# Ai ai ai I discovered I am a completist; is it fatal?



## kiwipolish (May 2, 2008)

After 30 years of hard work, it is time for me to wind down a little and to grant some time to my old passion: music.

Not a musician myself, I used to have a lot of LPs and CDs in my teens and early twenties. Then, my job commitments took over, I sold all my music, moved to another continent and neglected music for almost 30 years.

So, I am reconstituting a CD collection. I have bought the entire works of Bach on Brilliantclassics (it's not perfect; but I love it), all the 104 symphonies by Haydn on the same label (fantastic - I have already religiously listened to all of them, from 1 to 104), several versions of all symphonies by Mahler, Beethoven, Mendelssohn etc.

Then I discovered the term "completist" somewhere on the web and I think it does apply to me. Somehow, that term often has a bad connotation.

As I went to my classical music shop, I asked for advice regarding a good set of Bruckner's symphonies. The salesman, who knows a lot about classical music, gave me lengthy explanations about the pros and cons of each version of the complete symphonies, but he seemed to favor Giulini and Celibidache - none of whom have recorded the complete set. Celibidache, of course, did not like recording at all; and that is why there is no complete set with him (only symphonies 3 to 9). The salesman seems to hold Giulini in high esteem and said that Giulini did not like recording complete sets, because he thought it did not make sense.

Ai ai ai; so it turns out I am a completist and I buy my CDs in a way that does not make sense (?).  

Or is it a clever trick by the salesman, who knows that he will make more money out of me by selling separate CDs rather than complete sets?


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