Stevie, the new copy that I bought is no longer a Decca issue.
If you’re looking for it without success, let me know, and I’ll look it out . I must have got it from the German Amazon site.
Thanks Graham… I’ll see what I think of the CD, and I’ve seen an EX+ Decca LP copy which is inexpensive so I’ll go for that I think, or look for a NM copy (but I think EX+ would be fine).
I’ve checked the German Amazon site - the LP costs 17.99 Euros.
Cheers.
CD is excellent, so I’m going to go with a near mint copy I found, stereo, Decca blue FFSS label for £15 think a second pressing - looks immaculate. Tempted by a mono first pressing, but that was only VG+.
Karajan/Vienna on CD is certainly very impressive, I must say. CD is obviously a digital remaster so it will interesting to hear it in the original analogue.
Another one I remember:
Teacher: how many symphonies did Beethoven write?
One of us: 9.
Teacher: wrong. He wrote 3. The 3th, the 5th and the 9th.
His point was that those were very popular, but hardly anyone performed the 8th or so.
(6 and 7 are reasonably popular too and personally I like these most).
It makes for a very long playlist though - I broke it into two parts.
How ignorant. Some people shouldn’t be teachers. 
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He was a very joyful teacher and this certainly was intended as a joke.
He obviously hadn’t heard Carlos Kleiber’s recording of the Seventh - one of the best records ever made!
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He most likely had CK’s recordings. The stories on school were that even the stairs in his house were packed with cd’s.
Thinking about it, his point about the 3rd, 5th and 9th wasthat these are most well known. Even my mother having no interest in music at all would recognise the 5th (the theme) and the 9th (the chorus ‘Ode an die Freude’) and regarding the 3rd, this is in musicology generally seen as the marked moment switching from the Classical period to the Romantic era.
Personally I find 6 & 7 most listenable of Beethovens Symphonies and CK did play a role in it since his performance of the 7th was for me a key moment in understanding Beethoven.
I’ve the box set here on my unbreakable but dusty Philips cd104:
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You just need to complement that box with the EMI recording of the Dvorak Piano Concerto with Sviatoslav Richter and the two Vienna New Year’s Day Concerts from 1989 and 1992 on Sony/CBS.
Here’s the last piece for my collection, Symphonies 20-35. I’m playing the first of six discs now.
I got this from a seller in the UK.
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Currently listening to this. It’s a really interesting version, produced almost as a radio play with full libretto, fortepiano improvisations and ‘sound effects’. Rather brilliant actually.
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Rene Jacobs is one of the greatest counter-tenors of all time. I have a bunch of older recordings on vinyl with him performing. His alto voice is just stunningly good, and hard to discern from a female alto. It’s can be rather uncanny at times (in a good way).
The other great counter-tenor I always enjoyed is James Bowman. His Handel’s Orlando with the Academy of Ancient Music on L’Oiseau-Lyre is fantastic.
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Playing these 3 CDs just arrived from Japan, many thanks @JosquinDesPrez for the recommendation.
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I’m listening to this excellent 7-LP set (well, not all of it). These great performance of the Shostakovich String Quartets.
I find that for myself, Shostakovich is one of the most challenging composers to connect with, especially the symphonies and string quartets. I can only listen to one or two quartets or one symphony at a time. I still struggle with the symphonies, and get along better with the quartets so far. I have no vinyl recordings of any of his symphonies.
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A good set for the string quartets. And indeed he is not an easy composer to appreciate. While I find the symphonies more accessible than the string quartets ….
Last year on a extended weekend vacation, I set out to listen to all 15 from that set in sequence. It was quite rewarding.
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The Fitzwilliam Quartet almost made the Shostakovich quartets their own, I think performing in front of the composer himself on at least one occasion. I heard them live doing some of the quartets around the time of the recordings. Many years ago but I still remember the intensity of the playing. The recordings at the time were often considered for demonstration sound. Yes, most definitely recommended.
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