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All Under One Roof: The Ultimate Abbado Sampler

Martin Selbrede | The Woodlands, Texas | 01/30/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This 25-CD set is intended to commemorate the then-25-year-long working relationship between Deutsche Grammophon and Claudio Abbado. The preface to each of the CD booklets is the same for all 25 CDs: a letter from Dr. Andreas Holschneider, president of DG, to Claudio. It's a Dear Claudio letter that explains the impetus behind, and structure of, this celebratory issue, and what it's intended to document: a history going back to 1967. Holschneider's biggest problem was a simple one: out of over 150 recordings Abbado had completed, less than one-sixth could appear in this box set.



Of course, monster box sets are now in vogue: 171 CDs for the Complete Mozart Edition on Brilliant Classics; also 171 CDs for the Hanssler Complete Bach Edition. DG therefore COULD have offered the whole thing had they been so inclined, but the market for a 25-CD set wasn't that large to begin with. Remember that there is a LOT of music on 25 CDs. It may be dwarfed by the Bach and Mozart monster boxes (not to mention the Complete Beethoven Edition by DG itself, which runs to 87 CDs), but it is commensurate in size to the complete works of several major composers: William Walton in a 23-CD boxset, Prokofiev in a 24-CD boxset, and Bartok in a 29-CD boxset.



So, aside from made-over packaging and CD booklets with an integrated "look," what does this quasi-vanity project give us that we don't get from the original releases? Re-mastering isn't explicitly credited anywhere in this set, and a comparison of several CDs in this box set with the original releases doesn't yield any noticeable differences to my ear. One might have hoped that earlier analog cuts might have been better de-hissed and cleaned up, for example, but such processing is not evident. So, we must treat this for what is: a rare, out-of-print collection of The Best of Abbado's First 25 Years. It functions something like DG's Complete Beethoven Edition, which is also out-of-print -- namely, it becomes something that gains collector status with time.



There is variety aplenty in this boxset (which Holschneider intended to achieve). Enough Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Schubert to please less adventurous ears, but some Berg and Stravinsky to push the envelope a bit. Quite a few orchestras are heard here: Chicago, London Symphony, Vienna Phil, Berlin, Boston, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, etc. Some are live performances (e.g., the Eroica with the Vienna Philharmonic). There is a mix of analog and digital recordings, pretty much determined by recording date. But as a "sampler," you get nothing complete in any mini-genre. Why program the Brahms 2nd symphony, but not the 1st or 4th? Why program 2 CDs of Mozart piano concertos, but not a single Mozart symphony? We get symphonies 3,5,6, and 7 of Beethoven's, but no 9th. Why didn't DG configure this set to include all 9 Beethoven symponies and all 4 Brahms symponies, plus Mozart's symphonies 35-41? Wouldn't the appeal of this collection have quadrupled knowing you were getting some sequences of major works without gaping holes?



Well, the simple reason this didn't happen is because DG President Andreas Holschneider has a Ph.D., and knows better than folks like us on how to market Abbado and program a box set. On the other hand, this box set isn't in print anymore. Maybe that Ph.D. didn't come in all that handy after all.



The performances are 5 stars, the recordings would have been awarded 5 stars IF we were living in the year the recording was done. But nowadays, we have a right to expect better sound in the re-mastering process. What has been programmed is played with intensity and integrity, and always with a deft hand, but the program contents leave something to be desired (as noted above). If the intent is to leave you "wanting more," I suppose this sampler achieves that. This principle obviously works in the case of "opera highlights" from Carmen and Aida. But others might simpy be annoyed at the "set list."



If you simply like Claudio's work (as do I), grab this set. You'll find Claudio at his best here, insofar as his first quarter-century with DG is concerned. On the other hand, he's doing some amazing stuff the last several years, with an exceptionally strong, new Mahler cycle coming into view album by album."