# Classical Music Obsessions?



## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Today I sat about to temporarily organize the teetering stacks of un-shelved CDs in my office that have begun to take over ever square inch of open space. I won't be able to spend the time to build some new shelving units until school lets out for the summer, so for the time being I've placed them safely in cardboard file-folder boxes... Some 4 boxes actually... to be precise. Counting the discs I discovered (to my shock and embarrassment) that I currently have just over 100 opera recordings that I have yet to listen to!!! This does not even include opera recitals or the several Handel oratorios I've yet to get around to. Over-all there are nearly 800 classical CDs that I still need to listen to. Obviously its time to put on the breaks with regard to purchases and come to a full stop.


With the exception of J.S. Bach...
























And Wagner...:devil:


Any one else want to admit to a classical music obsession... a dangerous Mozart mania... a Chopin compulsion...???


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Oh wow! And here I was feeling guilty that I haven't listened to five of my new acquisitions yet! Of course my total collection is just over 1000 CDs, so having 800 unheard CDs is amazing.


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

I created a list of music I want to purchase and listen to in my lifetime on a spreadsheet complete with Opus numbers, if applicable, and date of composition. I had to stop because I kept finding more composers and works to add. "The List" contains works by 236 composers as well as listing some vital stats of each such as DoB and DoD, main fields of composition and nationality. The Opus numbering system, if applicable, for these composers are also listed as well as the creator of that list. There are 4900 rows in the main section of works. I have it all printed out and in a folder for easy access and it comes to around 115 pages in small text. I plan to add to this but, for sanity's sake, have postponed any further additions until Jan 2013. There are already about 50 minor composers on the shortlist to be added at a later date, mainly names seen mentioned on this forum!

My listening habits tend to be very systematic and I love to read whatever I can find on specific works. I have a budget of £2 a day for purchases so that i don't overspend, but I was also selling some of my CDs on ebay and using that money to buy more. I usually get things at a VERY good price, so I had to stop selling for a bit because I was getting too many CDs and listening to too few. I have been fully 'switched on' to classical since some time in early 2011 and it has just snowballed since then. I have 679 hrs of classical music and opera on my iTunes either copied from disc or downloaded and a smaller number of vinyls that I have not managed to convert to digital format yet. 

As I say, this is a life plan. I just like to be very organised in my hobbies.  My CD collection is organised by historical period and then by nationality of composer so that I can find things more easily. In ten years or so, I will definitely have some more impressive numbers.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Man! You guys worry about this stuff a lot! I can't imagine taking the time to inventory and create spreadsheets. I'm not interested in becoming an accountant, I like listening to music. And having new music I haven't gotten to listen to makes me happy in anticipation. It doesn't concern me that I haven't checked every box and crossed every T yet.


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## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

I have only 2 obsessions: chamber ensambles and string with piano or orchestra, plus historicals of those two. About 150 of solo piano, and maybe 50 symphonics. All the rest (more that 1500) are from what I said.


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## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

@ StLukes, First off, let me congratulate you on starting a great thread! As far as I am concerned--being a fairly recent "convert" to cm--I have found that I have lately beome enamored of box sets containing cycles of my favorite composers such as Nielsen, Sibelius, Beethoven, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. I thought I had *it *under control. However, I have recently found myself buying/sampling more than one box set of these composers {viz. Dvorak, Beethoven and Sibelius, so far} in order to hear different interpretations of the same composers' works by different conductors. So, I guess I've--like so many others here--started down that "slippery slope" to obsession. Then again, I reckon there are a lot worse--and more expensive--vices to be had in this world.


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

I do get a lot of enjoyment out of learning more about music and different composers, and the best way I can process that information is to research and write out lists manually. I'm guessing just about everyone on this forum owns some kind of guide to classical music and recordings, especially when starting out. Other people have extensive amazon wishlishs. I have just taken one step further and started to create my own reference guide customised to my own tastes. I am trained as an engineer, so using spreadsheets and an analytical approach comes very naturally and easily to me. A systematic approach isn't for everyone, sure, but I find it the best suited method for me to go from knowing basically nothing about classical music to becoming an expert.


