# Biggest Classical Music Bargains



## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Has there been a release that you rolled the dice on purely because of its excellent price, which turned out to be a fantastic buy even at twice or thrice the price? Well, share it here!

Mine has to be this set of Schubert String Quartets by Diogenes Quartet on Brilliant Classics. Nearly 8 hours of truly superlative music-making, all for the cost of 1 disc from another publisher. The sound quality is stupendous. I can't recommend it enough.









https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8112508--schubert-complete-string-quartets


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

What an odd name for a quartet.


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## CVan (Jul 26, 2020)

Iván Fischer. Mahler 4- $3.99 on iTunes. Great stuff!


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Beethoven's late quartets by the Yale Quartet. A steal, 3CD's cheaper than 1 regular CD. The only performances I find stimulating. Great sound for its time.

Barshai's Shostakovich symphonies on Brilliant Classics. The CD's are way cheaper than the MP3's on some sites for some reason. Great sound quality and performances.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Oldhoosierdude said:


> What an odd name for a quartet.


I'd expect some pretty thorny interpretations with a name like that.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I remember buying from Amazon's marketplace a used copy of Shostakovich's 4th symphony on Olympia (recorded by Rozhdestvensky). Nothing remarkable about that, but when the order arrived it came with four other recordings from the same Shostakovich symphony series on Olympia, none of which I had. All five discs came in a multi-disc jewel case but all the booklets and rear inlays for the individual releases were included, so all I had to do was transfer each into their own cases as luckily I had a few spare ones hanging around. The seller offered no explanation as to why they had thrown in the freebies, but it made for a massive bargain.


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## Simplicissimus (Feb 3, 2020)

Amazon price fluctuations can be drastic. Three months ago I browsed for the 50-CD box set of Seiji Ozawa’s complete recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, which I’d been wanting to have but which I couldn’t really afford, especially after being out of work due to the pandemic. To my astonishment, there was the set priced at $56. I ordered it immediately. Today, I see it on Amazon for $125. I don’t know what happened, but I got really lucky.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

Not quite the same sort of thing, but the new Oxford University Press editions of Vaughan Williams symphony full scores are wonderful things but horribly expensive. See, for example, Symphony No. 5 which is currently retailing for US$107 (about £84) on Amazon.com.

The prices were quite similar in 2015, too -maybe around £75, but in the same ball-park. Except that one day I happened to be browsing and the price was listed as £15.56. Oddly specific, but one click later, it was mine. I managed to repeat the trick for Symphonies No. 6 and No. 7 later on, too, paying £16 and £23 for them respectively. So I got about £210-worth of scores (and they are worth that much!) for around £44. A bargain! I was very happy.

Sadly, I had to pay full whack for 8, 9 and 3. And OUP haven't released new versions of 1 and 2 in the same format as yet, as far as I know.


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

The Rilling-conducted complete Bach cantatas box set (Hänssler) brand new on Amazon, paid ~$65 a little over a year ago. Also the 10-CD collection of the Magnificat, B Minor Mass and the Passions at about the same time (also Hänssler) for ~$20. I think the prices have gone up a little since then, but still a great deal for 81 CDs. 
Also a couple of months ago got a Rosalyn Tureck box set for about $20. (edit) Oh, and also the Pierre Fournier Edition box set (25 CDs). At about $60 it's a little more per CD than the above, but still to me a great deal.

Honorable mention would go to the inexpensive ($14) Dover reprint edition of Bach's Musical Offering and Art of Fugue. The sewn binding they offer now is a huge improvement over the old glued copy that I had.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

I've had a few bargains over the years but this one stands out:










The 13 disc set picked up, new, from Amazon for £3.97 coincidently on my birthday two years ago - a nice present for myself!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Simplicissimus said:


> Amazon price fluctuations can be drastic. Three months ago I browsed for the 50-CD box set of Seiji Ozawa's complete recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, which I'd been wanting to have but which I couldn't really afford, especially after being out of work due to the pandemic. To my astonishment, there was the set priced at $56. I ordered it immediately. Today, I see it on Amazon for $125. I don't know what happened, but I got really lucky.


