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In Reply to: RE: Classical record collecting on a budget (long) posted by vinyl phanatic on January 22, 2011 at 09:13:05
Decca/London Dutch pressings--don't pass them up.
If you're in the US, shop the bargain bins at HalfPrice Books. Lots of minty classical albums, better than the full-priced classical section. I've found Szell/Cleveland stuff on Epic Stereorama gold label, London, Phillips, RCA, Mercury etc.
Last trip, a large stash of music by 20th Century American composers on mint Turnabout (an under-rated label), even some rarely-recorded Rimsky-Korsakov ("The Invisible City of Kitezh"). Dollar each and it was a 20%-off day.
Columbia Odysseys performed by Eugene Ormandy and the Philly are several cuts above the rest, at least to my ears. The Oistrakh Sibelius violin concerto, and Cesar Franck's Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra immediately spring to mind. The latter is as good as the London/Deccas.
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If it really were "all about the music," we'd just use iPods and be done with it.
Follow Ups:
I agree regarding Half Price Books. It's always rewarding to spend some hours going through their stuff.
I am not so sure about the Columbia Odyssey's though. Some of their stuff is quite good, but others are hard and bright sounding. YMMV.
Bill
Preview
I've studied deeply in the philosophies of the religions----but cheerfulness kept breaking through
Leonard Cohen
.....but you are right, most of them are bright and harsh.
The Szell/Cleveland Odysseys are blah but the Ormandys a really good. That Franck I referred to in my post, when I spin it and get to the end, that baby-crap brown Odyssey label is always a shock. I expect London maroon.
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If it really were "all about the music," we'd just use iPods and be done with it.
First, I'll add my thanks to vinyl phanatic. And that's a very good point about Vox/Turnabout -- some sound awful, others superb, but a lot of great music for very little money. The Aubort/Nickrenz team worked for them and got some great sounding results.Odyssey was an unusual label. It wasn't just American Columbia reissues, so as with Vox/Turnabout, I would hesitate to generalize.
IMO the Columbia Oistrakh Sibelius was an unusually fine recording with tremendous stereo separation (maybe too much) -- I have the 6-eye. Some of the other early stereo Ormandy/PO on Columbia also sounds very good.
Vinyl phanatic didn't mention Vanguard, but I think they got good results. IIRC Vanguard was run by two brothers, one of whom died only a few years ago and was a serious audiophile. Edit: I should also mention Connoisseur Society, who had good sounding LPs IMO. Not to be confused with Musical Heritage Society, great music, often reissues of European material, but not always great sound.
Edits: 01/22/11
nt
I'm good at finding $10 LPs for 25 cents, but your post deals with finding $500 LPs for 25 cents, which takes sharp eyes, sharp ears, and more than a little sophistication. I'll definitely keep your comments in mind.
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