Oh Mr Amazon, with this cheap box set / bargain item, etc...

I can't recommend the Dixon set highly enough; all the albums are great, but Vade Mecum (I & II) was an absolute game-changer in this music.

Good to hear! Aiieee, there's a Threadgill set too.

The Cyrille set has two of his brilliant records with Jimmy Lyons -- Nuba (with Jeanne Lee) and Something In Return -- but frustratingly doesn't include the third, Burnt Offering. Still, those two records are hard to come by these days, so the box is still the way to go.

anyone heard the julius hemphill albums on his box?

maybe we should all pitch in for the whole lot and do a trading tree

ha, i think i lack the basic dedication for that

I've got that Braxton box, it's great (although the packaging is fairly shoddy but what do you expect etc etc)

is the box bigger than it needs to be? i hate that.

I have a few of those Black Saint/Soul Note boxes. I recommend the Threadgill, the Dixon (don't have the box but I own the individual CDs and they're life-changing), and the David Murray Octets. I also own the Muhal Richard Abrams one but I don't like his music as much as I thought I would when I ordered it (I was basically taking a chance). Worth noting that the Cyrille box has two albums by Maono, his band with David S. Ware and trumpeter Ted Daniel. Those are both killers.

Oh, and the boxes are small clamshells with slimline sleeves inside. Small and minimal.

12 Art Pepper albums for $6.99.

Is it just me, or is the price of new CDs on Amazon skyrocketing lately?

Wagner Great Recordings is currently going for under £12 on Marketplace. Most of the selections aren't exactly the definitive versions but it does include the full Janowski Ring which will set you back more than the cost of the 40-disc set on its own.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Wagner-Great-Recordings-R/dp/B00A2JTEHY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419152996&sr=8-1&keywords=wagner+great+recordings

Presto have a sale that will bring a lot of the big boxes down to Amazonish prices until mid-Jan, for anyone that prefers to buy from independents.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/boxsets.php

I remember when Amazon had Amazon-ish prices...

(The recent Herzog box is now approaching 60 quid, up from 42)

(Sorry, forgot this was ilm)

Decent cuts to classical box sets this week:

60 CD Vivarte collection for £35, down from £50:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vivarte-Collection-Various-Artists/dp/B00AOTZ156/ref=pd_sim_m_h__8?ie=UTF8&refRID=14A236F743TT9R6F9KNQ

27 disc Rameau opera box for £26, down from £38.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rameau-Opera-Collection-J-P/dp/B00KYMJ4H4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421262148&sr=8-1&keywords=rameau

55 disc Archiv Produktion anniversary box set at £60, down from £77

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Archiv-Produktion-1947-2013-Celebration-Excellence/dp/B00BCSBU4E/ref=pd_sim_m_h__6?ie=UTF8&refRID=14A236F743TT9R6F9KNQ

55 CD Mercury Living Presence box at £49, down from £70 - £90

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mercury-Living-Presence-Vol-2-Decca/dp/B00B7364H2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421262156&sr=8-1&keywords=living+presence

54 disc Decca Sound down from £90 to £53:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Decca-Sound-The-Analogue-Years/dp/B00E0H8KAQ/ref=pd_sim_m_h__42?ie=UTF8&refRID=0ZSZGN8XSQG7J9FN5FE0

bargain classical boxes that i'm permanently on the verge of pulling the trigger on:

misuko uchida - mozart piano sonatas
maria lettberg - scriabin complete solo piano works
sergiu celibidache - symphonies box
gyorgy ligeti - clear or cloudy: complete recordings on deutsche grammophon

Ligeti box IMO.

Decca Sound The Analogue Years is fucking fantastic but you MUST have a taste for warhorses or at least an openness to acquiring a taste for warhorses.

Gah! I didn't even know about that Ligeti box! Fuuuuck...rrrg...yeah, probably just gonna go ahead and get that one.

whenever i see these crazy budget-priced massive box sets i sort of weep inside for that guy who spent 50 years and a million bucks putting together an impeccable collection of classical music on vinyl and CD and now it's like "oh i have your entire collection for a week's wages."

