Jos replied to me:

>>Sometimes I'll buy a complete set to gain initial exposure to some music
>>for one or both of the above reasons before zeroing in on other recordings.
>
>Can you give a specific example where you did that and can you elaborate on
>the advantage that it gave you?

When I began listening to classical music, the boxed set was my ticket to
learning much of the basic repertoire.  I remember my introductory order to
the Columbia Record Club included Marriner's set of Schubert symphonies on
Philips and Bohm's set of Beethoven symphonies on DG.  After that, I found
an avenue through which I picked up Murray Hill boxed LP sets of old Vox
performances:

* Bach organ music (Craft)
* Beethoven complete solo piano (Brendel)
* Beethoven string quartets (Fine Arts Quartet)
* Mozart complete solo piano (Klein)
* Mozart string quartets (Brandeis? Quartet)

The advantage was that I was able to discover all of this music in a
relatively short amount of time and within my budget.  Otherwise, it would
have taken many years and a lot more money.  Selective purchasing wasn't
an option, as I had no idea which performances to choose.

>>VALID REASON #3: ARTISTIC PERSPECTIVE
>>Many of us collect multiple recordings of the same music. For such
>>collectors, it can be desirable to obtain a given artist's perspective
>>on a corner of the repertoire.
>
>I cannot see the value of this reason in the context of our discussion
>of the good or bad of acquiring COMPLETE editions, especially since  all
>complete editions I can think of are assembled from different artists'
>performances (as is i.e. the Philips Mozart edition that was under
>discussion).

I don't think that I've ever bought a complete edition of everything by any
composer, so my reply was in the context of complete sub-sets, if you will,
which the discussion has touched on, both this time and in the past.  So I
would agree on your comment above.

The main motivation for my reply was in reacting against the idea of some
generally applicable rule in how people purchase recordings.  To say that
there is no valid reason to buy a complete set can only be true for some
individuals.  Asserting this as a universal truth is ridiculous, simply
put.

A fallacy of the selective buying approach is that you can make a truly
informed choice on any performance only after hearing it.  So if you've
never heard it, how do you know it is better than the odd performance in
the complete set that you've vowed to avoid? The opinions of others can
help in the selection process but will never provide a definitive answer.
The compilation of the ideal set of performances for a corner of the
repertoire is a holy grail which will only rarely be found, and even then
is subject to variance in individual tastes.

Finally, just because a performance isn't top drawer doesn't mean that you
can't learn from it.  For some people, the best strategy can be to give
priority to maximizing the number of compositions and/or performances that
you hear.

Tim Dickinson <[log in to unmask]>