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

samurai said:


> @ StLukes, First off, let me congratulate you on starting a great thread! As far as I am concerned--being a fairly recent "convert" to cm--I have found that I have lately beome enamored of box sets containing cycles of my favorite composers such as Nielsen, Sibelius, Beethoven, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. I thought I had *it *under control. However, I have recently found myself buying/sampling more than one box set of these composers {viz. Dvorak, Beethoven and Sibelius, so far} in order to hear different interpretations of the same composers' works by different conductors. So, I guess I've--like so many others here--started down that "slippery slope" to obsession. Then again, I reckon there are a lot worse--and more expensive--vices to be had in this world.


What, no Mahler yet? Steve, there are certainly much worse vices; the expense factor is problematic. On the other hand Muriel and I were on a cruise a few years ago and saw a bottle of Liqueur in a shipboard shop for $3,000.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Jeez, _crmoorhead_, do you realize that 'experts' on classical music tend to write books? closely organized, convoluted, deadly boring books? And/or posts to cm boards that have the latter two characteristics? It is bad enough to be an aficionado; becoming an expert will destroy any social graces you may have previously developed. I am thankful that my interest collided with senility before it got completely out of hand.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Am I going to repeat myself for the umpteenth time? Eh, tired of that.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

I thought I was beyond obsession, and then along came a craving for solo keyboard, with particular emphasis on Scarlatti, Haydn, Scriabin, Rachmaninov.

View attachment 5145


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Jeez, _crmoorhead_, do you realize that 'experts' on classical music tend to write books? closely organized, convoluted, deadly boring books? And/or posts to cm boards that have the latter two characteristics? It is bad enough to be an aficionado; becoming an expert will destroy any social graces you may have previously developed. I am thankful that my interest collided with senility before it got completely out of hand.


Maybe I should correct it to say that my ambition is to know as much about classical music as members of this forum?  I do tend to be overwhelmed by the amount I don't know when compared to most people who have had this hobby/obsession for years or decades. I do not intend becoming an expert in the sense that I will catalogue a chronological list of the complete works of a given composer, or examine the score of any given work in minute detail. I just want to have a broad knowledge of everything. I don't tend to have the patience to learn things gradually, and prefer the approach of total immersion. I hope I will not ever reach the stage of quibbling about the minutiae of anything, for there is certainly a difference between being knowedgeable in a subject and crossing the line into lunacy. I have dealt with a few of the latter on other online forums and I don't intend to follow in their footsteps! Don't lets forget that the music always comes first and foremost.  I just prefer some kind of strategy when tasked with absorbing music from a score of nations and written over centuries. How can one not be overwhelmed by (and revel in) the sheer abundancy of choice?


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Today I sat about to temporarily organize the teetering stacks of un-shelved CDs in my office that have begun to take over ever square inch of open space. I won't be able to spend the time to build some new shelving units until school lets out for the summer, so for the time being I've placed them safely in cardboard file-folder boxes... Some 4 boxes actually... to be precise. Counting the discs I discovered (to my shock and embarrassment) that I currently have just over 100 opera recordings that I have yet to listen to!!! This does not even include opera recitals or the several Handel oratorios I've yet to get around to. Over-all there are nearly 800 classical CDs that I still need to listen to. Obviously its time to put on the breaks with regard to purchases and come to a full stop.
> 
> With the exception of J.S. Bach...
> 
> ...


Howdy my friend, you are not alone!  I think I have similar numbers of yet-to-listen-to operas for example in both CD and DVD/Blu-ray format. I really don't know how many to be precise but yes, I estimate towards 100 as well. As for CDs, probably more (as that include box-sets), for example I recently bought a _Gustav Leonhardt Edition_ harpsichord music box-set (15 CDs), I have stacks of Naxos CDs that I bought on sale previously for about US$8 each; many, many other CDs under the purchasing motto of "buy first, listen later". Nearly all these were purchased on sale prices when my favourite couple of internet shops go on sale (that is how and when I purchase the recordings). I estimate I have maybe 300 to 500 unlistened CDs - oh the shame of it all! I deserve to be shamed in public for this abhorrent crime!

