# Complete Works of...



## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Normally I pick and choose works to buy, but with a couple of not so prolific composers I found a great bargain for complete works by Varese (2CD) and Webern (3CD). Which composers do you have complete works of from sets or individual CDs and how many CDs were in the set? Curious to know how many Bach CDs in complete works, also for Mozart and others.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

None .

:lol:

I have complete cycles of genres by some composers though!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I am not sure I have complete works for anything but I have 

Beethoven 84 CD set claiming to be complete

Mendelssohn 40 CD set, which is not complete

Wagner complete operas, 44 CDs.

I thought it would be nice to get a complete works of Rachmaninov but can't find such a set.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Fritz Kobus said:


> I am not sure I have complete works for anything but I have
> 
> Beethoven 84 CD set claiming to be complete
> 
> ...


aha, that's what I was looking for. I wonder if anyone has a full Bach or Mozart.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I used to have the Brilliant Classics complete Mozart, which someone bought for his wife and sold to me cheap when she didn't want it. It was worth hearing most of the 70 CDs, but I then sold it to someone else.

I don't think there's a composer whose complete works I feel a need to own.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

None ... I can't think of a single composer whose entire output I would care to have. Not Beethoven, not RVW, not Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler etc., etc., etc.


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

I also have the complete works of Varèse (Decca) and Webern (DG), but as that amounts to two and six discs respectively it wasn't that difficult! I've also got Mahler's acknowledged output but not as a boxed set - that probably works out to about fifteen discs. I'm almost there with Maurice Ravel, Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Alban Berg but again their output doesn't amount to a great deal in terms of volume.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Becca said:


> None ... I can't think of a single composer whose entire output I would care to have. Not Beethoven, not RVW, not Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler etc., etc., etc.


I should back off slightly from that comment ... I have been tempted to look for The Complete Works of Anon.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I have the complete J.S. Bach on Brilliant Classics and it is 157 discs (and yes I need every single one of these works ). I also have the Ravel complete works on Decca which is 14 discs. I too own the 2 disc Varese complete set and I also have the Debussy Edition on DG which is the majority of his oeuvre (but not technically complete) on 18 discs.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

No complete works of anyone, but I don't feel deprived because even one work deeply appreciated can reveal something highly characteristic of a composer... and the older one gets the more is revealed. The field is too wide and there's something to be said for variety and spontaneity. The thought of going through the complete discs of anyone sounds more like an oppressive burden than a pleasure in order to get one's money's worth. I'd rather follow the whims of the moment and I'm frequently inspired by reading about the super works mentioned by the super knowledgeable members of this forum, such as the P.R. of the Deacon. But if I were forced to make a decision, it would come down to Mozart and Mahler.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Phil loves classical said:


> aha, that's what I was looking for. I wonder if anyone has a full Bach or Mozart.


Two composers I don't listen to because I am too preoccupied with other composers. Anyway, those two both have at least one complete set on the market. You have to scope it out on Amazon and other sites to find which are the best. Some complete works sets are a mish mash like my Beethoven set has half a dozen different conductors for the symphonies, whereas others have the same conductor throughout the symphonies, which is kind of nice.

You can do reasonably well with a decent used set. And depending what your purpose is (casual checking out everything vs owning great recordings of everything) you may get off a lot cheaper with one of the cheesier sets.

Yeah, who needs a complete works of anyone, but if is fun to have a few of them and you can readily check out different pieces. When you find you that grabs you, then you may decide to look for a really good recording separate from the set. It's all fun if you can afford it and have the time.

Here is a Mozart set

and here is a Bach set.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I have the very first Mozart edition from the 90 ties on Philips as CD no idea how many CD'S though and the Tutto Verdi set opera's on DVD.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Very few, surprisingly. Mahler, Elgar, Puccini, Sibelius, Webern, Bax? That's all I can think of. Franz Schmidt comes close - there are some piano works he wrote as a teen that haven't been recorded. Wagner really close.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

I dithered too long. They had the Complete Mozart in Brillianst Classics - 170 Cds for €129 - in Tower Records, and I did my usual endless research on it, then heard about the Phillips Edition - 180 CDs, because they included fragments too, I think, but that weighed in at about €1000! So I sheepishly went looking for Brilliants version in Tower Records, and it was gone. They also had Schubert too, and I was interested in that.

But in a way I'm glad I didn't get it because I collected the music in versions that I prefer, in separate boxsets for each genre, and I kinda like it like that...


