Joel Hill writes:

>In checking our Amazon and other internet sources, I find that Cds for
>both concertos are priced from $45 up to $55 each.  Does anyone know why
>these discs are priced so high?

Well, the Zimerman/Brahms recordings are now out-of-print which is why
they aren't listed on sites such as ArkivMusic and H & B Recordings.
The deleting of a recording is the signal for "certain" sellers to claim
the recording as a rare collectible and hike the price up dramatically.
I experienced this personally when I was looking for an Olympia disc of
Popov's 1st Symphony.  A seller, through Amazon, was asking over $40 for
this one recording of obscure music.  I wrote the seller, telling him
that I considered the price ridiculous; his reply was that I'm just
cheap.  Of course, I didn't buy it from him, because there's more to
life than Popov.

The hiked-up price for the Zimerman does sound foolish, given that there
are many exceptional recordings of the Brahms Concertos on the market
at 'regular' price.  However, if you badly want the Zimerman, you'll
have to fork over the money unless you can find it on the used market
or get a copy from a classical music buddy.  The moral of this story is
that even classical music enthusiasts are at the ready to gouge the
buying public.

Don Satz
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