun out of control. Usually I go for 1, maximum 2, versions.


Concerning Das Lied, Klemperer/emi usually comes up - a couple of other favourites?

30 versions of a work is the absolute maximum in my own collection. Das Lied is about 25-30. I keep a register as Word documents.


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## Art Rock

A few favourites:


Original version for tenor and alto

Karajan/Kollo/Ludwig (DG)
Walter/Patzak/Ferrier (Decca)
Haitink/King/Baker (Philips)

Alternative version for tenor and baritone

Bernstein/King/Fischer-Dieskau (Decca)


Then there are a number of other versions (Cantonese texts, Four singers, One singers, Chamber orchestra version, Piano version) that I collected out of curiosity (the piano version with tenor and mezzo is surprisingly quite good).


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## elgar's ghost

Eight each of Mahler's symphonies and _Das Lied von der Erde_, which is _ver-r-ry_ small taters compared to some here, but that's enough for me. I'm periodically tempted by the Boulez cycle, though.


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## Algonquin

Oh, I didn't include Mahler, that was too obvious, I have 44 versions of the 6th because, as the three of you know, it is problematic.


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## Merl

I haven't counted but my worst would definitely be one of the Beethoven symphonies (possibly the 7th). Including single recordings, partial sets and cycles I'd guess around the 180 mark.


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## Algonquin

I have a few 7ths too


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## Itullian

The Beethoven piano sonatas and string quartets
50 or 60 individual sets each.


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## NoCoPilot

Wow. The term "rabbit hole" springs to mind. There is SO MUCH music in the world that to spend your whole life consumed by different versions of the same works seems like, well I dunno. Myopia?

I mean, I guess there's nothing wrong with that. Pole vaulters at world class levels probably can't row a boat very well. "Jack of one trade, master of one"?


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## Bulldog

My max. is Bach's Goldberg Variations - well over 100. It's nuts and I rid myself of the addiction a few years ago.


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## Kiki

Not counting duplicates of the same recording...

What come into mind are,
68 x Beethoven 5
67 x Mahler 6
66 x Beethoven 7

Honestly, I don't think these numbers are ridiculous, given that there are more enthusiastic collectors around here.

The followings may sound more ridiculous, but in fact these are only a small subset of recordings left by these conductors!
11 x Karajan's Beethoven 9
9 x Mravinsky's Shostakovich 5

The only work that I have close to but still not quite a complete discography is this.
19 x Martinů 6

Obviously collecting Martinů is easier than say Beethoven.


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## mbhaub

Elgar 2nd: 34 and counting.
Scheherazade comes close: 30


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## SanAntone

*Duruflé* - _Requiem_ (~20)
*Debussy* - _Pelléas et Mélisande_ (~12)
*Liszt* - _Sonata in B Minor _ (hundreds)


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## amfortas

Wow, thanks for this thread! Up to now, I thought I was compulsive and sick.

Now I don't have to feel ashamed, since I haven't even scratched the surface. *You* guys are compulsive and sick!


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## Bill Cooke

I have more recordings of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique than any other work - I have no idea how many, but trust me, it's a lot.

Others works that I seem to collect more than normal:

Mahler: Symphony 6
Korngold: Symphony
Bartok: Music for Strings, Percussion and celesta
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Shostakovich: Symphonies 4, 8, 11
Vaughan Williams: Symphony 4
Holst: The Planets


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## Malx

A mere novice by some standards - I have 31 recordings of Mahler's 2nd quite of lot of other works are in double figures but I can't be bothered checking.


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## sfrobcurry

*Most recordings*

It's with opera/vocal, that I've mostly accumulated multiple recordings of one work. Pelleas et Melisande has a very special place in my heart. I have 10 recordings of that. 9 ring cycles. 6 Tristan & Isoldes. 6 Elektras. 7 Rosenkavaliers. 5 Salomes. 8 different singers for the Schubert Lieder…3 or 4 recordings of the Bach Passions & B minor mass. 6 Mozart requiems…Pelleas is the most at 10.


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## apricissimus

I have around 15 recordings of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony. More than half of those were acquired sort of by accident, as part of larger sets. I don't think I need that many recordings of it (though it's a great work, of course).

The work I have the most of on purpose is Shostakovich's 13th symphony, which has some special significance to me. I have 10 recordings of that one. At one point I thought it might be fun to try to collect every recording of it that I possibly could, but in some cases it would involve spending $30 or more on some out-of-print CD or LP, and I guess that's a threshold I've been unwilling to cross thus far! Not when there are other things to listen to and spend my money on that I don't already know by heart.