I guess that's why they invented CamelCamel, so you will get notified of price drops.


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## ribonucleic (Aug 20, 2014)

Oldhoosierdude said:


> What an odd name for a quartet.


Looking for an honest recording contract, perhaps.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

My personal record is a very rare 5CD box of Elly Ameling recordings from 1957 to 1991, most probably not available on CD otherwise. Mint condition, great music. Picked it up for 50 cents (total) at a thrift shop.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

There are pretty spectacular bargains happening right now at the Supraphon download site (and not just on Supraphon recordings). A little effort involved admittedly. Check out this thread starting at about page 100.

Ridiculous bargains, CDs and MP3s thread

Importcds had something like this on big EMI sets about 10 years ago (on discs in that case). IIRC I picked up the complete HvK on EMI, 160 discs in two large boxes for less than $50.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

AbsolutelyBaching said:


> Not quite the same sort of thing, but the new Oxford University Press editions of Vaughan Williams symphony full scores are wonderful things but horribly expensive. See, for example, Symphony No. 5 which is currently retailing for US$107 (about £84) on Amazon.com.
> 
> The prices were quite similar in 2015, too -maybe around £75, but in the same ball-park. Except that one day I happened to be browsing and the price was listed as £15.56. Oddly specific, but one click later, it was mine. I managed to repeat the trick for Symphonies No. 6 and No. 7 later on, too, paying £16 and £23 for them respectively. So I got about £210-worth of scores (and they are worth that much!) for around £44. A bargain! I was very happy.
> 
> Sadly, I had to pay full whack for 8, 9 and 3. And OUP haven't released new versions of 1 and 2 in the same format as yet, as far as I know.


Fortunately I never got around to collecting hard copies of scores. I have started collecting pdf versions of scanned scores, from IMSLP, Kupdf, Scribd. More environmentally friendly, cheaper and more compact storage.


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

Phil loves classical said:


> Fortunately I never got around to collecting hard copies of scores. I have started collecting pdf versions of scanned scores, from IMSLP, Kupdf, Scribd. More environmentally friendly, cheaper and more compact storage.


And more sterile and lifeless somehow. When you take into account the electricity used on these petro-drenched devices I don't know if it's much more environmentally friendly either. Meanwhile I have copies of music I had when I was 10, 11 years old or so. They became part of me.


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## UniversalTuringMachine (Jul 4, 2020)

consuono said:


> And more sterile and lifeless somehow. When you take into account the electricity used on these petro-drenched devices I don't know if it's much more environmentally friendly either. Meanwhile I have copies of music I had when I was 10, 11 years old or so. They became part of me.


I always get the Henle or Barenreiter urtext for works that I like. Reading a well typesetted score on paper is so much more enjoyable than scrolling a pdf.

Plus, you are not going to save "the environment" by saving a few hundreds of pages of paper. It just doesn't work like that.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

UniversalTuringMachine said:


> I always get the Henle or Barenreiter urtext for works that I like. Reading a well typesetted score on paper is so much more enjoyable than scrolling a pdf.
> 
> Plus, you are not going to save "the environment" by saving a few hundreds of pages of paper. It just doesn't work like that.


Kind of off-topic, but that is why they install hand-dryers instead of paper towels. All the stuff that goes into logging, transportation and processing pulp. And hand dryers use way more electricity than computers or tablets.


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## UniversalTuringMachine (Jul 4, 2020)

Phil loves classical said:


> Kind of off-topic, but that is why they install hand-dryers instead of paper towels. All the stuff that goes into logging, transportation and processing pulp. And hand dryers use way more electricity than computers or tablets.


I commend you for taking personal responsibility and having environmental awareness. I admire you for that.