Even the first wave of box sets were ridiculously expensive. The Toscanini box was $2100 in 1991, adjusted for inflation. Now it's $120.

yeah, most of these end up being like $2–$4/disc. which is roughly what you might have paid in the 1950s for a LP.

someone should go back in time and give all those classical collectors a break. "here's all of mahler's symphonies with bruno walter conducting. no, don't thank me, it was no trouble at all. really."

17 disc Oistrakh set for £19.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001ASVXSE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3ENYW8WV04AUU&coliid=IRJXNNY4C2SXO

Jake Thackray collection down below £12:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jake-Box-EMI-Recordings-1967-1976/dp/B000F0UVC2/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1421620893&sr=1-3&keywords=jake+thackray

No excuses for not buying the latter.

Sixteen disc complete Mahler for £13 and change.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/music/dp/B003D0ZNWY/ref=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1436212992&sr=1-6

That's the Warner emi one? Pretty good classic to dud ratio. Worth it imo.

This one is less than £14 for 10 discs:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Masterworks-20th-Century-Various/dp/B00TQNMCDU/

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81tcXdEBJbL._SL1500_.jpg

i feel bad for classical music that labels almost literally cannot give it away

Went for that one, ra.

Ah, nice one, Nick!

And this one is £14.10 for 14 discs:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71e2IuiuWTL._SL1417_.jpghttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yl4C5veaL.jpg

crazy days!

oops link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Messiaen-100th-Anniversary-Box-Set/dp/B001DCQJUO/

Not the world's biggest Messiaen fan tbh but fill yer boots Olly fans!

Olly Stans

olly stans resting on their laurels

man that messiaen cover is trippy!

Emi Messiaen box is basically older, golden age of stereo era recordings (though French emi sound quality not always so golden) whereas the dg box is digital era cosmopolitan technical wizardry renditions. Both worth having. I prefer analog sound for the ravishing colors of the orchestral stuff tbf

i was once wandering around avignon and bumped into a conservatory named after mr. messiaen. had no idea it existed. i was rather moved, actually.

Lesser known early 20th cent brit Arthur Bliss 5CD set for £4 new via Dodax:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Composers-Arthur-Bliss/dp/B0056H0R3C/

^ I have about 3/5ths of that on vinyl and it's great stuff

what does his music sound like? (i know, dumb question, but...)

Kind of Debussy-ish, Delius/Holst school of English pastoralism iirc

18 disc Delius collection for under £15. About half what it was when I added it to my wish list.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005RXKKQO?keywords=Delius&qid=1437327538&ref_=sr_1_3&sr=8-3

If that is the delius emi box, it is extremely desirable, probably the best of all those emi composer boxes. I have most of its contents individually but I still want it.

I've been meaning to get a box set of Sibelius's symphonies, preferably one that doesn't cost too much, because I'm not really familiar with his music at all. But there are so many different reasonably priced boxes I don't know which one to buy... There's Karajan, Barbirolli, two different cycles by Berglund (one with Bournemouth Sinfonietta, one with the Helsinki Symphony Orchestra), Vänskä, Saari, Storgårds, Ashkenazy, Colin Davis, etc. I'm not a nationalist so I don't think this music needs to be interpreted by a Finnish conductor (though Berglund, Vänskä, and Storgårds all seem to get a fair amount of praise), so I'm not sure where to begin. Can anyone (Jon?) recommend a good "starter box" for Sibelius?

Yeah, there was a wave of Sibelius boxes timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of his birth (that sort of thing seems to be a driving factor in box set releases, hence a wave of Nielsen boxes this year too). I don't really know enough to have an opinion on this, but Berglund/Bournemouth are always a powerful force in my experience.

Berglund Bournemouth is indeed a good choice. Beautiful late analog production. The 1980s berglund cycle (the other box) has a lot of important music besides the symphonies but is not quite as well recorded. Plus I think that box is out of print now so you'd have to get it second hand.

The Berglund/Bournemouth box is what I was considering first (it's also one of the cheapest box sets available), but since it's an older recording, I wasn't so sure about the sound quality. (Some 1960s and early 70s British classical records that I have have a tinny and thin sound that I don't like.) But since you say it sounds good, I guess I'll go for that one.

The sound picture is more smooth and creamy. Not as close miked sounding as emi barbirolli recordings (nb I love close miking)