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## Biffo (Mar 7, 2016)

I have the complete works of Varese (Chailly, 2 CDs) - possibly the set mentioned in the OP.

As for composers such as Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler etc it would entail too much duplication and in any case I don't have the time (or inclination) to work through mega-boxes of Bach and Mozart. I am pretty sure I have the complete works of Mahler, most of it in multiple versions.


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## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

I have Stravinsky's "Works" on 22 CDs with the composer conducting the Columbia symphony orchestra on Sony. I'm about ten disks through, and it's worth the bargain price already. "Third Ear" calls this a "complete works project" but points out that Craft has pursued a more complete project since! (Can you ever be sure you have everything...)

Anyone have a full Haydn set? I just received Fisher's complete Haydn symphonies on 33 disks. The Brilliant Classics Haydn edition comes in at 160 CDs. Is that a record?


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Mal said:


> I have Stravinsky's "Works" on 22 CDs with the composer conducting the Columbia symphony orchestra on Sony. I'm about ten disks through, and it's worth the bargain price already. "Third Ear" calls this a "complete works project" but points out that Craft has pursued a more complete project since! (Can you ever be sure you have everything...)
> 
> Anyone have a full Haydn set? I just received Fisher's complete Haydn symphonies on 33 disks. The Brilliant Classics Haydn edition comes in at 160 CDs. Is that a record?


Mozart = 170 discs - far more muscular. 

Funny you mention Robert Craft, Stravinsky's amanuensis and protege of sorts, I was reading an old newspaper review of Stravinskiy's visit to Dublin in 1963, and Craft's name was mentioned. The review was by Charles Acton, of the Irish Times. Essentially, he states that Craft took duty with the cane for Le Baiser de la fee, and although Acton allows that he's an "expert on Stravinsky and a most effective musician", but "has he any wamth of heart, any real sensuousness? In short, does he like music?" He goes on further to criticise Craft's management of the piece, saying that "it felt very long."

I'm not defending Acton over Craft, by the way, but I'm wondering, perhaps you do have everything, and Craft may not be capable of improving things? Or is he?

I know there's a great Mozart scholar, Robert Levin, who finishes pieces and imitates the style and all that, but I kinda feel wary about stuff like that...


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

Mal said:


> I have Stravinsky's "Works" on 22 CDs with the composer conducting the Columbia symphony orchestra on Sony. I'm about ten disks through, and it's worth the bargain price already. "Third Ear" calls this a "complete works project" but points out that Craft has pursued a more complete project since! (Can you ever be sure you have everything...)
> 
> Anyone have a full Haydn set? I just received Fisher's complete Haydn symphonies on 33 disks. The Brilliant Classics Haydn edition comes in at 160 CDs. Is that a record?


There's not a fat lot missing from the Stravinsky box from what I can see - a smattering of piano and chamber works, his take on _The Star Spangled Banner_, an early orchestral work in remembrance of Rimsky-Korsakov which wasn't discovered until relatively recently and whatever piano transcriptions of the ballets there may be.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

On my birthday a few years ago my wife plonked the brilliant classics set in front of me and said happy birthday you mozart freak. I was bemused at first as I never entertained this idea. But I'm glad she did - 180 CDs - beautifully ordered - and an index that allows you to find what you want in seconds. I look at it as a reference set - have discovered many fine works I never would have listened to otherwise including K137 c minor mass - brilliant work - and all the operas are fine performances.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

I have only one complete composer set...









...and that's largely because I bought it on eBay for about $30. I keep it in the office to have music available to me here.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Glazunov (even his piano and chamber works)
Tchaikovsky (for the most part, missing Iolanta and some songs)
Rachmaninoff
Bruckner (for the most part, missing his chamber works believe it or not)
Mahler
Myaskovsky (of what are available via recordings thus far)
Bax (for the most part at least)
Dargomyzhsky (I think)
Ravel
Debussy (I think, must relook)
Rimsky-Korsakov (for the most part, missing Mozart & Salieri, Pan Voyevoda)


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

I wonder if we'll ever see a Salieri complete works - or CPE Bach


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## Guest (Mar 27, 2018)

Scriabin, I believe. Seems to require 11 CDs.

