Hi Mike:
One confusing thing about these box sets is, the companies aren't good about saying what is
limited-edition and what isn't. I'm not sure they want to set hard and fast rules. For instance, if
the second Mercury box sells as fast as the first one, I could see UMG putting both sets in print a
while longer. The whole thing is pre-manufacture commitments from retailers. In this day and age,
there are no returns, and the record companies don't like keeping inventory on their books, so they
manufacture to quantities ordered in advance by the retailers. If something sells well, there may be
enough re-order demand to manufacture another batch. I think the companies want total commitments in
the tens of thousands to crank the presses back up for a 50-CD box set.
In the case of the Mercury and Decca LP box sets, those were announced as limited-edition and each
copy was numbered, so those would not be re-printed after the announced number sold out. Rhino has
been known to do this too, for instance the "Hommage a Nesuhi" CD/book box set. And of course Mosaic
has done this with their box sets (except the Charlie Parker solos recorded by the guy with the wire
recorder box) since the beginning.
Like I said in a previous post, the US prices seem to be at their lowest when the meat of the first
press run is still in the retail channels. Amazon, Arkiv and others want to sell out their inventory
so they can get somewhat aggressive on prices when everyone is racing to sell out. Prices go up when
one or more competitor sells out, because those with remaining stock can now play the scarcity game.
Once demand slacks off, they lower prices to clean out their last inventory. I am pretty sure that
both the RCA Living Stereo set and the Decca Sound set are examples where there was enough excess
demand to cause a new printing, probably with the expectation that once the pent-up demand is met,
inventory will stick around for a number of months. Probably, in the case of a classical box set,
there are at most two bites at the apple, then you've met all the demand in the world. Demand then
rekindles if stuff sits out of print for years or decades, although that may not be the case with
the changes in culture and tastes. Will current 20-somethings really want a Decca or Mercury or DGG
box set in 10 years? Will CDs even be a release medium then?
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Biel" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 8:29 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] New Mercury Living Presence box sets
With Tom's guidance, along with several others on the list, I have been
going broke (not really) buying all of these boxes! Careful watches are
sometimes necessary because the prices can fluctuate so widely from day
to day. The first Mercury set had so many sub-$100 inexpensive offers
that SUDDENLY disappeared, then one reappeared for a little over $100
and I grabbed it. Three more then popped up the next week and they
disappeared within days. There are now 5 up at $250. But when looking
just now I saw that there was one affordable yellow box DGG 111 Vol 2
and I just grabbed it. The ones that are left start at $180. The red
box (which I don't have) is a scary $395 and up.
I got a Decca box that showed up affordably a few weeks ago, but now
only two of them under $213 seem OK. There's only one sub $100
Furtwangler box left. Living Stereo is up to $165. NOW seems to be the
time to get the Toscanini box. I just got the small Stoki Columbia
stereo box in the mail today, and the stereo RCA box last week, and they
are still affordable.
So I'll be watching for this new Mercury box when it arrives in the U.S.
Is the Philips box worth getting? It is still affordable.
One last thing -- back in the olden days of 78 classical sets, most of
the companies would sell you individual discs if you needed to replace a
broken disc or even if you just wanted part of the set instead of the
whole thing. You sometimes could get them to press up a needed disc of
out-of-print sets! Last week the first five discs of the Toscanini box
somehow fell out of the box and two of them were elusive during several
hours of searching. You can't get replacements any more, can you??!!
Fortunately these sleeves have printed spines which makes it easy to see
the volume numbers, but none of the others do, and the CD numbers can
sometimes be in unhandy places. You don't want to forget to replace
them in the box after playing!!!
Mike (I haven't gotten a chance to play these dang things yet!) Biel
[log in to unmask]
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] New Mercury Living Presence box sets
From: Randy Lane <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, January 16, 2013 7:12 pm
To: [log in to unmask]
Found it on Amazon.de today:
http://www.amazon.de/dp/B00B1MDYCC
Due April 5th.
On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 3:49 PM, Randy Lane <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> You made my day Tom. Fantastic news.
>
>
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> On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 3:12 PM, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> Since we have a number of music collectors in ARSC, I thought this an
>> appropriate forum to announce two new Mercury Living Presence box sets. I
>> also want to directly credit contacts made through ARSC for new release,
>> the first mass-market release, of a rare recording.
>>
>> Following the success of the 2011-2012 Mercury Living Presence 51-CD box
>> sets (the first version was released only in Asia, a slightly modified
>> version was released worldwide last March, both are now completely sold out
>> of the retail channels) and 2012 6LP box (sold out in less than 6 months),
>> UMG/Decca Classics is releasing a new 55-CD box and then a new 6LP
>> collector box. As in the case of the previous box set, the new box uses
>> digital masters made by the original producer (my mother) in 1990s, from
>> first-generation master tapes. The new box includes almost all of the
>> remaining 1990s CDs, which have been out of print for a few years now.
>>
>> Now here's the exciting news for collectors. There are two bonus discs in
>> the new box set:
>>
>> 1. the 1953 mono "Rite of Spring" recording by Dorati/Minneapolis. This
>> remaster is different from the Rite 100th anniversary box set, I think it
>> sounds considerably better. The original George Maas cover graphics, not
>> seen since the 1950s, are also reproduced. This is one of the fastest and
>> most furious versions of the "Rite" ever recorded.
>>
>> 2. the 1969 world premiere recording of John Corigliano's Piano Concerto,
>> performed by those who commissioned and premiered the work, pianist Hilde
>> Somer and the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Victor
>> Alessandro. This Mercury recording was produced by Richard Campbell and
>> engineered by Marc Aubort. The remaster was made from the original first
>> generation master tape. An added bonus is a rare interview with composer
>> Corigliano and pianist Somer by the late Paul Hume, music critic of the
>> Washington Post. The interview was released on a radio-promo LP by Mercury.
>> Thanks to ARSC contacts, I was able to track down a copy of the LP at the
>> NYPL Rodgers & Hammerstein archive. The archive staff made a great transfer
>> and thus this long-lost audio is now available to mass-market collectors.
>> The master tape, made by Mercury's marketing department, is long gone.
>>
>> The 173-page booklet includes details about all the CDs in the box, all
>> the recording/equipment/personnel data included in the original CD booklets
>> (this was not included in the first box set). Also, Mike Gray wrote a great
>> history of Mercury Living Presence, and the article I wrote for TapeOp
>> Magazine about Mercury's microphone techniques is reproduced.
>>
>> The 6LP box, which will be released in the late spring, includes reissues
>> of: "Vienna 1908-1914" (pieces by Schoenberg, Webern and Berg by
>> Dorati/LSO); Beethoven 7th by Dorati/LSO; "Dada/Surrealism" (pieces by
>> Milhaud, Francaix, Auric and Satie by Dorati/LSO; includes the rare
>> original LP cover art); Saint-Saens 3rd (Organ) Symphony by Paray/Detroit
>> with Marcel Dupre; Chadwick "Symphonic Sketches" by Hanson/ERO; and
>> Sessions "Black Maskers"/McPhee "Tabuh-Tabuhan" by Hanson/ERO.
>>
>> UMG/Decca Classics did a great job on these new box sets. They were very
>> open to input and quality-control by me and my brothers, and I think they
>> maintained the high standard for Mercury Living Presence releases that my
>> mother established. For collectors, this will be another opportunity to get
>> a lot of high-quality music for very low cost per CD (about 1/5 or less the
>> cost of the original 1990s discs).
>>
>> When Decca Classics adds some marketing material on their website, I'll
>> post the links.
>>
>> -- Tom Fine
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