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## jegreenwood

11 Beethoven symphony cycles plus individual recordings
9 Brahms symphony cycles plus individual recordings

(Unless I can also count additional ones available on Tidal )


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## Kreisler jr

I don't think I have >30 recordings anything. But I have quite a few things in the low double digits, about 9 complete Brahms symphony cycles and about a handful of singles, a bit more for Beethoven. Also about a dozen of Schubert's string quintets or most of Beethoven's piano sonatas and quartets. Goldbergs, Diabellis, AoF, Bruckner 7, and Mahler 9 also close to 10. A few works might get up to 20, such as Beethoven's Pathetique sonata or 5th symphony, often in recitals or boxes. I also have an absurd number of Chopin's b flat minor sonata from pianist boxes (I am not sure I ever bought a disc with that sonata on purpose, even my first single disc of it seems more important for the Etudes op.25.)

The bulk of my collection is probably from stuff with around 3-7 recordings. Usually some of these were acquired in larger boxes, not alway bought for that particular piece.

Of vocal music I have 5x Fidelio and Don Giovanni, 6x St. John, about 7x Winterreise and Messiah and 9x Missa solemnis, but some Schubert lied frequently on anthologies probably even more often. 3x The Ring but I have listened only to the Solti...


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## Merl

I forgot to mention LVB string quartet cycles, Brahms and Schumann symphony cycles and Janacek String Quartet recordings.


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## starthrower

7 or 8 recordings of Mahler 5. Around five each of Beethoven 5,6,7 & 9. Everything else is four or less.


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## Dimace

Malx said:


> A mere novice by some standards - I have 31 recordings of Mahler's 2nd quite of lot of other works are in double figures but I can't be bothered checking.


Saturday evening, who bothers counting CDs and LPs? Make a double and tomorrow we have time for the double figures. :lol:

(by the way, I believe I must have more than 50 recordings for Bruckner's 7,8 and 9, but who cares?)


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## Josquin13

I've never really counted on an individual basis - per recording. But I've only purchased a larger quantity of recordings for works that especially interest & fascinate me. In other words, I've never bought a ton of different recordings for music that I just like.

I do remember that some years ago I stacked up all my CDs on the floor alphabetically for each composer, so I could place them in order on some newly bought shelves. & I recall that the highest number of stacks were for J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, and Claude Debussy--as I used to listen to either Bach or Mozart virtually everyday, & am crazy about Debussy (& I'm almost as keen on Ravel.) I recall that it was my goal back then to hear every single note that these three composers had penned (which I did, & then later did the same for Ravel).

Considering that Debussy wasn't nearly as prolific as Bach & Mozart, I'd imagine that I have more CDs per Debussy work than the other two (except for possibly Bach, who is my favorite composer, next to Josquin). In fact, Debussy's solo piano music has held a special fascination for me over the decades. I'd bet that I own more recordings of his Preludes Books 1 & 2 than just about anyone. What's worse, I'll still occasionally buy a new set, in fact, I've bought six new sets of Debussy's complete solo piano works over the past five or six years! (Beroff on Denon, Chaplin, Korstick, Devine, Planés, & Ogawa).

So, let's see if I can count the number of Preludes recordings that I own, if I'm going to be perfectly honest (& embarrass myself),

Zimerman
Egorov
Michelangeli
Gieseking
Marcelle Meyer (who worked with Debussy on the Preludes)
Ogawa
Pludermacher (live)
Freire (only Book 1)
Howat
Osborne
Bavouzet
Lubimov (period piano)
Bianconi
Ciani
Fergus-Thompson
Henkemans
François
Pollini
Dalberto
Aimard
Paul Jacobs
Thibaudet
O'Rourke (Book 1)
Catharine Collard
Roge (& his earlier Decca Book 1)
Viitasalo
Arrau
Noel Lee
Piemontesi
Ousset
Planés
Rouvier
Sasaki
Monique HaasX2 (DG & Erato)
Werner Haas
Helffer
Austbø
Lasry (period piano)
BeroffX2 (EMI & Denon)
Korstick
Gulda
Rév (Hyperion, but not Saga)
Cassard
S. Richter
Haguenauer
Ciccolini
Crossley
Robert Casadesus
Schvartz
Immerseel (period piano)
Gvetadze (Book 1)
Bennett Lerner
Pommier (via a box set)
Fevrier
Lefébure (Book 1)
Chaplin
Kocsis
Devine
Larderet (Book 2)
Bolet (selected, 16 Preludes)
Paraskivesco
Cascioli
Ericourt (who worked with Debussy)
Michael Levinas (Book 1)
Zaidee Parkinson (Book 2)

