Peter Goldstein wrote:

>To each his own! I learned to love Beethoven through the DGG  vinyl
>Beethoven Edition, and Mozart through the Philips Mozart Edition. I'm a
>sort of plunge-into-it guy, and for me the complete immersion in a single
>composer's output brings rewards that I can't get by listening bit-by-bit
>over many years. Of course, I return to composers over a period of many
>years, deepening my understanding and appreciation. But the thorough
>immersion never fails to give me great satisfaction. I did it with Verdi
>this year, and Bach is up next year.

A customer of mine once embarked on a scheme to listen to each of his
favorite composer's complete works in as clost to chronological order as he
could ascertain.  He started with Beethoven and then went to Mozart.  When
I last saw him he had moved on to Brahms.  He related to me that it was an
utterly fascinating study to read about the works and follow the composer's
progress throughout his creative life.  Of course, he had more money than
God and at the time, Naxos wasn't the major player it is today.  It does
sound like an interesting project if you have time and money!

Kevin