Customer Reviews

Complete Edition 1-19 & 21

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The movie "Amadeus" so engendered in me an appreciation for the music of this master composer that I began to collect everything I could get my hands on. Unfortunately, most albums contain highlights of Mozart's works or mixtures with other composers. I was elated when Philips attempted in 1991 the gargantuan process of compilling all of the works of this prolific composer.

With all the lawsuits and controversy going on about copyright protection today with Napster-like programs, I can only thank my lucky stars that Mozart had no such protections during his day. In order to keep food on the table, he had to keep composing. He could not sit back and collect royalties. Most of his work was only sold once and the purchaser had the right to reproduce it as many times as they wished without any further royalties to Mozart.

Mozart's work is pure genius, and Sir Nevill Marriner, who conducts most of the performances in this set, has made a life's work of performing his music. This music is perfect for every occasion, work, study, sleep and relaxation.

It is worth the investment.

I purchased this set in earnest, running down a mountain zestfully with money bristling in my fists. Clenched! "There shall be no others," I thought to myself, "that come close in scale or magnitude to this sonic collection." I decided to listen to it one night at work, for you see I am a lighthouse keeper, in the primitive reaches of Alaska, a land of mystery and intrigue indeed, but also one of interminable boredom and loneliness. For you see a single night yawns for six months, and I do not dare to venture into sleep, for it could cost the lives of precious oilmen and other furtive adventurers. As the sun dove beneath the sea last fall (an extraordinary sight to behold indeed, particularly when secluded in a lighthouse perched upon mountain), I began playing this collection. A mere 13,000 minutes expired before the discs concluded, hardly extending to the rosy side of a fortnight. This is complete? This is all the Mozart they can provide? A mere 220 hours? WHAT SORT OF JOKE IS THIS? I need not tell you that a lighthouse keeper does not enjoy the extravagant riches and baubles of a wall street broker or a heavily mammaried actress. No it is the intrinsic rewards, the glint of a vessel on the ocean, safe in its transport, the soft lull of a dark wilderness, and the life-threatening coyote attacks that lured me to this beauteous profession. Thus this "complete" box set cost me nearly six month's pay, while the playing time only extended for a paltry week and a half. Alas, I sit in my gleaming spire now, alone, dejected, listening to a sonata I heard a mere thirteen days earlier. Godspeed, sweet shopper, and good luck.

the most cromprensive mozart's edition, and the first proyect musicogical in the XX century. after this proyect, beethoven (gramophone edition) and bach (2000 and hansller) are the musicians who's follow the way of this pioner opus