I organise my collection by record label. This might sound illogical but it works for me. This is motivated by my purchasing habit, which is often by record label when label X goes on sale at the internet shops, so it makes quick checks relatively easy to see if I already have CD/DVD/Blu-ray I intend to buy.

Music is my hobby. It is a hobby that literally follows me wherever I go - concerts, reading/studying, purchasing recordings etc. know no geographical boundaries. My collection is at home. I think I am a better off person with it. I make no regrets whatsoever having acquired the recordings that I have. :tiphat:


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

Thankfully, being of limited means, means I have to choose carefully when I buy something, but I do get plenty of opportunity to listen to my latest acquisition before I buy the next one....If money were no object then I would buy unfeasible amounts of DG LP's


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

I, obviously, have a Liszt obsession. It starts with the solo piano music - which is my favourite kind of music. Liszt's immense output here lives with me every day - and I never tire of this music. If anything, the sheer scope and unparalleled diversity leads me to grow in appreciation daily. The pure, unabashed romanticism, passionate sensuality, religious and mystical qualities, scene painting, landscapes and story-telling, the hair-raising diabolism and, at times, heavenly beauty, the sheer emotional breadth...the most dolorous and despairing passages with the most ecstatic and affirming (exemplified by two of his foremost masterpieces: Vallee d'Obermann and the Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen variations), the most delicate and poetic to the most fiery and grandiose. Of course, then there is the showman - in the Hungarian Rhapsodies and various other works - which is first rate light-hearted glitter (which display a considerable amount pianistic invention, mind you).

My obsession, of course, goes well beyond the piano music. I'd probably take his non-piano music alongside any other composer. Among many other works, the Ad Nos Fantasy and Fugue, the tone poems Les Preludes and Orpheus, the Faust and Dante symphonies, Psalm XIII, the Gran Mass, Christus...an endless stream of inspiration.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Badinerie said:


> Thankfully, being of limited means, means I have to choose carefully when I buy something, but I do get plenty of opportunity to listen to my latest acquisition before I buy the next one....If money were no object then I would buy unfeasible amounts of DG LP's


Hah. My particular LP weaknesses are the Nonesuch and Crossroads labels. Aural + visual art.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Solo piano music.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Honestly... my collection would probably have been another couple thousand larger had Amazon.com and their discount Marketplace vendors been in full swing when I first started to seriously collect classical music. Nevertheless... I agree that of "wine, women, and song" the latter is quite likely the least expensive obsession to have. Of course I'm a bibliophile as well which means that I have a similarly large library of books as well. In spite of the fact that my own artistic outlet (as well as my college degree and my profession) lies within the the visual arts, I can't say that I have ever become overly obsessed with collecting art. Of course that's an obsession beyond my price range. I have one $5000 painting that I was able to purchase on discount because I owned the art gallery in which the work was shown... but I honestly could not even afford to purchase one of my own paintings.:lol:


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I have had classical music obsessions, eg. with one particular genre (or rarely, a composer), but not too out of control. I only go on spending sprees if there's stuff mega cheap on special or I find a stack of second hand cd's that are dirt cheap. So that way don't hurt the ever important wallet. I am quite eclectic in taste so I find I can't settle down in one thing for two long. Get itchy feet to explore other things. So not so systematic as some members of TC.

But I did go through a choral phase and got several recordings of choral works last year that I have yet to listen to after like 6-12 months of having them. Same with light classical and film scores, I have tended to amass those (but not hundreds, maybe a couple of dozen).

