# what is your holy graal among your records?



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

Meaning: rare pricy expensive vynil or cd, do you have record extremely limited, i was looking for a record of Luigi russolo unfortunetly its not available anywhere on the web or import in store, i only found a german cd whit russolo works and its very rare and unavailable, i would kill to get my hand on Mayuzumi nirvana symphony(this would be my holy graal).

What about you guys?


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

For right now it's Sol Gabetta's import disc "Prayer" in mp3 format until the CD disc arrives.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

One that I have that was once super-expensive (the price has gone down) is Xenakis's Persepolis + Remixes.


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## Alydon (May 16, 2012)

I haven't got a Holy Grail amongst my recorded collection as almost everything is available to buy or for free on the internet. The one set of recordings which I would give almost anything to hear are the recordings Alfred Cortot made of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas which were never released. The main reason given as to their non-release was that they were so awful, and Cortot at around eighty just couldn't play the notes, but it would still be a fascinating listen.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

J.S. Bach Well-Tempered Clavier Complete with Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord.

Absolutely towering performance of Bach at his greatest.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Any recording of Wagner's Parsifal since it would contain the Holy Grail amongst its Props. Yeah I know I am such a smart aleck.


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## shadowdancer (Mar 31, 2014)

I am allowing myself to have 2 holy grails. By HGrail I mean that these two CD's don't leave the house under any circunstance


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

My records (aka discs) _are_ the holy graal of collecting. I am after the essential, the essence of music as my ears hear it. The collection _is_ the graal.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

my holy graal would be the Live performance of Otmar Macha's Night and hope I taped from radio 3 in the early 1980's It was much better than the CD version I have now. I lost it in the move back from Naughty south london.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

deprofundis said:


> Meaning: rare pricy expensive vynil or cd, do you have record extremely limited, i was looking for a record of Luigi russolo unfortunetly its not available anywhere on the web or import in store, i only found a german cd whit russolo works and its very rare and unavailable,* i would kill to get my hand on Mayuzumi nirvana symphony*(this would be my holy graal).


*When on Earth in general...*
http://www.amazon.com/Mayuzumi-Nirvana-Symphony-T/dp/B0000034WF

or

*When in Rome....*


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I mentioned WTC by J.S. Bach.

I must also add the Concord Piano Sonata by Charles Ives as performed by Easley Blackwood. Unequivocally holy grail material.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

The only couple of classical LPs that I have that I would consider a holy grail, is an original copy of Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra" and "Music for Strings Percussion & Celesta" on the RCA Living Stereo "Shaded Dog" label, with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Conducted by Fritz Reiner.

All the late 50's and early 60's "Shaded Dog" RCA recordings of the Chicago Symphony with Reiner have really amazing sound quality. In a way, these recordings are a real indictment of modern recordings. Using all that archaic technology, these recordings sound so real, transparent and dynamic.

I believe it is worth about $150. Not that expensive. I also own a vinyl reissue of this recording on Analog Productions ($30), and it is every bit as good as the original.

Another holy grail I own, which is not worth a lot, but is hard to find, sounds incredible, and musically great, is Ernst Krenek "Static and Ecstatic/Kitharaulos" on the Sarabande label.









In other genres, I own quite a few holy grail recordings.

Most of them are super rare, 70's Italian prog-rock. Some of them are worth over $1000 each.

For example, my copy of this "De De Lind" LP (1972) is worth between $1500 and $2000.


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## ShropshireMoose (Sep 2, 2013)

Alydon said:


> I haven't got a Holy Grail amongst my recorded collection as almost everything is available to buy or for free on the internet. The one set of recordings which I would give almost anything to hear are the recordings Alfred Cortot made of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas which were never released. The main reason given as to their non-release was that they were so awful, and Cortot at around eighty just couldn't play the notes, but it would still be a fascinating listen.


