How to build a recording collection?

[faulty_damper]

How does one go about building a recording collection?

There are so many recordings of the same repetory and many of them are not great.  I have been very hesitant to purchase recordings of Beethoven's sonatas because the recordings are of a musical level I find distasteful.  I've purchased Gould's Bach only to realize his performance is only good contrapuntally and not musically.

I don't want to have half a dozen recordings of the same repetory before I find the best.  I want to build a collection of good recordings (money being the reason I can't purchase many) so I wait for the opinions of respectable others before making a decision to purchase.

So how do you build up a musically worthy collection?

[willcowskitz]

You leech the records off p2p, and only pay for those worthy of it.

That's what I do; be it movies, music, games... I use my right to be aware of the quality of the product before purchasing it. Just like I would test drive a car before buying one.

In classical music its probably a little different though, because the market has to be promoted. On the other hand, they don't use such big portions of the investment in advertising as in case of mainstream music.

[SteinwayTony]

You leech the records off p2p, and only pay for those worthy of it.

That's what I do; be it movies, music, games... I use my right to be aware of the quality of the product before purchasing it. Just like I would test drive a car before buying one.

Ah, you've resorted to the insensitive cheapskate approach.

The analogy between recorded music and an automobile has so many flaws that I won't bother to list them all; suffice it to say that a CD costs $15 and a decent car costs a thousand times that.

Keep in mind that if everybody thought like you, the economy would be in the dumps.  Think how many people would be put out of jobs -- software developers, actors, directors, artists... How do you think they can afford the outrageous costs associated with producing a recording? 

If you want to "be aware of the quality of the product before purchasing it," you drag your carcass over to the record store, put on some headphones, and listen.  I'm one of the stubborn bastards who has always maintained that stealing music is just wrong.  Why not walk into a museum and grab a painting? You'll take it home for a "test drive," then if you don't like, you'll...toss it out...and if you like it you'll...keep it.  Gosh, either way it sounds like theft to me.

How does one go about building a recording collection?

There are so many recordings of the same repetory and many of them are not great. I have been very hesitant to purchase recordings of Beethoven's sonatas because the recordings are of a musical level I find distasteful. I've purchased Gould's Bach only to realize his performance is only good contrapuntally and not musically.

I don't want to have half a dozen recordings of the same repetory before I find the best. I want to build a collection of good recordings (money being the reason I can't purchase many) so I wait for the opinions of respectable others before making a decision to purchase.

So how do you build up a musically worthy collection?

To answer the original poster's question, there are several books that are available to guide you through the process, though its equally possible to bite the bullet and start on your own.  These books are essentially "canons" of "required listening" and are thus subject to scrutiny; one such example is Phil Goulding's Classical Music: The 50 Greatest Composers and Their 1,000 Greatest Works.  I don't think I need to explain the potential controversy there.  I've skimmed through that book, however, and it is very thoughtfully written.  Goulding is a journalist who, one day in the 1980s, decided he would teach himself to enjoy classical music.  Definitely worth looking into. 

[brewtality]

i agree with SteinwayTony to a degree, i always prefer to buy cds rather than dload mp3, but this led me to spend 1500 AUD on cds last year . Generally, I only dload recordings that are hard to find or sometimes an entire album is alright if i've bought mulitple cds from the artist.
Its fun to collect cds! I usually buy a cd for the pianist rather than the composer and get numerous versions of the same piece to compare. When i was a total beginner collector sites like this helped, now I get recommendations from posters on the various forums and people I talk to on MSN.

[xvimbi]

Ah, you've resorted to the insensitive cheapskate approach.

...


one such example is Phil Goulding's Classical Music: The 50 Greatest Composers and Their 1,000 Greatest Works.  I don't think I need to explain the potential controversy there.  I've skimmed through that book, however, and it is very thoughtfully written.  Goulding is a journalist who, one day in the 1980s, decided he would teach himself to enjoy classical music.  Definitely worth looking into. 

Good idea. SteinwayTony, where can I make a copy of this book? I'd like to testdrive it. 

Aah, just messing with you...

[SteinwayTony]

Good idea. SteinwayTony, where can I make a copy of this book? I'd like to testdrive it. 

Aah, just messing with you...