In choral realm, I have these yet to be listened to:
Haydn - Stabat Mater
Elgar - Dream of Gerontius
Liszt & Dvorak - Missa Choralis & Mass in G
Beethoven - Missa Solemnis
English Masses - Eg. by John Ireland and others (1 cd)
Britten - A Ceremony of Carols ; Missa Brevis (1 vinyl)
Pergolesi - STabat Mater
Kleiberg - Requiem for the Victims of Nazi Persecution
Brahms - A German Requiem

I have slowed down my rate of buying cd's, partly as a result of a quite large backlog of these and a couple/few dozen others. Now I buy things that are different, I don't buy same genre or composer, or try not to, within the same month, so I actually want to listen to something, are excited by the prospect, not just with the kind of attitude of having to do things. This is a hobby for me, after all. It's not about what I should do in the future to tick boxes, but what I actually want to do now in the present minute.


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## humanbean (Mar 5, 2011)

Medieval and renaissance choral music. Classical era symphonies. Romantic era string chamber music (quartets, trios - whatever.)


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## Hausmusik (May 13, 2012)

I go through periods when I am obsessed with a particular composer, or genre, or composer working in a particular genre, etc., and try to hear everything there is to hear from that body of work (and may not care to listen to anything else). There have been a Shostakovich string quartet period, a Haydn string quartet period, a Beethoven symphony period and piano sonata period and piano concerto period, a Schubert chamber music period and piano sonata period, a Schumann chamber music period, a Brahms chamber music period and (yes) four-hand piano period, everything by Dutilleux and Ligeti and Lutoslawksi periods, etc. etc.

I'm not a completist with all composers (I may never get around to listening to Shostakovich's second, third or twelfth symphonies, for example) but I'd like eventually to have heard everything by Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Brahms that has an opus number (I'm pretty far along there, actually, particularly with Beethoven) as well as work my way through all of Schubert's extant works (I have quite a hill to climb there---I have heard almost all of his instrumental music, but don't know his operas and know only a fraction of his hundreds of songs).

Lately I've been obsessed with Haydn's pre-Paris symphonies and piano sonatas, trying to get to know more obscure works in these two cycles. 

I also have an ongoing interest in the work of Beethoven's "lesser" contemporaries; I listen to anything I can by Hummel and Spohr, for example.

There are also works I am obsessed with seeing live in performance, or works I wish to learn how to perform, but that's probably a different topic.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

A music collecting not-so-anonymous meeting.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Getting there but I usually listen to some of the music I buy. But the Baroque Masterpiece box set I've hardly listened to. I kinda burned out of Baroque. Exploring other eras now.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Nope. No obsessions here.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Klavierspieler said:


> Nope. No obsessions here.


What about Cats?.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Sid James said:


> What about Cats?.


Ah, the silly ways humans try to deal with their inferiority. How sad.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

I am particularly fond of Requiems. 

Why? I have no idea. Maybe it is because I find them comforting.


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## pasido (Apr 2, 2012)

I can't imagine buying 1000 classical CD's. How can you guys afford it?


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

While I don't listen to them all the time, I do have all of Glenn Gould's recordings on CBS Masterworks,...Odyssey...Sony Classical: Glenn Gould Edition...Complete Jacket Collection...CBS Anniversary Edition...and most recently the re-release of the Sony Classical recordings but bunched together beautifully,..oh, and the complete videos along with various (but not complete) records, tapes and mini-discs. 

Ok,...so this is kind of an obsession. Especially as they are the same recordings over and over! So just as long as Van and Pierre and Jan and Dodecaplex understand me, it's all good.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

pasido said:


> I can't imagine buying 1000 classical CD's. How can you guys afford it?


I have acquired mine over a period of twenty years. A LOT of them are bargain bin CDs and a LOT more are Naxos. Very few of mine are what are termed "full price CDs". And my collection is quite eclectic, not only classical.

Basically three Naxos CDs a month are affordable for most people with a 'reasonable' income. Add the occasional splurge, gifts, bargain bin recordings, second hand CDs and within a few years you'll run out of space to store them.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Hah. My particular LP weaknesses are the Nonesuch and Crossroads labels. Aural + visual art.


