To buy or not to buy?

[Gauk]

Suppose you find yourself in a shop and you spot a CD with an unfamiliar name on it. It's a composer you have never heard of. All you have to go on is a totally unfamilar name, the composer's dates (1851-1909, so romantic) and nationality, and a list of works on the CD. You have to make a snap decision whether to buy it or not. Googling is not possible.

What influences your decision?

A. You buy it automatically.
B. You buy it automatically if it's cheap.
C. You buy it depending on the composer's nationality.
D. You buy it depending on the genre (orchestral, chamber, choral, etc).
E. You buy it depending on the type of piece (e.g. you would buy a violin concerto but not a trumpet concerto).

... or some combination?

I'm interested to see what people's collecting priorities are in such a case.

[Alan Howe]

If it's a composer I've never heard of from that particular period, I'd probably buy it out of sheer curiosity - unless it was of solo instrumental music, piano excepted.

[Mark Thomas]

In most cases I'd buy it automatically, sad soul that I am, but there are some genres which I wouldn't buy blind: lieder, a capella devotional music, solo string or wind pieces. Otherwise, I'd put my faith in serendipity, and that's served me well over the years.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I very much echo Alan's and Mark's reactions, with the same exceptions - apart from lieder, which, since I have sung a lot of lieder in my time, are always of interest to me.

[kolaboy]

Ive bought automatically so many times - and have lucked out more often than not... except for the Bongiovanni/Mancinelli (orchestral Words) disc. $25 down the irretrievable drain...

[mbhaub]

Sadly, in the US, the record store where one could browse for hours is a fading memory. But when that was a possibility, and there was something with a composer unknown to me, I read the liner notes (remember those?). Then I suppose the biggest influence was the genre (I've always been mostly interested in orchestral works), then nationality and then the era it was written. As I got older and more experienced, and read a lot more about music, my searching became a game of who-leads-to-whom. Mahler was an early favorite. There are a lot of lesser composers in Mahler's arena: Zemlinsky, Schmidt, Korngold, Pfitzner -- and others, so I searched out those composers. I cut my teeth on the Russians. But way back when you were really limited to Tchaikovsky, Scheherazade, Pictures at an Exhibition, Caucasian Sketches and some other things. Then one composer leads to the next. Discovering Balakirev, Liadov, Rubinstein, Arensky and many more works by even well-known composers has been a lifelong compulsion.

But I have to admit one other thing: there have been many, many times that I bought an LP or CD because of the cover art: Schmidt's 4th (in the US had Klimt's Death and Life - great painting) and who can forget the fun Westminster releases in the 70s and their cover art?

[Hilleries]

Is it for orchestra? I'd buy it.
Is it for solo + orchestra? Idem.

Else I have to give it a spin. If the shop allows me that, I'm inclined to buy it also, and will decide listening a bit and reading the liner notes.

[X. Trapnel]

Given those dates, nationality would be the not infalliable determinant for me. Russian, I'd feel pretty safe with and would buy with confidence (not that I haven't been burned in my endless search for the "Kalinnikov 3rd." If it were French I'd buy it automatically, praying that the composer had some Franck connection. German, I'd hesitate, fearing a Wagner-abhorring Leipzig product. For English, Scandinavian, American, Polish, Czech, Hungarian cheapness would be the spur, or I'd make a note of the composer's name and wait for a review. Cover art becomes a  (relatively) trustworthy guide to the music after 1909.

[alberto]

I would buy automatically a cheap Cd of orchestral music (or concertante for piano or violin or cello or orchestra).
Nationality doesn't deter me (as long as the period fixed is concerned).
In many cases I would buy also a CHEAP Cd of chamber music (no winds ensembles) and/or solo piano music. 

[Gauk]

Ah, the days of LPs when you could read the sleeve notes in the shop! With a shrink-wrapped CD case, often you really don't have any more info than what I outlined.

[Peter1953]

I'm with Alan and Mark. However, over the past years I've bought quite a lot of music by unsung composers which I'm rather (an understatement) disappointed about. As a result I've reduced my purchases enormously and am much more critical.

[mbhaub]

Amen to that. 30 years ago, at the dawn of the cd era, Marco Polo was bringing out nothing but obscure repertoire and I bought almost every release they had, save the Strauss edition. Now, it seems CPO has taken that charge, albeit with better orchestras and sound. But...as much as I appreciate the great cpo disks I have purchased, there have been quite a few duds.

[Alan Howe]

...and one of them is the latest Gouvy oratorio, Oedipe à Colone. Avoid!

[Mark Thomas]

My own reckoning is that 50% of what I buy or download speculatively is unlikely to merit more than a second or third listen and, of that, another half will stick in my mind as worth joining my permanent play list. It's actually quite rare that a piece is so strong that it joins my mental list of "all-time greats". But that low hit-rate is all fine and it's the essence of exploration.

[Alan Howe]

A scattergun approach is the only one that works. Unfortunately.