(All those with an opus number. I do not count Mysterium)


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Kieran said:


> Mozart = 170 discs - far more muscular.
> 
> Funny you mention Robert Craft, Stravinsky's amanuensis and protege of sorts, I was reading an old newspaper review of Stravinskiy's visit to Dublin in 1963, and Craft's name was mentioned. The review was by Charles Acton, of the Irish Times. Essentially, he states that Craft took duty with the cane for Le Baiser de la fee, and although Acton allows that he's an "expert on Stravinsky and a most effective musician", but "has he any wamth of heart, any real sensuousness? In short, does he like music?" He goes on further to criticise Craft's management of the piece, saying that "it felt very long."
> 
> ...


One can listen to any incomplete work by Mozart and I don't care if the reconstructor has an IQ of 222. I can always tell where Mozart left off and the "tampering" begins. A case of very smart vs. mega-genius. No comparison.

Makes me appreciate Mozart even more, if that is even possible!


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## Biffo (Mar 7, 2016)

hpowders said:


> One can listen to any incomplete work by Mozart and I don't care if the reconstructor has an IQ of 222. I can always tell where Mozart left off and the "tampering" begins. A case of very smart vs. mega-genius. No comparison.
> 
> Makes me appreciate Mozart even more, if that is even possible!


Who wants these completions anyway? Apart from the magnificent Mass in C minor, K427 and the Requiem, incomplete for obvious reasons the incomplete stuff isn't that interesting; Mozart left it unfinished because he had lost interest or was never very interested in the first place.

I suppose there is a kind of idle curiosity involved in hearing some of the incomplete stuff and I am guilty of it myself but I don't have any interest in completions by lesser hands.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Biffo said:


> Who wants these completions anyway? Apart from the magnificent Mass in C minor, K427 and the Requiem, incomplete for obvious reasons the incomplete stuff isn't that interesting; Mozart left it unfinished because he had lost interest or was never very interested in the first place.
> 
> I suppose there is a kind of idle curiosity involved in hearing some of the incomplete stuff and I am guilty of it myself but I don't have any interest in completions by lesser hands.


I have some Mozart performances and indeed, the performer(s) leave off EXACTLY where Mozart stopped. So poignant. Some of these incomplete works were going to be masterpieces. All one can ask is an unanswerable, "why, Mozart?"

I am firmly against completions for any composer. It's tampering, pure and simple.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

stomanek said:


> I wonder if we'll ever see a Salieri complete works - or CPE Bach


Here you go...

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Carl-Philipp-Emanuel-Bach/dp/B01M7TQPEA


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

I don't own any complete sets, but the ones I would be most interested in are Mozart, Beethoven, and Hummel.


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## Der Titan (Oct 17, 2016)

I have the complete works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( Brilliant Classics). And then I have a lot of boxes who are nearly complete, for example the 150 CD Box of Haydn from Brilliant Classics and the 30 CD Boxes of Elgar and Vaughan Williams and some other things. But really complete is only Mozart.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Being a completist, a lot. 

But as for single box sets claiming to be "complete (recorded) works", they include Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Scriabin, Webern, Ravel, Ruggles, Varese, Stravinsky, Keuris, Boulez.


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

Biffo said:


> Who wants these completions anyway? Apart from the magnificent Mass in C minor, K427 and the Requiem, incomplete for obvious reasons the incomplete stuff isn't that interesting; *Mozart left it unfinished because he had lost interest or was never very interested in the first place.*
> 
> I suppose there is a kind of idle curiosity involved in hearing some of the incomplete stuff and I am guilty of it myself but I don't have any interest in completions by lesser hands.


That's not entirely true. Some of Mozart's most famous works were fragments that he temporarily abandoned and returned to complete years later, both the clarinet concerto and the 27th piano concerto are examples. Robert Levine, who wrote his own completions of the C minor mass and the requiem, said one thing that distinguishes Mozart from other composers, besides his music, was the sheer number of fragments that exist and how good many of them are. In many cases, the fragments seem more daring and more original than some of the finished products he wrote around the same time. The sinfonia concertante in A major for violin, viola, and cello k.320e, the g-minor allegro molto piano sonata movement k.312, the b-flat piano sonata movement k.400, the C minor and D minor fantasias, k.396 and 397, the highly chromatic minuet and trio movement k.355, the d minor piano trio k.442, and the piano sonata movement for two pianos in B-flat k. 375c are just some examples of unfinished but very high quality works latent with developmental potential. Usually, when Mozart abandoned a work it's because he was commissioned to write something for an employer, and because money came first, those works took priority over other projects.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

I have this set of complete works of Carl Ruggles. Not very hard to complete!


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