Yeah, Crossroads LPs can be spectacular - little pieces of Beardsley-meets-The-Beatles-art & with good, spacious sound:









they are extremely rare here though, whereas Nonesuchs are very common;

they kept their flower-power or cartoon-like, questioning style of cover art at least until the 80s. A nice one which I hope to find one day is the Arcimboldo-like


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

pasido said:


> I can't imagine buying 1000 classical CD's. How can you guys afford it?


Perish the thought of keeping everything...I'd be forced to live outside.

Out with the old, in with the new...and so it goes...though my CD trade is slower these days.

IOW, there can come a time when you're mostly satisfied with what you've collected, and the hunting 'n gathering urge becomes less frequent...even with an occasional newly-born obsession.


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## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

pasido said:


> I can't imagine buying 1000 classical CD's. How can you guys afford it?


Slowly, through a very long time. I took more than 30 years to get my collection. Or, if you have a lot of money, you can get full collections for sale, at very low prices. If somebody wants to sell, lets say, a thousend Cds but only as a lot and all of them, probably you can have it at 50 cents each. You keep what you want, and sell or give the rest.


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## msvadi (Apr 14, 2012)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Hah. My particular LP weaknesses are the Nonesuch and Crossroads labels. Aural + visual art.


I'm with you!

It's quite surprising that, with an exception for a couple labels such as Nonesuch and ECM, cover art designs for classical albums are absolutely terrible. One would expect more in terms of the visual design from labels catering to people with exquisite tastes in music.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

msvadi said:


> I'm with you!
> 
> It's quite surprising that, with an exception for a couple labels such as Nonesuch and ECM, cover art designs for classical albums are absolutely terrible. One would expect more in terms of the visual design from labels catering to people with exquisite tastes in music.


Actually, as a musician and a classical music nut, I have a visual arts appreciation of approximately zero. Paintings, pictures, and sculptures all do nothing for me.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

I'm down to just 30 Wagner CDs and DVDs ever since he told me to take out and burn the heresy.


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## pasido (Apr 2, 2012)

joen_cph said:


> Yeah, Crossroads LPs can be spectacular - little pieces of Beardsley-meets-The-Beatles-art & with good, spacious sound:
> 
> View attachment 5162
> 
> ...


I'm a huge fan of album covers, and the Tchaikovsky one looks sick.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

> I'm a huge fan of album covers, and the Tchaikovsky one looks sick.


 In Denmark "sick" has become slang for "impressive", but I don´t know if you mean it that way ...

What I find impressive are the drawing and creativity efforts. Yes, it is morbid, taste was overall also very different in the 70s, cf. the Westminster covers for instance which seem surreal and poor at times, but the artist has studied the programme of Tchaikovsky´s 4th symphony here, obviously - the brass fate motif, now with a hint of Michelangelo, the Russian folk dances and the national background etc.

But "discreet" ?: certainly no !


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## Mookalafalas (Mar 17, 2013)

this is an old thread, but I'm going to revive it. Since the bargain box sets started coming out, it is relatively cheap to be obsessed. I bought the Reiner, Bernstein, Walter, Toscanini, Furtwangler, Live Horowitz, Rubinstein, Perahia, Mozart 111, Both DG 111, and both Mercury box sets all recently, and about 10 others. I can't stop. So good and so cheap....
I literally can't stay away from the record stores. Arkiv is calling me, and Byron Janus, and George Szell, Kempff...


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

I agree with the above poster. Bargain box sets are also my obsession, especially "Complete Works" sets.

Recently bought complete works of Shostakovich, Poulenc, Stravinsky, Scarlatti... some of these composers I don't even like very much but I still have to buy the complete works. That probably means I have several thousand discs in my collection, many of which have not yet been listened to (and probably never will).


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I thought I had a lot of CDs, about 300. They don't get a regular rotation, so there are some I haven't played in years, and they have become forgotten. However, I haven't bought anything a second time not knowing I already had it. Have any of you?

My plastic cd covers are very dusty so I have just started to clean each, some rubbing alcohol cleans them well. On the covers only, of course, not the CDs. I haven't had any CDs yet that have stopped working, even after more than 20 years.


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

Winterreisender said:


> especially "Complete Works" sets.