Plus, a handful of historical recordings of selected Preludes by,

Debussy himself 
Ciampi (who worked with Debussy on the Preludes)
Copeland (who studied all of Debussy's piano music with the composer, and according to Copeland, had the composer's endorsement & approval)
Gaby Casadesus (who was friends with Debussy's daughter, Claude-Emma or "Chouchou") 
Schmitz (who, as a young man, worked with Debussy on his piano music)
Tagliaferro

WHO AM I MISSING?????

That was a joke. Well, almost--I am surprised that Jean-Philippe Collard has never recorded the Preludes, & if he did, I'd definitely buy his set. I've also heard good things about Edward Kilenyi's Book 1, but don't believe it's ever been released on CD. Plus, I'd buy a new set by Ivo Pogorelich in a heartbeat, if he were to record them in the future: 



. So, I may not be done just yet...

In total, that's six individual recordings of Book 1, two individual recordings of Book 2, various recordings of selected Preludes, and FIFTY-NINE sets of both Books 1 & 2! I doubt anyone can match those numbers? (or would even want to...). So, yes, clearly the Preludes are an obsession of mine. Are there any other Debussy (or Ravel) ADDICTS out there? or am I the only one?

But that's not all. I'm also obsessed with Debussy's Images Books 1 & 2 (although here, I've decided that Michelangeli, Moravec, & Kocsis pretty much sit at the top of the heap), as well as his late Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp, and own a lot of recordings of those works, too. Not to mention the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune & Trois Nocturnes...

In addition, I've collected a huge number of recordings of the solo piano music of Robert Schumann over the decades--such as his Davidsbündlertänze, for instance, which fascinates me (though partly because most of the major Schumann pianists didn't record it, so it's been harder to find recordings that I like). But I don't want to count them. I already know it's way too many. Besides, Schumann speaks to my heart and imagination in a way that I find special & unique. & he's not an easy composer to play fantastically well--so one has to listen to a lot of different recordings to find the performances & pianists that are most special. & I've done that. So, I'll purchase a new Schumann piano recording only very rarely these days. Although if it existed, I'd still be interested to buy a box set of the recordings by Clara Schumann's students, whose playing I've heard on You Tube and been fascinated by. At present, I only own recordings by two of her students, Fanny Davies & Carl Friedberg--which I treasure; as well as the Schumann by Percy Grainger, who almost studied with Clara, but did study in the piano department that she had founded & created at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, in the years just after the great woman had passed away.

Fortunately today, my favorite composers are the Burgundian and Franco-Flemish composers of the Late Middle Ages & early Renaissance--such as Ciconia, de Vitry, Dufay, Ockeghem, Josquin, etc., & they don't get all that many new recordings each year, if any. Which keeps me from getting excessive, considering that I'm still building my early music collection to a certain extent. Although I will buy virtually any new recording of Josquin's music that comes out, & it's the 500th anniversary of his death this year!... Though of course there aren't anywhere near as many recordings of Josquin's masses as there are of say Brahms symphonies, & that isn't going to change in my lifetime.

Plus, I like to branch out and enjoy discovering new music and composers that I don't know, or don't know well. I'm also generally getting more selective and picky about what I'll buy these days. Suffice it to say, I own (mostly) enough CDs & LPs at this point. & I don't want to have to build a new wing onto my house in order to store my collection, like a regular on the old Amazon forum was forced to do. I also don't have my entire dining room table piled high with CDs, so that it's unusable, nor my powder room toilet stacked so high with CDs that they could fall on someone (as was the case at the house of a late composer friend of mine). I don't subscribe to or read the British classical rags anymore, either--not since my fave, the International Record Review went out of business. So, that monthly temptation is gone.

Though lately, I have been thinking that I'd like to hear every note that G.F. Handel, F.J. Haydn, Thomas Tallis, and William Byrd ever composed... Plus, I still haven't heard every note by Josquin Desprez & Guillaume Dufay, but am getting closer to that goal. Come to think of it, I also don't own a 'state of the art' audiophile set of Beethoven's Late String Quartets that I treasure, nor a period set that I really like, either... you see how it goes. But at least it's not an addiction that is going to kill me. Not unless a wall of CDs falls on me one day.