However, I have read enough about the issue to know that it really is a systemic issue. The carbon footprints of a printed score are not going to change anything other than our consciences. Becoming a vegan has a "larger" but also irrelevant impact. Forests are chopped down in great quantities for biomass fueling that has become a trendy part of the "Renewable Green Energy" revolution.

Please don't take this personal, I am an environmentalist myself and I commend you for your good faith suggestion. But please forgive me for freeing my conscience on purchasing paper scores.


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

Phil loves classical said:


> Kind of off-topic, but that is why they install hand-dryers instead of paper towels. All the stuff that goes into logging, transportation and processing pulp. And hand dryers use way more electricity than computers or tablets.


Not entirely. Blow dryers are also cleaner and dry your hands more thoroughly. Besides, a typical pair of public restrooms is probably going to go through more paper in a day or at most several days than my entire collection of music required.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

consuono said:


> And more sterile and lifeless somehow. When you take into account the electricity used on these petro-drenched devices I don't know if it's much more environmentally friendly either. Meanwhile I have copies of music I had when I was 10, 11 years old or so. They became part of me.


Environmentally friendly?!

You should see the environmental destruction caused by the mining of all the rare earth elements required to make your PDF reader work (PC, phone, laptop, tablet, etc). Take a look:









Of course, it doesn't always look that bad. Sometimes, it looks like this:









Meanwhile, my hard-copy scores are mined from this:









Yeah, I know. Tree plantations aren't always so idyllic and I've cherry-picked my pictures, but the fact remains that any PDF-reading device you care to think of is _thousands_ of times less environmentally-friendly than what amounts to a book.

Don't get me wrong: I like IMSLP too and I read a lot of PDF scores and e-books, too. But you're kidding yourself if you think they are environmentally friendly. _They_ are, but the infrastructure required for you to read them isn't even close.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

AbsolutelyBaching said:


> Environmentally friendly?!
> 
> You should see the environmental destruction caused by the mining of all the rare earth elements required to make your PDF reader work (PC, phone, laptop, tablet, etc). Take a look:
> 
> ...


Hold on there, I wouldn't buy a tablet, or PC with the sole or even a primary purpose to view pdf's of musical scores only. While a printed score is a finished product by itself. I'm not telling people not to buy printed scores. I'm just giving the electronic version that one added benefit. I agree if you're going to spend hours and days looking at a pdf score, then it's better to buy the printed version at least for convenience. But for a casual study of a score, here and there, I really think there is no question that pulling up the Adobe is more environmentally friendly than what goes behind the making of a printed version of the score.

https://goodereader.com/blog/electr...-ebooks-on-e-readers-environmentally-friendly


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Since we're not talking about bargains any more (which is fine) but instead environmental impact of CM listening/appreciation, why don't we answer the question: *How do you (if at all) alter your behavior with respect to environmental impact?*

I have been trying to move to downloads instead of discs. Presto Classical has been especially helpful in this regard, but also HDTracks.

Does anyone have evidence that one is a better approach environmentally over the other?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

It's an interesting discussion theme, but many will not see it because it's in a thread with a totally different subject (which in itself is interesting enough not to be hijacked like this). Why not ask a mod/admin to split this discussion off as a separate thread?


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

Phil loves classical said:


> Hold on there, I wouldn't buy a tablet, or PC with the sole or even a primary purpose to view pdf's of musical scores only. While a printed score is a finished product by itself. I'm not telling people not to buy printed scores. I'm just giving the electronic version that one added benefit. I agree if you're going to spend hours and days looking at a pdf score, then it's better to buy the printed version at least for convenience. But for a casual study of a score, here and there, I really think there is no question that pulling up the Adobe is more environmentally friendly than what goes behind the making of a printed version of the score.
> 
> https://goodereader.com/blog/electr...-ebooks-on-e-readers-environmentally-friendly


Ah, well, "casual study of a score" wasn't in your original post. It does make a bit of a difference: I definitely PDF before I buy.

