I Musici - The Analogue Years

If you know "Philips Duo", you must love it. Furthermore, there are many recordings first released on CD. Buy! Buy! Buy!

This 83-CD Universal/Decca [my understanding is Universal acquired Decca and Philips – I Musici recording most of their analog era performances with Philips] contains, based on a quick count, 8 mono CDs and 75 stereo performances. The 83 CD are numbered roughly chronologically – with CDs 1-7 and 10 being mono.Vivaldi is one of the composers whose music I return to most often and I have CDs containing all I Musici’s performances of Vivaldi’s Op. 1 -12—as well as numerous other I Musici Vivaldi performances. Thus, one of the biggest questions I had in deciding whether to purchase this (expensive) box set was did it contain new remasters and was the sound on the CDs in this box set an improvement over prior Philips “digitally remastered” CDs.Unfortunately, I could not find an answer to that question but nevertheless purchased this box set.Disappointingly, upon receiving the box set I found no additional information on that point, the otherwise informative and excellent booklet saying on this topic only “Digital Mastering: Ben Wiseman & Craig Thompson.”Thus far I’ve listened to about 20 of the CDs and have been pleased with the sound quality.The sound on the four of the eight mono CDs I’ve listened to is very good and the sound on the remaining CDs I’ve listened to is excellent.I compared, in particular, the sound on my prior “digitally remastered” versions of the 12 Opus 7 and 12 Opus 9 (La Cetra) Concertos with the sound on the CDs in this box set and heard some improvement in sound quality. “Some” improvement should not be taken negatively as the sound quality on the digitally remastered CDs was already very good and realistically my sense is we can only hope for some marginal improvement in sound quality with a remastering, transfer to SACD format (which these CDs are not), etc.My sense is other potential purchasers would greatly appreciate other reviewers giving their perceptions regarding whether the CDs is this box set are new remasterings and whether they perceive an improvement in sound quality over any existing I Musici CDs they already have.I believe 37 of the 83 CDs contain at least one Vivaldi performance.The box set does not contain Vivaldi’s Opus 1, 2, or 5.I had those I Musici performances in my 10-CD Volume One Vivaldi Edition Philips box set. Opus 1 and 2 contain 12 trio sonata each while Opus 5 contains six violin sonatas. To my ear, the Opus 1 and Opus 5 works are far less lively – and thus less enjoyable – than the remaining Opus numbered works which are essentially concerti, whether titled as such or not. I find about half of the Opus 2 sonatas enjoyable while the remainder I do not return to. I thus do not miss the Opus 1,2, or 5 performances at all but that may be a significant omission to other listeners.In sum, I’ve enjoyed the approximately 25% of this box set I’ve listened to thus far and enthusiastically recommend this box set to listeners who enjoy I Musici’s performances.

CD 37 and 168 page booklet missing! Set arrived sealed. Having spent weeks trying to sort out the Grumiaux box set error, I now have another large box set with missing content.........I have decided to add to my initial review as I have a replacement set from Amazon and I can confirm that it is complete. I was obviously unlucky with my first set. The set itself is a fine set with some great recordings and well presented with original jackets. This is one of Decca's better productions (assuming you get all of the content in yours!) I can't help but wonder what happens to these expensive sets that get returned either incomplete or damaged, it seems such a waste. I returned my incomplete set even though there was a contact the manufacturer number as a resolution option. The number given was for Sony (I looked it up). Do Sony really distribute Decca items? I was also pleased that the replacement set came with its own cardboard outer packaging specifically for this set to prevent damage, the first one did not. I have sent back thousands of pounds worth of cd sets that arrive with dented corners. It can't be good business practice. The next of these large sets from Decca is the Ansermet box due at the beginning of December. Hopefully I can give it a 5 star review.