# classical work you have in multiple version because your some fanboy



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

Ockay i most have every version of Gesualdo tenebrae responsorie: and the piece of work called Miserere about 7 versions.Maybe i was on a quest to find the best version ever.Miserere was what got me into his music, still today i find this is somesort of rare gem in classical archive.

Than what about other that i have multiple version well le pierrot lunaire by Schoenberg 2 versions but i will probably get boulez rendition of this, so this mean 3 versions since it never sounds the same , Schoenberg is always a suprise a mad scientist experience, you never know how it will end.

I got two versions of Crumbs makrokosmos 3, since it's that good, but the BIS version is a keeper.

So i was wondering if they were people like me trying to find the wright version thus meaning buying them all.But doeing sutch thing is expensive in the end.

But i gave up one buying Gesualdo madrigals on other labels than naxos since the naxos does the job, yes they may be better version but who care im satisfied whit what i have.

So i was wondering does you guys think im mad for buying the same work over and over, or you understand my compulsion of getting the very best version of a work, even if this mean spending
spending and spending some more money.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

I believe this behaviour is NORMAL and even REQUIRED for true classical music fan. 
Twelve Don Carlo recordings here and two more ordered (and two more planned and hell knows what next). A never-ending quest for perfection because the music deserves it.


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

Nearly 20 different recordings of Beethoven's Ninth. Still going strong, just recently bought the Tennstedt/Lucia Popp recording. 

Around half as many of the Fifth, but I stopped because I realized I only listen to Carlos Kleiber's anyway. 

I also have plenty of different recordings of Beethoven's late piano sonatas. 
Pollini
Solomon
Schiff 
Uchida 
Lewis


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I ain't some little weenie fan boy.

Just kidding, I have numerous recordings of pieces in the Fitzwilliam virginal book and CPE Bach symphonies.


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## Guest (Nov 12, 2015)

I have multiple recordings of the following:

Beethoven Symphony 9
Beethoven Late String Quartets
Beethoven Violin Concerto
Brahms Piano Trios
Mahler Symphony 1
Mahler Symphony 2
Mahler Symphony 4
Tchaikovsky Symphony 6
Mozart Zauberfloete
Beethoven Piano Concerto 5
Mahler Das Lied von der Erde

That is what I can think of off of the top of my head.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I have some (likely more than I realize) multiple recordings in my collection. Admittedly:

1. I spotted another version at a used record store and it was so cheap, that I grabbed it.
2. I was buying the album for another work I didn't yet have and it was also included on the album.
3. I traded in some albums at a used record store and there was absolutely nothing there for me, except another version of something I already had.

I can't think of any instance when I deliberately purchased a second version new and at full price because I wanted to have that other version. I am still in an exploratory phase of listening, so I am more interested in acquiring great music I don't yet have recordings of. I do most of my comparison listening on line, so I have not had the fever for owning innumerable alternate versions. I think it is more a trait of the advanced listener: I think I have road to travel, yet.


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## Balthazar (Aug 30, 2014)

I am trying not to buy additional recordings of works I already own, but I continue to have a weakness for recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations and Beethoven's piano sonatas.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Azol said:


> I believe this behaviour is NORMAL and even REQUIRED for true classical music fan.
> Twelve Don Carlo recordings here and two more ordered (and two more planned and hell knows what next). A never-ending quest for perfection because the music deserves it.


I am clearly not a true classical music fan by this criterion. My collection consists only of readings of works that totally satisfy and complete me. I have found that, if crisply recorded, most any version of any work that I hear for the first time is just fine by me-- in fact, it's almost reflexive that what sounds "good and right" to me first, is what sounds best. I've only searched for other versions of works when my old LPs wore out and I found alternate readings different=unsatisfactory. Imagine my joy at finding old friends again on remastered CDs: Heifetz doing the Sibelius concerto; Cliburn with the Prokofiev 3; Richter performing the Brahms 2. The versions I grew up with are/were the versions I prefer, and I seek replacements that sound essentially the same. Just a dabbler, I guess.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Well, shucks, yeah. Hearing an Erik Satie piece on the radio got me back into classical music about 15 years ago, and I ended up trying to purchase every Erik Satie CD I could find. That's when I found out I'm a sucker for alternate versions. 

The most redundancy is in Bruckner and Beethoven symphonies and recordings of Webern. Brahms symphonies are starting to pile up also along with orchestral works of Bartok, particularly The Miraculous Mandarin (I'm looking for the perfect opening). 

Hearing different interpretations of a familiar work is half the fun of listening to classical music. Anybody can do a first performance of something original, but when you take the podium next to the greatest conductors, musicians, and orchestras, that's when you find out if you have chops.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Balthazar said:


> I am trying not to buy additional recordings of works I already own, but I continue to have a weakness for recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations and Beethoven's piano sonatas.


Same here concerning the GV's. I've got around 150 versions, although I haven't acquired any over the past two years. Actually, I have not bought any music for many months.