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## GraemeG

Yikes. I don't even have double figures of anything, thank goodness, but, thanks to box-set-syndrome, I seem to have acquired five different recordings of Oistrakh playing the Brahms concerto. I should line them up one day & listen to one after the other.


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## jegreenwood

GraemeG said:


> Yikes. I don't even have double figures of anything, thank goodness, but, thanks to box-set-syndrome, I seem to have acquired five different recordings of Oistrakh playing the Brahms concerto. I should line them up one day & listen to one after the other.


I have the Beethoven Triple in boxes by HvK, Richter, and Oistrakh. (Never picked up a Rosty box.). I also have an SACD audiophile recording. I wish I liked the music more.


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## Shaughnessy

I have 37 copies of Gardiner's version of Monteverdi's _Vespro della beata Vergine (1610)_

I didn't want to have 37 copies - one, maybe two, tops.

But this is what happens when you collect box sets.

There was a time when every DG/Archiv box contained a copy of Gardiner's version of Monteverdi's _Vespro della beata Vergine (1610)_

It was ubiquitous... to such an extent that it started to appear in box sets that weren't even released by DG/Archiv.

Case in point - I just bought the George Harrison "All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary Über Box Set" -

It cost 1200 US dollars... Why did I spend 1200 US dollars on this box set? Read the last sentence...

















*NOTE*: Click on images to enlarge...

Here's a complete list of the contents -

8 LPs...

5 CD/BRs...

Housed in an artisan designed wooden crate (approx. 12.4" X 12.4" X 17.5")

Two books, an elaborate and expanded 96-page version of the scrapbook curated by Olivia Harrison, with unseen imagery and memorabilia from the era, handwritten lyrics, diary entries, studio notes, tape box images, a comprehensive track-by-track and more.

A second 44-page book chronicling the making of All Things Must Pass through extensive archival interviews with notes is also contained herein. The elegantly designed books pay homage to Harrison's love of gardening and nature.

The book also contains a wooden bookmark made from a felled Oak tree (Quercus Robur) in George's Friar Park.

The box will also contain 1/6 scale replica figurines of Harrison and the gnomes featured on the iconic album cover,

A limited edition illustration by musician and artist Klaus Voormann.

A copy of Paramahansa Yogananda's "Light from the Great Ones".

Rudraksha beads, contained in individual custom-made boxes.

A replica of the original album poster.

Two copies (in case you lose one) of Gardiner's version of Monteverdi's _Vespro della beata Vergine 1610_

Answer to the question "Why did I spend 1200 US dollars on this box set?"

It's an investment - someday I'm going to sell it on eBay for like 10,000 US dollars.

I'm lying - I'm never going to sell it on eBay even if someone does actually offer me 10,000 US dollars.

Why? It's simple - The gnomes... the 1/6 scale replica gnome figurines featured on the iconic album cover.

Who doesn't love gnome figurines, right? - Especially the ones that can actually talk... although the ones that won't shup up even when you ask them to can kind of get on your nerves after a while...


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## Nipper

Wow, I settled for the Super Deluxe 5-CD/Blu-Ray edition of _All Things Must Pass_. Looking forward to its arrival later this week!

For the vast majority of works, I'm satisfied with just one version. For most of my favorites, two to five recordings will do it (I think I have seven recordings of Mozart 40).

But my weak spot is Beethoven symphonies. I'm approaching 30 cycles, and counted 44 recordings of the Ninth.


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## apricissimus

Just wait till they come out with the _remastered_ 60th anniversary edition of "All Things Must Pass" with George Harrison replicas wigs commemorating his hair styles from 1958 through 1979, and you have to buy the whole thing all over again.


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## CnC Bartok

60+ Beethoven symphony cycles
30+Mahler cycles
25 Sibelius cycles
25 Beethoven quartet cycles, 15 or so Sonata cycles
25 Bartok quartet cycles
30+ Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, 22 Bluebeards
Just under 20 each Brahms, Schumann, Bruckner cycles
A couple fewer Martinů compared to Kiki!
15 Asreals?

Sad, innit?!


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## Kiki

22 Bluebreads? I‘m impressed! I have only one, and it’s on Laser Disc. :lol:


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## Animal the Drummer

Bartok wrote a Bluebread too? Boy, he really was on a roll....


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## joen_cph

Animal the Drummer said:


> Bartok wrote a Bluebread too? Boy, he really was on a roll....


