Complete Vieuxtemps VCs from Fuga Libera

[Alan Howe]

I feel that Fuga Libera may have rather outdone Hyperion...

http://outhere-music.com/store-FUG_575

[chill319]

I'm in. The samples really do sound outstanding. They also got me with "This attractive box of 3 CDs is ... the opportunity to retrace Vieuxtemps' extraordinary career, often reduced to mere virtuosity when in fact he pursued a search for expression and content all his life.  This is a hymn to the violin, to belcanto, panache, romanticism, transcending virtuosity and youth ..."

[Alan Howe]

I must remember to claim my commission from Fuga Libera....

Seriously, though, I'm in too. Couldn't resist the great-sounding - and generous - excerpts!

[chill319]

Note on pricing: This item will be available on March 8, 2011 from Amazon U.S. for a mere U.S$ 25.34 (~= 16 pounds or 18.60 euro). When I order from Amazon U.K. across "the pond" and add the modest Amazon standard shipping price, I get things via Royal Mail in about the same time as if I had ordered from Amazon U.S. Quite impressive, actually, and hopefully it works as well going the other way.

[FBerwald]

Didn't Naxos do a fairly decent job of the complete Vieuxtemps Violin concertos (Misha Keylin). Are the Fuga Libera versions better?

[Alan Howe]

Good question, actually. But the sound on the Fuga Libera and the quality of the orchestral playing are marvellous. And the whole thing's been supervised by Augustin Dumay...

[JimL]

Didn't Naxos do a fairly decent job of the complete Vieuxtemps Violin concertos (Misha Keylin). Are the Fuga Libera versions are better?

Apparently this is a box set, so you get the whole shebang at once.  I obtained my complete Vieuxtemps concertos at different times by various labels.  My VC 1 is from Biddulph, with Paul Rosenthal and the Heritage Chamber Orchestra conducted by Curtis Peacock.  My VCs 2 & 3 are the Naxos with Keylin, Burkh and the Janacek Phil, my 4 & 5 are the EMI CD reissue of the old Perlman/Barenboim/Orchestre de Paris LP, and my 6 & 7 are from some label called Auvidis/Valois, with Gerard Poulet accompanied by Pierre Bartholomée and the Orchestre de Liège et de la Communauté Française.  It seems that if you don't have all of these works already this is a great chance to pick them up for probably a good deal less than what I spent!  Maybe Klaus Heymann would be willing to give this set a little bit of competition and box up all of his Vieuxtemps VCs for a steal!  If he hasn't done so already, that is...

[FBerwald]

........... the whole thing's been supervised by Augustin Dumay...

"Moriarty, this could work to our advantage" -  Hercules Grytpype-Thynne

[Alan Howe]

"A gorilla, did you say? I'm trying to give them up!" Neddie S.

[Mark Thomas]

Enough with the Goons - or you'll all be deaded!

[oldman]

Hear-Hear!

[Hovite]

When I order from Amazon U.K. across "the pond" and add the modest Amazon standard shipping price, I get things via Royal Mail in about the same time as if I had ordered from Amazon U.S. Quite impressive, actually, and hopefully it works as well going the other way.

Amazon are indeed impressive. Within England, delivery is very quick, often by the next day. Shipping from overseas takes longer, but sometimes works out cheaper. It certainly makes sense to look at the offers on Amazon. Their strongest competition are HMV, who ship post free from Guernsey, which is English territory, but not in the UK, so there is no VAT. I usually buy Hyperion discs from HMV, as they are £9.99, compared to £12.99 from Amazon.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I agree Amazon are impressive - uncannily fast, and I feel secure with their no quibbles easy return policy (though have never used it).

However with HMV I'm wondering, Hovite, whether you've hit the wrong button - or else I'm plain lucky. The consistent price for Hyperion, Chandos, BIS, CPO etc has been (and remains) £8.99 - if ordered pre-release or a short time afterwards (as opposed to 'deep' catalogue). Likewise Naxos at £3.99, and best of all, the new Dutton Epoch discs at £5.99. Little wonder the card never gets completely paid off, since I'm as incapable of resisting those prices as I am of resisting sleep.

I suppose it depends on the distributor for the CD label, but labels like Simax or Supraphon do tend to be £9.99 or even £10.99.

The 'good news' is that orders (even just for a single Naxos) are postfree. Each item comes individually even if part of a multiple order (that seems to me craziness on their part, and they've obviously no mechanism to link together different items!), and is in a stout little cardboard box (no cracked CD cases!).

I'm no economist, but I understand that the 'VAT free' loophole only applies to items under £18. Thus HMV prices for say a 'boxed set' with a normal high street price of £24 tend to be the same as, e.g. Amazon, MDT, Presto or Europadisc - if not considerably more since I suppose far fewer people buy such things from them.

And - purely speculative - the current financial troubles of HMV? I guess it affects the stores. They were put into prime retail spaces, and however large they might be just can't cater for all the whims and fancies of the dedicated headbangers (of both late 19th century chamber music types and those trying hard to wreak permanent damage on the sensory system). I also long ceased visiting these stores - unless it is pouring with rain and I'm sans umbrella. I also - but it is a purely personal thing - find the stores deeply unpleasant (so many flashing lights, loud noises and jostling crowds). To my surprise their web-sales only account for a small proportion of their sales. That most be largely attributable to their ghastly website (I've evolved quite a few tricks to find my way around), and suggests that if they effected a transformation of that, then they could end up a dominant agent in the business of CD sales. But only - of course - as long as the curious VAT free rule applies. And there are strong signs that other retailers, and perhaps the government, want to stomp on that. About which I cannot, insofar as I pretend to be an upright citizen, complain about. (It does actually trouble my conscience to get my dose of Cliffe or whoever free of VAT). But if the VAT free rule goes, then ouch life gets rather more uncomfortable as it promises to be in a land without libraries, support for the arts, hospitals, schools, care for the elderly or disabled etc.

Whoops: shouldn't get political here. And the diatribe has, after all, s*d all to do with music, and is of absolutely no interest to those of the many forum members outside the UK. (Let alone anything at all to do with Vieuxtemps. I can feel Alan stalking up behind me right now!) But for those of us within the UK, we all have in common the issue of from where, and at what cost, to get our much needed doses, and so my thoughts about retailers might be of interest. But I'll cover my back by offering profuse apologies to all first!

Peter

[Alan Howe]

Just as a postscript re. HMV: their biggest discounts seem to apply to new releases, or maybe it's actually future releases.