Parts of the series of Beethoven Sonatas have been released on the Warner/EMI Cortot Anniversary Edition, which Amazon currently have on sale for £31.11 (for 40 CDs!) The first movement of the "Appassionata", the last movement of Op.90, and a complete performance of "Les Adieux" are given, there are also substantial parts of the "Pathetique"/"Moonlight"/"Appasionata"/Op.90/Op.79 and "Les Adieux" given with Cortot's commentary on them. Also of interest are previously unreleased sets of the Chopin Ballades and Preludes from 1957. I have to say, in all honesty that the Beethoven pieces are interesting, but not technically that good either as recordings or performances (they date from 1959 and were recorded at the Ecole Normale de Musique, rather than the HMV studios), but the set is worth having, and a snip at the present price, giving you all of Cortot's commercial recordings neatly in one box. Priceless I'd say.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Some of the more valuable items are/have been

- Bach´s Sonatas & Partitas / Szigeti / Vanguard 3LP first release. I paid very little for it & sold the box set for £ 450.

- Wagner Tristan & Isolde / Furtwängler The original EMI ALP box set in very fine condition. 
Once valued £ 350 - but prices have apparently been going down. Still own it.

Lots of relatively rare LPs too, but their value is difficult to estimate and the "real" value if trying to sell them can be much less than expected.

Some examples, on top of my head: 

- Poulenc: Le Bal Masque. 10´ LP with original cover by Miro.
- 4 individual LPs (Mercury + Danish EMI labels) with original covers by Bjørn Wiinblad. 
- Nørgård: Early piano works, including Sonata 1, played by Elisabeth Klein. Early Wilhelm Hansen LP, with a cover made by Nørgård´s wife.
- many LPs / 78s with covers by designer artists like Alex Steinweiss, Paul Huf, Erik Nitsche, Roger Hane, and many others.
- Maria Yudina, 2 box sets of 4 LPs each, Eurodisc label.
- Vadim Gomolyaka: 1st Symphony (Russian LP)
- Ustvolskaya: early orchestral suite, Children´s Suite / Mravinsky (melodiya LP)
- Yuri Levitin: String quartets (melodiya LP)
- Arkady Filippenko: String Quartets 2 & 4 (melodiya LP, panton LP)


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

Judging by the OP title, "What is your holy graal among your records?", I thought of something completely different than what it's actually asking for. I don't have anything that's crazy expensive or rare, so I'll post on what I thought it was going to be about. 

My personal most cherished recording, the holy graal or "desert island" recording of my "collection" is the Takacs Quartet's recording of Beethoven's late String Quartets. I couldn't be without it. OK, I could, but it would suck.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

hpowders said:


> J.S. Bach Well-Tempered Clavier Complete with Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord.
> 
> Absolutely towering performance of Bach at his greatest.


 Still waiting to hear from the Land Of The Rising Sun?


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

For a long time I wanted Gary Graffman's recordings of Beethoven's last 2 Piano Sonatas and Horenstein's Mahler 4. I finally had to settle for buying multi CD sets to acquire both.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

(For those who need more information concerning this Holy Grail recording, please read Corey Greenburg's final record review for STEREOPHILE magazine: http://www.stereophile.com/recordingofthemonth/1093rotmb/index.html . The following is an excerpt from that review. This is what Corey wrote after listening to the recording for the first time:

... ten hours later, after five back-to-back full-length plays and six hours of trying to come to terms with what I'd just heard but not quite believed, I'm sitting here listening to it again at full blast with my new Dell notebook on my thighs as I two-finger my last Stereophile record review.

While recognizing that I am unable to fully convey just what Hasil Adkins's music sounds like, I will try to furnish some factual details in order to get the basic gist of Out to Hunch across to you. Hasil Adkins the True Messiah was a lone-nut teen rockabilly rebel in the West Virginee hills ...

Truly life altering music.)