That was when he was in a bluesy mood, and hungry too.


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## Kiki

Not sure about him, but I definitely was. :lol:


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## jegreenwood

As we all know, Bartok was raised by a pro-Democratic family, and thus he was Blue Bred.

(Please - just a joke)


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## staxomega

Josquin13 said:


> I've never really counted on an individual basis - per recording. But I've only purchased a larger quantity of recordings for works that especially interest & fascinate me. In other words, I've never bought a ton of different recordings for music that I just like.
> 
> I do remember that some years ago I stacked up all my CDs on the floor alphabetically for each composer, so I could place them in order on some newly bought shelves. & I recall that the highest number of stacks were for J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, and Claude Debussy--as I used to listen to either Bach or Mozart virtually everyday, & am crazy about Debussy (& I'm almost as keen on Ravel.) I recall that it was my goal back then to hear every single note that these three composers had penned (which I did, & then later did the same for Ravel).
> 
> Considering that Debussy wasn't nearly as prolific as Bach & Mozart, I'd imagine that I have more CDs per Debussy work than the other two (except for possibly Bach, who is my favorite composer, next to Josquin). In fact, Debussy's solo piano music has held a special fascination for me over the decades. I'd bet that I own more recordings of his Preludes Books 1 & 2 than just about anyone. What's worse, I'll still occasionally buy a new set, in fact, I've bought six new sets of Debussy's complete solo piano works over the past five or six years! (Beroff on Denon, Chaplin, Korstick, Devine, Planés, & Ogawa).
> 
> So, let's see if I can count the number of Preludes recordings that I own, if I'm going to be perfectly honest (& embarrass myself),
> 
> Zimerman
> Egorov
> Michelangeli
> Gieseking
> Marcelle Meyer (who worked with Debussy on the Preludes)
> Ogawa
> Pludermacher (live)
> Freire (only Book 1)
> Howat
> Osborne
> Bavouzet
> Lubimov (period piano)
> Bianconi
> Ciani
> Fergus-Thompson
> Henkemans
> François
> Pollini
> Dalberto
> Aimard
> Paul Jacobs
> Thibaudet
> O'Rourke (Book 1)
> Catharine Collard
> Roge (& his earlier Decca Book 1)
> Viitasalo
> Arrau
> Noel Lee
> Piemontesi
> Ousset
> Planés
> Rouvier
> Sasaki
> Monique HaasX2 (DG & Erato)
> Werner Haas
> Helffer
> Austbø
> Lasry (period piano)
> BeroffX2 (EMI & Denon)
> Korstick
> Gulda
> Rév (Hyperion, but not Saga)
> Cassard
> S. Richter
> Haguenauer
> Ciccolini
> Crossley
> Robert Casadesus
> Schvartz
> Immerseel (period piano)
> Gvetadze (Book 1)
> Bennett Lerner
> Pommier (via a box set)
> Fevrier
> Lefébure (Book 1)
> Chaplin
> Kocsis
> Devine
> Larderet (Book 2)
> Bolet (selected, 16 Preludes)
> Paraskivesco
> Cascioli
> Ericourt (who worked with Debussy)
> Michael Levinas (Book 1)
> Zaidee Parkinson (Book 2)
> 
> Plus, a handful of historical recordings of selected Preludes by,
> 
> Debussy himself
> Ciampi (who worked with Debussy on the Preludes)
> Copeland (who studied all of Debussy's piano music with the composer, and according to Copeland, had the composer's endorsement & approval)
> Gaby Casadesus (who was friends with Debussy's daughter, Claude-Emma or "Chouchou")
> Schmitz (who, as a young man, worked with Debussy on his piano music)
> Tagliaferro
> 
> WHO AM I MISSING?????
> 
> That was a joke. Well, almost--I am surprised that Jean-Philippe Collard has never recorded the Preludes, & if he did, I'd definitely buy his set. I've also heard good things about Edward Kilenyi's Book 1, but don't believe it's ever been released on CD. Plus, I'd buy a new set by Ivo Pogorelich in a heartbeat, if he were to record them in the future:
> 
> 
> 
> . So, I may not be done just yet...
> 
> In total, that's six individual recordings of Book 1, two individual recordings of Book 2, various recordings of selected Preludes, and FIFTY-NINE sets of both Books 1 & 2! I doubt anyone can match those numbers? (or would even want to...). So, yes, clearly the Preludes are an obsession of mine. Are there any other Debussy (or Ravel) ADDICTS out there? or am I the only one?
> 
> But that's not all. I'm also obsessed with Debussy's Images Books 1 & 2 (although here, I've decided that Michelangeli, Moravec, & Kocsis pretty much sit at the top of the heap), as well as his late Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp, and own a lot of recordings of those works, too. Not to mention the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune & Trois Nocturnes...
> 
> In addition, I've collected a huge number of recordings of the solo piano music of Robert Schumann over the decades--such as his Davidsbündlertänze, for instance, which fascinates me (though partly because most of the major Schumann pianists didn't record it, so it's been harder to find recordings that I like). But I don't want to count them. I already know it's way too many. Besides, Schumann speaks to my heart and imagination in a way that I find special & unique. & he's not an easy composer to play fantastically well--so one has to listen to a lot of different recordings to find the performances & pianists that are most special. & I've done that. So, I'll purchase a new Schumann piano recording only very rarely these days. Although if it existed, I'd still be interested to buy a box set of the recordings by Clara Schumann's students, whose playing I've heard on You Tube and been fascinated by. At present, I only own recordings by two of her students, Fanny Davies & Carl Friedberg--which I treasure; as well as the Schumann by Percy Grainger, who almost studied with Clara, but did study in the piano department that she had founded & created at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, in the years just after the great woman had passed away.
> 
> Fortunately today, my favorite composers are the Burgundian and Franco-Flemish composers of the Late Middle Ages & early Renaissance--such as Ciconia, de Vitry, Dufay, Ockeghem, Josquin, etc., & they don't get all that many new recordings each year, if any. Which keeps me from getting excessive, considering that I'm still building my early music collection to a certain extent. Although I will buy virtually any new recording of Josquin's music that comes out, & it's the 500th anniversary of his death this year!... Though of course there aren't anywhere near as many recordings of Josquin's masses as there are of say Brahms symphonies, & that isn't going to change in my lifetime.
> 
> Plus, I like to branch out and enjoy discovering new music and composers that I don't know, or don't know well. I'm also generally getting more selective and picky about what I'll buy these days. Suffice it to say, I own (mostly) enough CDs & LPs at this point. & I don't want to have to build a new wing onto my house in order to store my collection, like a regular on the old Amazon forum was forced to do. I also don't have my entire dining room table piled high with CDs, so that it's unusable, nor my powder room toilet stacked so high with CDs that they could fall on someone (as was the case at the house of a late composer friend of mine). I don't subscribe to or read the British classical rags anymore, either--not since my fave, the International Record Review went out of business. So, that monthly temptation is gone.
> 
> Though lately, I have been thinking that I'd like to hear every note that G.F. Handel, F.J. Haydn, Thomas Tallis, and William Byrd ever composed... Plus, I still haven't heard every note by Josquin Desprez & Guillaume Dufay, but am getting closer to that goal. Come to think of it, I also don't own a 'state of the art' audiophile set of Beethoven's Late String Quartets that I treasure, nor a period set that I really like, either... you see how it goes. But at least it's not an addiction that is going to kill me. Not unless a wall of CDs falls on me one day.