 

Test drive at Barnes & Noble or Borders.  It's a pretty popular book so you shouldn't have trouble finding it.

[Tash]

another way just to hear recordings without actually paying for them is to go to a library with masses of cds so you can borrow them, decide if you like it or not and if you do, then go buy it! or i'd assume the cds in the library at the conservatorium'd be pretty good, except you'd probably have to go to the uni to borrow them.
i know what you're talking about completely, cos i'm a bum and never bother listening to the cds i buy before i buy them, so now have a dodge recording of chopin's etudes, but hey it was only $10 so what can i expect. so i like borrowing 5 million cds from my various libraries just so i can hear the piece as a base and then allow myself to compare other recordings to it

[Stolzing]

If you go on Amazon.com and a lot of other online stores, they have audio samples you can listen to.

[Muzakian]

Personally I find internet forums like this one an excellent way to learn which recordings to look out for, or to avoid. If you run a search on the composers or pieces that interest you I'm sure you'll come across some recommended listenings. There's lots of very knowledgeable people here you know - make use of them. 

[pseudopianist]

Marry the owner of Naxos?

[willcowskitz]

SteinwayTony:


I download music from the Internet to be sure I like it.  If I do, I proceed to support the artist by paying for the recording.  I have a decent collection of music, movies and games in my shelf, though the amount of crap (in my personal opinion) is minimal.

You're saying that economics would suffer if everyone would act like me.  I say that brainwashing ability of the advertising industry and attachment of visual image to music would become far less remarkable as factors in what products/artists people would support.  I don't think its right to sell crap to people by surrounding them with visual imagery and creation of a mass-hypnotic "boom" that is to be associated with music, to sell them "music" that is made to entertain them for another 2 months until the next similar album comes out (that's when the weakness of the musical content has become overly obvious even for the "bad-eared").  I know we're talking about classical music (and I already pointed out one obvious difference between classical and pop music industries), but generally the "music" industry is based on image rather than content, and if I can trash recording companies by leeching the music for free, then consuming it (pop music is just like any other products that keep the capitalistic machine going - consumable), then all the better.  Less there are unnecessarily large recording companies, more local the industry becomes, less goes to advertising instead of artists themselves, and more directly I can support the artist when I buy their CD.  By listening to the music beforehand and then voting with my wallet to support certain artists I'm saying "I want more of this" or "I don't care for this."  Many people who go and buy the newest pop album don't even realize when they do the shopping that in the end they'll most probably say "I don't care for this" - the album has that one particular hit song, and a track or two to support it, and the rest is total garbage.  But they bought it anyway, because practically lying is legal when it comes to commercialism.  I just think we have the right to know for sure first, and then decide what we want to see more of in the future, because that would mean

a)  Less Britney Spears  (a generic name for anyone selling "his/her" "music" by other means, also called divertion technique)

b)  Promotion of real art music when people's ears don't tire out as quickly as in case of crap such as the one above.

c)  Big record companies don't have their way to go no longer, when the aggressive advertising and brainwashing by force-associating visually appealling imagery to music, doesn't work anymore and becomes too risky.

d)  In case of smaller record companies that would allow people to listen to music beforehand, less of the investment goes to massive advertising campaigns and commercial promotion, and more goes to artist (now, often the portion going to the artist is ridiculously small)


I've never been a loyal follower of the law, nor any standards set by the society or any system that I'm part of.  Rather I create my own moral rules and act according to them, hence I don't feel "dirty" committing a "crime."  I support artists who deserve it, but wouldn't hesitate to leech from record companies which in turn leech the artists they "support."  Now that the Internet is in everybody's home and we're able to buy music in bits without the material costs involved in the production, there are major record companies who would want to up the prices of music in online "record" stores to get their filthy hands in between the artist and public.  The technology allows music to reach people's ears with less production costs, but instead of making music cheaper, they instead want to abuse technological advancement to get even bigger portion of the money in between the artist and public to themselves?  Of course, this would increase piratism, but apparently the big companies' lust for money is never satisfied, and then they wonder why don't people want to pay for their products?  I see piratism as a natural counter-effect to lies used in promoting cheaply produced (yet to be sold at high cost) entertainment and irrationally expanding power of the companies in choosing what exactly will reach the public's ears.