Yep, that's me too.

If I see "Complete solo piano works" I'm most likely buying.

Just in the last three weeks I've purchased complete solo piano sets from Debussy, Poulenc, Ravel, and Faure.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Neilsen's complete chamber & solopiano works - the set is out there - and it's really, really good stuff.


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## Mookalafalas (Mar 17, 2013)

DG has a new 100 disk set [history of classical music] which is about $150 where I am. I absolutely don't need this, but every disc is truly top-drawer performers, conductors, etc., for $1.50 per disc, 1/10 what I used to pay in the old days....must not buy, must not buy....


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

I only have the Messaien and Debussy boxes, but I still want Reiner, Bernstein, Decca, Living Stereo, Wand, Walter, Toscanini, Archive, Vivarte, DG History, Webern, Mahler 150th anniversary, etc....................... It's a good thing I can restrain myself.

What I _really_ want to see is a Boulez: Conductor boxset, or a Szell boxset (not the import one). I'd honestly get a job only so that I could purchase those: they are the only one unconditionally invaluable to me. I want Boulez's Mahler, Bruckner, Bartók, Ligeti, Webern, Schoenberg and Stravinsky - Messaien and Debussy too if I didn't already have most of it; and I want Szell's Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Dvorak, Brahms and more - certainly Haydn if I didn't already have it. I hope to see those once; I'll tread carefully on the others.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Super hungry for the Ravel complete edition, and Strauss orchestral works.......but I'm behaving myself for the moment.


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## Mookalafalas (Mar 17, 2013)

Cheyenne said:


> I only have the Messaien and Debussy boxes, but I still want Reiner, Bernstein, Decca, Living Stereo, Wand, Walter, Toscanini, Archive, Vivarte, DG History, Webern, Mahler 150th anniversary, etc....................... It's a good thing I can restrain myself.
> 
> What I _really_ want to see is a Boulez: Conductor boxset, or a Szell boxset (not the import one). I'd honestly get a job only so that I could purchase those: they are the only one unconditionally invaluable to me. I want Boulez's Mahler, Bruckner, Bartók, Ligeti, Webern, Schoenberg and Stravinsky - Messaien and Debussy too if I didn't already have most of it; and I want Szell's Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Dvorak, Brahms and more - certainly Haydn if I didn't already have it. I hope to see those once; I'll tread carefully on the others.


I bought the Szell box yesterday (I live in Taiwan). I'm liking it. Saw a Boulez box...not interested in that one myself... I've bought so many boxes I had to get a special bookshelf


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Haydn's quartets I guess - comparing modern and period instruments and different performances. It's a lot of fun .


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## GiulioCesare (Apr 9, 2013)

HaydnBearstheClock said:


> Haydn's quartets I guess - comparing modern and period instruments and different performances. It's a lot of fun .


I'm currently listening to Brilliant Classic's complete edition of Hadyn's string quartets with the Buchberger Quartet. It's a good interpretation, too bad they made it an octet: 2 violins, a viola, a cello and four pair of lungs.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

GiulioCesare said:


> I'm currently listening to Brilliant Classic's complete edition of Hadyn's string quartets with the Buchberger Quartet. It's a good interpretation, too bad they made it an octet: 2 violins, a viola, a cello and four pair of lungs.


Breathing too audible?


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

I've gone through different obsessions "phases", one was Glazunov, where I was trying to collect all the music I could by him. I also went through a "lesser known transitional composer" phase where I was all about Weber, Hummel, and Spohr. But one composer I've always been obsessed with is Tchaikovsky; I think I just about now have a recording of all his music that has an opus number, even lesser-known song sets.


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## GiulioCesare (Apr 9, 2013)

Itullian said:


> Breathing too audible?


You bet... to be honest, I think it's mostly one of them. The cello would be my bet. It's extremely distracting.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Some of Chopin's mazurkas and nocturnes have been almost narcotic to my senses at times...


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

GiulioCesare said:


> You bet... to be honest, I think it's mostly one of them. The cello would be my bet. It's extremely distracting.