That is quite a list! I was going to guess you didn't have Gianluca Cascioli (one of my favorite virtually unknown pianists for lots of 20th C music; ie the greatest Berg Piano Sonata I've heard), but well done you do 

As to the question of the thread starter, I try my very best to keep works or cycles to under 15 or at least 20. Though I think with things like the late Beethoven Piano Sonatas once you count individual discs outside of cycles as well as cycles they probably get up into the 30s... maybe 40s. . I'm sure I'm breaking my rule of 20 once we take into account recordings from box sets, very hard to keep track of those.


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## Ralf Hutter

20 Beethoven Quartet Cycles

17 Bach WtC

10 Simeon ten Holt Canto Ostinato


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## Malx

Having joined Mahler's 2nd Symphony collectors anonymous years ago I can proudly announce that I have yet to add another recording this year so far......

logs on to ebay, then Amazon in a cold sweat, grabs mouse with a shaking hand


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## Judith

Beethoven Symphony no 5 springs to mind because I'm trying to find the perfect recording. It involves the final movement and some of them are either too fast or too slow for me so keep buying recordings to try and find it!


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## CnC Bartok

I have a CD of Susanna Malkki and the Helsinki PO doing Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra on order. Counted up my collection, that'll be my 52nd recording! One a week for a year....!


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