# Building a sensible library



## gr8gunz

I'm not really a beginner but I thought this post would fit in well here.

I have a rather large (not huge) classical library with most of my favorite works in duplicate and triplicate. I like to hear different interpretations of the works I like best. For example, I have 6 different recordings of the Mozart wind serenade K361 and three different recordings of the big nine.

I have all the Haydn symphonies and considering purchasing a second run. Is this overkill or do many of you do the same thing? All opinions welcome.

Thanks :tiphat:


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## bassClef

The same really. Trying to build a wide collection but for those works that really strike a chord I delve deep in trying out all the available interpretations I can get my hands on.


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## Moira

The problem is always that what is a sensible library will vary from person to person. 

When I visit at the home of a pianist friend I note that his collection is very heavily weighted to piano music, several recordings of each work. Similarly the home of a violinist friend is very violin heavy. A friend who is an opera singer has an opera heavy collection.

I am trying to build a broad collection with few duplicates. At the moment I don't think I have enough chamber music recordings.


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## mmsbls

My collection and philosophy is similar to Moira. I may have close to 500 recordings, but I don't have much duplication. I have, for example, 4 recordings of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto, but I probably only have duplicate recordings of 20-30 works. I tend to increase my collection by buying recordings of new works. I expect that new recordings will dominate my purchases for awhile to come.


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## Polednice

What would constitute overkill? Just listen to and collect whatever amount you enjoy.


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## elgar's ghost

I suppose some might call it overkill only because of the amount of symphonies involved but if, for example, you have a 'modern' cycle of Haydn's symphonies then you may want to acquire an HIP cycle (or vice versa) which would be fun to compare thus making the purchase even more worthwhile. I'm mulling over a second Shostakovich symphony cycle (Russian/Soviet recordings only) to compliment my Haitink cycle and I already have multiple recordings of the symphonies of Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner and Mahler but I do listen to them all somewhere along the line. What you are doing is not unusual - whatever floats your boat.


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## PetrB

I have an acquaintance who simply cannot get enough Beethoven: He owns multiple box sets and individual recordings of all the Symphonies, Concerti, String quartets, etc. That is his wont.

I perfectly understand: budget allowing, I could easily spend a month ordering CD's I may not have the time, ever, to listen to the number ordered.

Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde is another 'multiple performances' section in this friend's collection. I can live with THE archival recording which I consider the overall best for balance, ratio of tempi from movement to movement, the middle recording Conducted by Bruno Walter, NY Phil, Mildred Miller and Ernst Haefliger. On the other hand, I find Walter's famous third recording of it much too slow, as if he decided the listener should 'notice this bit, notice that bit.' -- but who would want to do without this recording on which is the amazing true contralto of Kathleen Ferrier? That is a sheer luxury of sound, timbre, which makes that recording another 'must.'

And so it goes, whichever composer floats your boat, or the manner of delivery and personality of one conductor / performer over the next? Comparisons, even with one less ideal than another, can further illuminate what one hears, thought one 'knew' of a piece.

I tend to stay, by budget and preference, with one, maybe two performances of a work. 

I advocate, if possible, owning multiple interpretations because music, until the mi-1900's, was never considered 'for recording only.' and that meant the variables from night to night with the same performers, let alone the other differences, is part of why it IS music - temporal art, different each time, only alive when it is being played.

One very negative aspect to recorded music, and people who listen to it more than attending live performances, is that many become "spoiled for any other performance" by their repeated listening to just one particular recorded performance, and that is a crying shame.


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## Manxfeeder

I agree with what's been said. I've found that if I like something, one recording or cycle isn't enough. Actually, multiple interpretations actually get me deeper into the piece. As T.S. Eliot said in his Four Quartets:
"The end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."


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## gr8gunz

Thanks for all the great responses. Although I have several recordings of the same work I do try to keep it as diverse as possible. Most of my Haydn collection is on period instruments with either Hogwood or Pinnock. I will try to gather some recordings by orchestras playing on modern intstruments. My Beethoven collections really show a very different approach by the period conductors in a wide variety of ways. I think that these conductors serve the music more than the modern ones. Karajan, for example, is more interested in Karajan than he is in Beethoven. IMHO


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## StlukesguildOhio

I tend to make a great many of my purchases based upon what I perceive as gaps in my collection. For example, about three years ago I focused intensely upon late-Modern/Contemporary composers recognizing the fact that I had little grasp of "classical music" after High-Modernism (Stravinsky, Bartok, etc...). The following year I recognized that my collection of Baroque music was sadly inadequate in comparison to the range and breadth of composers and recordings I had from the Romantic/Post-Romantic/Modernist periods. Every now and then I also take stock of what I have and recognize a single "shameful" shortcoming. Only recently have I begun to flesh out my collections of Verdi's work... in spite of the fact that Verdi was the composer of both the first opera I ever saw (on TV) and the first opera I ever saw IRL (Aida). I had all the recordings of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Puccini, etc... that you could desire... but Verdi remained an inexplicable gap... until recently. What of Renaissance music? Medieval music? 20th century music? Living composers? Just some thoughts. The "Classical" era beyond the obvious (Haydn, Mozart, Boccherini, early Beethoven, and Rossini)?


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## Romantic Geek

For me, I've been trying to purchase what I perceive as standards that I would either need a recording (for teaching purposes) or for pleasure. I hardly buy anything I'm not interested in now as there are gaps in the types of music I like. Occasionally, you run into a bad CD, so there are duplicates. But I tend to just have one recording for what I need. (There's always Naxos and Youtube for me if I'm missing something.)


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## PetrB

gr8gunz said:


> Thanks for all the great responses. Although I have several recordings of the same work I do try to keep it as diverse as possible. Most of my Haydn collection is on period instruments with either Hogwood or Pinnock. I will try to gather some recordings by orchestras playing on modern intstruments. My Beethoven collections really show a very different approach by the period conductors in a wide variety of ways. I think that these conductors serve the music more than the modern ones. Karajan, for example, is more interested in Karajan than he is in Beethoven. IMHO


You might want to check the remarkable Haydn series done by Antal Dorati and the Minneapolis Symphony, 'vintage' but not too as far as the audio, and certainly if re-released, budget all the way.


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## gr8gunz

PetrB said:


> You might want to check the remarkable Haydn series done by Antal Dorati and the Minneapolis Symphony, 'vintage' but not too as far as the audio, and certainly if re-released, budget all the way.


I can't seem to find that release. There is a 2009 release of the complete symphonies done by Adám Fischer and the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra on 8 disks priced at about 30 duckets. The catch is that it is an MP3 recording. Hmmmm. Not sure about that. Not even sure if my equipment will play mp3 files? I own an old garden variety cd changer as well as a very expensive SACD player. There is a big write up on this set on the arkivmusic.com website which claims that most listeners will not be able to hear a difference in quality. Not sure about that either. If I can determine that my equipment will play mp3 the price of this set is quite tempting. 

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=219052


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## gr8gunz

I have to admit that my collection has a huge hole when it comes to the more modern (20th century) music. I cannot even listen to Mahler or Ives, and very little of Stravinsky. I have some Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninov and a few others, but aside from the popular works I know very little of where to look for music I might enjoy from this period.

Lots and lots of baroque and classical period music from Telemann to Beethoven.


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