Of my total collection, most of it represents multiple versions. Not having an eclectic bone in my body, I've found it easy to buy an expansive number of versions of a limited repertoire.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Beethoven's Fidelio: 20 full CD sets, 2 highlights sets, 4 Leonore sets, and 10 DVDs.

Other operas: Half dozen La Sonnambula, several Martha (Flotow), several Tosca, perhaps others I forgot.

Beethoven's symphonys: about 6 full cycles and miscellaneous disks of select symphonies.

Beethoven Ninths: Lost count, but probably around 40.

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibiton: about 10 sets in all different kinds of orchestrations from accordion to full orchestra.

Messiah: half a dozen including 2-3 standard performances (HIP and non-HIP), two Dublin performances, another non-standard performance, and one sung in German.

Maybe other stuff I would remember later.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Back before I de-accessioned most of my 1,100-odd LPs, there were probably three or four dozen works I had multiple versions of -- but seldom more than two or three. The ones I had five or more of included Beethoven's Seventh (5), Ninth (6), late quartets (four sets and various singles), Mahler Sixth (5), Mahler Ninth (5, 4 of which were BPO for some reason), Janacek Sinfonietta (5). In the CD era I confess to 7 Mahler Tenths, but each is a different performing version, so I claim that not to count.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I tend to listen to several before buying, but usually end up owning only a single version, or just a couple. I think I have most versions of Liszt's _Christus_ oratorio.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Bach, Handel concertos and vocal music, anything by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos. Long live these great works!


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## Balthazar (Aug 30, 2014)

Bulldog said:


> *Same here concerning the GV's. I've got around 150 versions*, although I haven't acquired any over the past two years. Actually, I have not bought any music for many months.
> 
> Of my total collection, most of it represents multiple versions. Not having an eclectic bone in my body, I've found it easy to buy an expansive number of versions of a limited repertoire.


 You're in a whole different league! I have about a dozen...

You should open a museum. Or post a comprehensive comparative review.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

There is no piece of music I want numerous versions of. Two or three is generally sufficient for even favorite works, so long as I think they're all topnotch performances and different enough from each other to warrant the duplication. The exceptions to this are certain operas, in which different singers bring completely different qualities to the music and drama. Then there's Wagner, especially _Tristan_, the demands of which are so nearly impossible to fulfill that many different performances are necessary just to understand the work's possibilities.

It's always good to hear a new performance, but I want to keep my collection manageable, and I'd rather buy music I don't yet have than slightly different versions of music I do. Funds, time, and space are limited. That said, I've somehow ended up with six versions of Beethoven's Fifth and seven of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto, neither of which I've listened to lately. Guess I've been to an awful lot of garage sales.


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## Lyricus (Dec 11, 2015)

It would take to long to list each and every work that I have multiples of, but those two which I have the most versions of are Beethoven's symphonies and Vivaldi's _Stabat Mater_.

This isn't necessarily on purpose, and some of them are various LP sets I just couldn't pass up over the years. Other doubles are rather to experience vast gulfs of difference between certain performances, e.g. Rubinstein's and Ashkenazy's Chopin's _Nocturnes_, Kleiber's and Solti's _Le nozze di Figaro_, or various performers of Paganini's Caprices.

Sometimes it's to track an artist over the years, so I have the _State of Wonder_ discs, allowing me to listen to both Gould's 1955 and 1981 performances of the Goldbergs.

Other times though it's just because I haven't made up my mind as to which I prefer!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Since last posting in this thread I now have 7 different CD sets of Wagner's Der fliegende Hollander opera.


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## Badinerie (May 3, 2008)

Erm.... Tosca, I refuse to quote numbers in case I incriminate my self.


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## Guest (Dec 12, 2015)

I don't do multiple recordings very often. Well, I listen to them occasionally, but for space reasons, I keep only one on my iPod 99.9% of the time. Off the top of my head, however, these have necessitated different recordings for me:

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20
Stravinsky: The Rite Of Spring
Stockhausen: Gruppen
Kurtag: Jatekok

And then I probably have more recordings of Stockhausen's Tierkreis than of any other work, but that's different because each is a different version  (music boxes version, carillon version, clarinet/piano version, orchestral version, organ version, etc...)


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## Gouldanian (Nov 19, 2015)

Brahms 3rd and 4th symphonies.


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## ribonucleic (Aug 20, 2014)

Florestan said:


> Beethoven Ninths: Lost count, but probably around 40.


I feel a lot better about my 15 _Hammerklaviers_ now.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Over 50 La Traviata's 
Mind you, CD'S/ DVDS and Vinyl


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## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

I plead the fifth (of Beethoven and Mahler, in at least 10 versions.)


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## bejart (Nov 16, 2012)

I started out down this path by collecting various versions of Mozart's String Quintets, then moved on to Beethoven's Strig Quartets, back to Mozart for his Piano Concertos and Sonatas.

Lately, I've taken to gathering all the available recordings of lesser known composers. First it was Joseph Martin Kraus, followed by Giuseppe Maria Cambini. The most recent obsession has been Jan Vanhal. I hit a gold mine when I discovered that an outfit in Tokyo is in the process of recording all 77 of his symphonies, and has been at it since 2004.


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