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## Oscarf (Dec 13, 2014)

Triplets said:


> For a long time I wanted Gary Graffman's recordings of Beethoven's last 2 Piano Sonatas and Horenstein's Mahler 4. I finally had to settle for buying multi CD sets to acquire both.


I purchased my vynil copy of Horenstein`s Mahler 4 25 years ago while skipping a boring class at university. You just reminded me that I have not listened to it for quite a while. Well time to play it again.


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## Alydon (May 16, 2012)

ShropshireMoose said:


> Parts of the series of Beethoven Sonatas have been released on the Warner/EMI Cortot Anniversary Edition, which Amazon currently have on sale for £31.11 (for 40 CDs!) The first movement of the "Appassionata", the last movement of Op.90, and a complete performance of "Les Adieux" are given, there are also substantial parts of the "Pathetique"/"Moonlight"/"Appasionata"/Op.90/Op.79 and "Les Adieux" given with Cortot's commentary on them. Also of interest are previously unreleased sets of the Chopin Ballades and Preludes from 1957. I have to say, in all honesty that the Beethoven pieces are interesting, but not technically that good either as recordings or performances (they date from 1959 and were recorded at the Ecole Normale de Musique, rather than the HMV studios), but the set is worth having, and a snip at the present price, giving you all of Cortot's commercial recordings neatly in one box. Priceless I'd say.


Many thanks for information & will investigate immediately.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I have one record that means a great deal to me because of the story behind it.

I was buying 78s on eBay, and because of the shipping cost, it made more sense to ship batches of records, rather than individual disks. Whenever I bought a 78, I would always ask if the seller had more that they would sell me to fill out the box. I bought some nice Victor Red Seals of opera singers, and I asked the seller if he had more. He replied, "Yes, but they're kind of special to me. But I don't have a phonograph, so they should probably go to someone like you who will play them."

He lived in the mountains in Northern California next door to a nursing home. There was an old German man who lived there, and he adopted the guy since he didn't have any family. They would visit and the old man would tell him stories about his life. When he was 20 years old after WWI, he emigrated to America. He came to the California gold country to become a miner. He had a cabin in the woods next to a stream and ran a sluice box panning for gold. He didn't make a great deal of money at it, but enough to get by. He lived in the cabin with no electricity or telephone until he was in his 80s, when the authorities discovered him living as a hermit and moved him into the nursing home.

When he passed away, the nursing home contacted the neighbor and told him that the old man had told them to give him his belongings. He didn't have much. Basically a stack of old records and a suitcase phonograph that didn't work any more. This is what he would play at his cabin in the middle of the wilderness. He had thrown out the phonograph years before, but he still had the records. He put them in the box and shipped them to me.

When I got them, I pulled out my suitcase Victrola and played the first record on the pile... It was Al Jolson on Brunswick in 1922 singing "California Here I Come". As I listened, I pictured the old German gold miner all alone by lamplight in his cabin in the woods listening to this and I got teary eyed. I get that way every time I play that record.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

albertfallickwang said:


> Any recording of Wagner's Parsifal since it would contain the Holy Grail amongst its Props. Yeah I know I am such a smart aleck.


You laugh, but . . .

For me right now it's the 1938 Metropolitan Opera broadcast of _Parsifal_, the only recording of the complete opera made by either Lauritz Melchior or Kirsten Flagstad. Available only in a rare, ridiculously overpriced edition.









Strangely, Act II of the same performance is available in a remastered, much more reasonably priced offering.









Why they can't do the same for the entire broadcast is beyond me.


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

I haven't any rarities, just a few scarcities (see what I did there?). 

Based on current inflated prices I suppose some of my more valuable recordings include some of Horenstein's Mahler and various releases by defunct labels such as Olympia.


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## GKC (Jun 2, 2011)

Probably my LP of the Quartetto Italiano playing (live) Bach's The Art of Fugue.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Copland Appalachian Spring Suite, Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic.