Yea, sometimes they sound like they're riding an exercise-bike....


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Vesuvius said:


> Yea, sometimes they sound like they're riding an exercise-bike....


You guys serious? I don't have the entire set but have purchased Op. 9, 33, 54-55 and 76 separately, and never noticed anything of the sort.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

I wasn't talking about that specific recording. I was speaking in general, haha. I've heard some recordings where the performers sounded like they were exercising.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I have 30 CDs of Beethoven's Ninth! Next closest obsessive collection is 6 CDs of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

I religiously buy every Turnabout/vox I come across. On vinyl that is. Even if the music is not really my cup of tea; however , I maintain that I'm not a completionist!! (I really will start a thread on this label soon! ) With about 1200 classical LP's I get more and more critical about what I buy.
Giving up on cd's about 5 years ago was a great move. It's now vinyl or streaming. I gave all my classical cd's to my mother, except for a few for in the car. Pop and rock went to friends and the leftovers were given to charity. All the homeburned stuff was simply chucked in the bin.
Next move on the path of travelling light is weeding through my vinyl albumcollection, about 2500 in total. And then there is the bookcollection.......

Happy obsessing to you all 

Jos


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I think I responded to this thread a couple of weeks ago  If I did, I will add:

I have been on the path of travelling light for a couple of decades, which is why I have fully embraced the compact disc and no other format for my music collection. I am very systematic about buying music and, occasionally, ruthless about culling albums from my collection (sometimes I reacquire them). I like to keep as strictly _on topic_ as I can, by keeping only those albums that are the focus of my interest.

Limits to my collecting are spacial and temporal. At present, I have all of the albums in one sizeable, but not unwieldy, cabinet that fits into the living room by _not_ dominating it. Although I have recently begun to double the first two of six rows by one quarter of the span, I plan to contain my collection within these physical bounds. As the cabinet is a stackable unit, I might consider getting a fourth section instead of doubling the rows, but I will not make further space sacrifices. The balanced, harmonious and spare appearance of the room is important to me. I am also cognizant of the amount of time it would take to listen to the music I have purchased. I have selected the albums carefully and want to know them well. I estimate requiring nearly eleven months to play each disc once. I don't see much point in growing the collection by much. There simply isn't enough time to enjoy it adequately.


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## Joris (Jan 13, 2013)

I wish I had one clear obsession..I always admire people like Robbins Landon, who wanted to 'dedicate his life to Haydn' and anyone who wants to know every detail about a composer/work, just because they know it's the most interesting to them. Not to mention having dozens of recordings of one piece

Of course a minor drawback of having an obsession is that it can give you 'blinkers', but the sense of purpose is what I'm thoroughly jealous of.

I guess my latest obsession is 'Classical Music'


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Ah yes, I am obsessed at this time with vocal works in classical, particularly religious works like Handel's Messiah and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. Besides obsessions I previously noted for particular performances, I have a collection of about 100 CDs and concerts of Johnny Winter, probably about 50 Bob Dylan CDs, and about 23 Neil Young CDs. Those are the big three non-classical for me as noted in my signature.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Music seems to be the only thing on this planet that has yielded a lasting passion from me. That passion is burning pretty hot in Classical music right now.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I forgot to mention some other music obsession items, including about 10 Mussorgsky Pictures At An Exhbition of all different kinds including one done like a piano concerto, to one on strange Russian stringed instruments, a brass rendition, one on organ, one by the Shostakovich Trio (piano and strings) and of course piano, and several orchestrations. Besides that I can think of that I have four complete Handel's Messiahs, five if I count the free download one, and had two two others, one i gave to a pastor and the other to my son. My obsession also have me buying duplicates of some disks.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Uh oh, I feel an obsession with Beethoven's only opera coming on. I have two Fidelio CD sets and just ordered the Bernstein DVD, an English version, and the original Lenore CD. And now I am looking at a great deal on a combined set by John Eliot Gardiner (Leonore) and Bernstein (Fidelio):
View attachment 29329


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