I can kind of agree with your point about a computer, say, not being _just_ a PDF reader (though those do seem to exist). But even so, when my RVW scores reach end of life, they decay gently and give off a whiff of carbon dioxide. When even your occasionally-used-for-PDFs tablet reaches end of life, it goes to landfill, pollutes the groundwater supply and poisons kids. (It probably kills kittens too!) Even when recycled, the plastics involved kill whales and dolphins.

I enjoyed reading your linked article. But it's em... factually deficient, I think. "The newspaper and book publishing industries together consume 153 billion gallons of water annually". Woooo---oooooo---oooo!!!!! I heard the sound of fear-mongering! Because you can't actually "consume" water. You might use it. And your industrial processes may well add things to it which ideally wouldn't be there. But at the end of the day, it will evaporate, leaving the nasties behind. And then you're back to pure H2O. I mean, I 'consume' many gallons of water every day by putting unmentionables into it in the bathroom, but it can all be sorted out at the sewage farm!

I also think they were stretching to write "The Book vs e-Reader argument really centers around the co2 emissions", because it's only on that basis that you can exonerate the computing industry that gives you your PDF content.

And I think this article is a more rounded one on the subject. Short version: after 5 years, the e-reader user has produced 400Kg of CO2; the book-reader 150Kg of CO2. But its subject to lots of factors and it's definitely not as clear-cut as your original post suggested.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I've had more bargains than I can shake a stick at.... The complete Haydn quartets on Naxos for £10, Gielen's LVB cycle for £5, Blomstedt's Beethoven symphony cycle £2, Tennstedt's Mahler cycle brand new for £2.50, Davis and Suitner Dvorak cycles £3 each, Fischer's massive Haydn box £10, Marrriner's Schubert box £3, Levine's Mahler box £3, Zinman's Brahms and Beethoven £6 in total. Granted I didn't really take a punt on these but they were all absolute steals. Also had a load of single discs from charity shops for anything between 10p and £1.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Merl said:


> I've had more bargains than I can shake a stick at.... The complete Haydn quartets on Naxos for £10, Gielen's LVB cycle for £5, Blomstedt's Beethoven symphony cycle £2, Tennstedt's Mahler cycle brand new for £2.50, Davis and Suitner Dvorak cycles £3 each, Fischer's massive Haydn box £10, Marrriner's Schubert box £3, Levine's Mahler box £3, Zinman's Brahms and Beethoven £6 in total. Granted I didn't really take a punt on these but they were all absolute steals. Also had a load of single discs from charity shops for anything between 10p and £1.


That Fischer Haydn set is indeed a steal! I got it for 20-something dollars, so not quite as big a steal as yours, Merl.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

MatthewWeflen said:


> Since we're not talking about bargains any more (which is fine) but instead environmental impact of CM listening/appreciation, why don't we answer the question: *How do you (if at all) alter your behavior with respect to environmental impact?*
> 
> I have been trying to move to downloads instead of discs. Presto Classical has been especially helpful in this regard, but also HDTracks.
> 
> Does anyone have evidence that one is a better approach environmentally over the other?


I looked it up and found this. The magic number is 27 times, if you stream an album on the internet over that number, it's better to go with a physical copy. A download is different though, here is a pretty long article on that, just jump to the conclusion. Worse case scenario of downloading and burning into a CD-R is still better than buying a manufactured CD.

https://theconversation.com/the-environmental-impact-of-music-digital-records-cds-analysed-108942

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2010.00269.x


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Phil loves classical said:


> I looked it up and found this. The magic number is 27 times, if you stream an album on the internet over that number, it's better to go with a physical copy. A download is different though, here is a pretty long article on that, just jump to the conclusion. Worse case scenario of downloading and burning into a CD-R is still better than buying a manufactured CD.
> 
> https://theconversation.com/the-environmental-impact-of-music-digital-records-cds-analysed-108942
> 
> https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2010.00269.x


This is excellent, Phil. Terrific find! And not just because it agrees with the choice I arrived at. 

