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Hello,

I am intrested in buying a complete set of Chopin's music (not just piano music) and saw there's one in Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Chopin-Complete-Works-Box-Set/dp/tracks/B000MM1EME/

The downsides of this set according to reviews: some pieces are recorded from live concerts and you can hear people coughing - is there a better version out which perhaps You own and recommend or is it even better to buy separate CDs? Online shopping is new to me and I am not familiar with what sites are best for buying music.
I understand that using live recordings is cheaper and I do not have anything against them if they sound nice.

Eager to get my hands on one, help is really appreciated.

Choral :

I am not sure that buying the "complete" works of any composer on recordings is necessarily the better way to go. From the standpoint of interpretation and sometimes from the standpoint of sound quality, there are almost always compromises that one has to make in in complete sets; either some of the performers are not to one's liking or the recording quality is not what one would like to have.

That said, I do have the Artur Rubinstein Chopin Collection on 9 CDs (RCA) which, given Rubinstein's reputation for playing Chopin, is quite a fine set, although some of the recordings are quite old. I also have the complete works for piano and orchestra with Arrau on Philips.

The advantage to buying a "complete" set is that the price is usually better than buying individual recordings but, as I say, frequently compromises are made in the complete sets.

Regards,

I partially agree with BruceD, but a complete set is still useful as a good way to quickly get an overview of the entire oeuvre of a composer. Of course having a complete set should not stop one from getting further recordings. For Chopin, I have Ashkenazy, and while I would recommend many different artists for specific works, this is still a very decent complete recording.

Hi Choral,

FWIW I bought the Ashkenazy boxed set (solo piano only) of Chopin and love it - and it was only £27 on Amazon.

I agree - boxed sets are great to get an overview and a quick education - then buy further recordings from there...

The other downside with that set is that there aren't enough well-known first-rank pianists playing the music. There are at least six that I've never heard of before in my life (which doesn't mean they aren't any good, but it does mean they probably don't have much international exposure, for some reason). While that can be acceptable in obscure music that few have recorded, it's not a good sign in Chopin.

If you really are determined to get everything, I think the multi-artist set on the Deutsche Grammophon label might be a more satisfactory way to go.

Idel Biret has recorded the complete works on the Naxos budget label. I have these recordings and think her technique and interpretation is very good.

I have various individual recordings by Ashkenazy as well. It come down to personal preference and whose interpretation you prefer.

I am constantly amazed at the number of really excellent pianists around that are "unknown". There are at least 3 that I could mention that live within 50 miles of me. Note that I'm not contradicting you, just adding to what you said. If you accept that this is the case, it's likely that the "unknown" artists on these disks are pretty well qualified, which I say with some reservations. Bottom line, this seems like it's probably at least a good set to serve as a comprehensive introduction to Chopin's complete works. At the price, I'd buy it, then perhaps decide what especially appeals and search this (or other) forums to get a sense of which recordings are considered top-notch (I was careful not to say "the best"!)

I have the Ashkanazy complete works, and for the most part it's pretty good, but his interpretation of the Nocturnes aren't so great. To make up for that I have the Pires recordings of the Nocturnes. It's a good way to go.

Good point BruceD.

Guess the easiest way is to find if some of these artists have any free recordings online (youtube, musopen..). Owning more than one set won't do any harm either.

Thanks for the help everybody.

-Choral

That Rubinstein set was on amazon.de not long ago for a great price, like 20 eur shipped to Europe ... dfinitely worth checking out. It's not evebn the full piano works (no Etudes), but still agreat deal.