A great, heartfelt performance.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

I prize my Helene Grimaud CD's very much. And Sol Gabetta.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

I'll side with science, without price consideration. My *holy growl* would hafta come from *Xenakis*. String Quartets.:devil:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Another is Ives Concord Piano Sonata with Easley Blackwood. Definitive. Priceless!


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

I found this at a book sale about six months ago:









Ludwig sounds better on vinyl, of course.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The Unaccompanied Violin Partitas and Sonatas by Bach performed by Nathan Milstein.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

SONNET CLV said:


> View attachment 61821
> 
> 
> ...
> ...


Oh, I know Adkins music. The best rockabilly one-man-band out there. He's an acquired taste, but one worth cultivating for sheer entertainment.


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Cassette Box set of Andras Schiff's well-tempered clavier. Can't find the CD


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

14 disc set of scores by Bernard Herrmann. Limited Edition of a 1000 copies and sold out in hours. I was one of the lucky ones and will never part with them.










I have to say the current Amazon price is outrageous.

https://www.amazon.com/Bernard-Herrmann-Century-limited-boxed/dp/B006TIUVII


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

deprofundis said:


> Meaning: rare pricy expensive vynil or cd, do you have record extremely limited, i was looking for a record of Luigi russolo unfortunetly its not available anywhere on the web or import in store, i only found a german cd whit russolo works and its very rare and unavailable, i would kill to get my hand on Mayuzumi nirvana symphony(this would be my holy graal).
> 
> What about you guys?


Unlike Launcelot, I prefer to listen to music rather than chase after presumably precious chalices. I do have a rather large recorded music collection (LPs, CDs, tapes), including several works by both Mayuzumi and Russolo (I think you'd enjoy combing through my collection!), and I do have rare and limited editions and what one might call "expensive" albums in my collection ... but if I treasure some of the discs I probably most treasure my collection of "Complete Bach" and "Complete Beethoven" most of all, not necessarily because they have a higher value than my, say, original pressings black Chrome box set of LPs or my signed by Jad Fair and his brother Half Japanese albums ... but because I treasure the music of Bach and Beethoven above everybody else. Simple.

The physical objects of LPs and CDs and tapes are just that -- objects. Sure, they have some intrinsic monetary value, but what they represent, musical sounds of sublime quality, is beyond pricing.

Some of the rarest and most valuable/pricey discs in my collection actually contain some of the least memorable, sublime music. (Did I mention my Chrome box, or my signed Half Japanese discs?) So placing a monetary value on a "graal" disc can be rather absurd. Hearing Beethoven's Ninth via the radio for free is a sublime experience, a "graal" (or "grail") experience, certainly!


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Tallisman said:


> Cassette Box set of Andras Schiff's well-tempered clavier. Can't find the CD


You mean his first recording? (or the second one on ECM). The first is included here:

https://www.amazon.com/Samtliche-Gr...F8&qid=1495996278&sr=1-2&keywords=schiff+bach

The ECM album is easy available.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

​
For today it must be this one.


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

Heliogabo said:


> You mean his first recording? (or the second one on ECM). The first is included here:
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/Samtliche-Gr...F8&qid=1495996278&sr=1-2&keywords=schiff+bach
> 
> The ECM album is easy available.


The Decca one. Actually, I've just found it on CD on Amazon UK - might nab it while I can


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

The Boulez/Chereau ring cycle on DVD, which I bought several years ago on Amazon for about $100. It's the most expensive DVD set that I own, and it's well worth it!


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

My biggest splurge in recent years was on the Japanese SACD reissue of Szell's Beethoven cycle.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bettina said:


> The Boulez/Chereau ring cycle on DVD, which I bought several years ago on Amazon for about $100. It's the most expensive DVD set that I own, and it's well worth it!


I bought the same for under €10.00, it was wrongly price but they did send it, together with Bernstein Beethoven DVD set.( same price)


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I do think that this one and the Bernstein Sony boxes are well and truly on top of the pile.


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