The computer energy values were from 2000 and 2006, as well. Computers have steadily become more power efficient since then, and to a greater degree than automobile and air conditioning systems. So the difference should be more pronounced today.


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## consuono (Mar 27, 2020)

Phil loves classical said:


> I looked it up and found this. The magic number is 27 times, if you stream an album on the internet over that number, it's better to go with a physical copy. A download is different though, here is a pretty long article on that, just jump to the conclusion. Worse case scenario of downloading and burning into a CD-R is still better than buying a manufactured CD.


Not if it's used. And anyway I don't see how burning your own CDs is any better since that CD still had to be manufactured. It's certainly helping to kill the professional musician though.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Merl said:


> I've had more bargains than I can shake a stick at.... The complete Haydn quartets on Naxos for £10, Gielen's LVB cycle for £5, Blomstedt's Beethoven symphony cycle £2, Tennstedt's Mahler cycle brand new for £2.50, Davis and Suitner Dvorak cycles £3 each, Fischer's massive Haydn box £10, Marrriner's Schubert box £3, Levine's Mahler box £3, Zinman's Brahms and Beethoven £6 in total. Granted I didn't really take a punt on these but they were all absolute steals. Also had a load of single discs from charity shops for anything between 10p and £1.


I am guessing much of that must have been some time ago. Certainly, charity shops near me are nowhere near so cheap any more. I guess it is the costs (rent, trade rubbish disposal, rates etc). And charity shops near me get rid of slow sellers quite quickly - moving them on to somewhere else in their network and/or disposing of them. It is quite some time since I saw prices like the ones you quote.


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

MatthewWeflen said:


> This is excellent, Phil. Terrific find! And not just because it agrees with the choice I arrived at.
> 
> The computer energy values were from 2000 and 2006, as well. Computers have steadily become more power efficient since then, and to a greater degree than automobile and air conditioning systems. So the difference should be more pronounced today.


They might have become more power _efficient_, but at the same time, they've become more power_ful_. Time was a computer might have a CPU with 65W power draw. These days, a threadripper might draw 180W or more; a fairly humble Ryzen 7 might be 86W. I mean, it will obviously vary by processor, chipset and what have you, but the IT industry as a whole shows no sign of reducing its absolute power consumption levels.

Also note that the second of those articles was sponsored by Microsoft and Intel. They're not entirely disinterested parties to the debate!

That said, we are where we are, and no-one's going back to physical media in a hurry, so it is what it is. But books (and scores): different market and different parameters at play entirely. The best e-readers are generally not a great substitute for paper, bindings, dust covers and so on.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Enthusiast said:


> I am guessing much of that must have been some time ago. Certainly, charity shops near me are nowhere near so cheap any more. I guess it is the costs (rent, trade rubbish disposal, rates etc). And charity shops near me get rid of slow sellers quite quickly - moving them on to somewhere else in their network and/or disposing of them. It is quite some time since I saw prices like the ones you quote.


Levine's Mahler box was a month ago, Davis' Dvorak cycle around the same time - both from Ebay. The Haydn quartets discs were bought amongst about 50 discs I bought from a private seller near me for prices from 50p to 75p per disc, just after Christmas. I picked up the Stamitz Dvorak box set the other day for a fiver secondhand, online. There are still bargains to be had if you're always looking round. . Some of the rest were years ago, granted, but they were still huge bargains. Gardiner's Beethoven cycle was available for a fiver online last week, for example, but I dont need it (had it years).


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

One other box I got at a ridiculously low price was the complete Mahler Symphonies conducted by Markus Stenz for a grand total of £5.53 incl P&P, it was used, but apart from a little tear on the box everything else is like new.
(2017)


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