Customer Reviews

The 99 Most Essential Allegros

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is another of the sets of classical greatest hits offered by the X5 group. My instincts said I should skip it, having bought many of the sets previously offered. But at $1.99, I decided to give it a try, figuring it can't hurt.

The amount of recycled material on this set is manageable, but it is enough that if you've been buying these sets in the past, there is probably not much here for you. Of the 99 tracks, 34 are new -- meaning new recordings of new works that haven't been on these sets before. Another 41 are tracks that have appeared on previous sets, but in different recordings by different performers. The remaining 24 were recycled outright -- repackaged and slapped in from previous offerings. But note that these numbers are just from my own MP3 library, and I don't have all of these X5 sets by any means. The total number of recycled tracks may be higher.

Another weakness is that these tracks are almost all excerpts and stray movements from larger works. I'm a big believer in listening to entire works rather than clips. Although this kind of set has its uses, like background music for working, dinner parties, etc.

I would recommend this set to anyone who doesn't have a lot of classical music, doesn't particularly want to listen to a lot of it, and just wants a "greatest hits" collection. There are a lot of greatest hits here. But even new recordings of the same old tracks are getting a bit old by now. I mean, as beautiful as it is, you get tired of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" after hearing it constantly for a while. There is a lot of overplayed music here, the kind you can grow impervious to.

The set is also good for people starting to explore classical music, or lazy people (like me) who like to have a broad selection of stuff easily at hand that they can put on to run in the background.

There are also a couple of gems that made the set worth my while at this price. Most notable is the first movement of the orchestral version of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" string quartet, which I have really been wanting to hear. I'm glad this is here. (Update: On a closer listen, I realize this is just a string symphony arrangement of the string quartet -- quite possibly Gustav Mahler's, although I'm not 100% sure on that. Still very nice, but I had thought it was the full symphonic workover of Death and the Maiden, recently released on Naxos, which I have read good things about.)

Also noteworthy is a better selection of 20th century composers. Prokofiev has a few nice tracks here, and Bartok makes his first appearance, to my knowledge, on one of these X5 greatest hits sets.

Bitrates are good at 202-254 Kbps, and this is 9 hours and 49 minutes of music. Total download size is a large 978 MB.

Overall, you can feel good about skipping this if you've been following these sets or if you have a classical music collection. If you are new to the game, there is some great music here, well played and well recorded, at a great price. Go for it, you won't regret it.

The X5 compilations constantly amaze me. How they can afford to sell these is a mystery. The bottom line, if you are already a classical fan, like myself, it is worth the price to have 99, well selected, great works that you can play right away. Is there anything new here? Of course not. However, for fans it worth the cost in time savings alone - how much is your time worth to you? - it would take to assemble as good of a selection.

If you are new to classical music, or just curious, this is a no-brainer. The X5 recording's sound quality ranges from solid to exceptional, and I find their collections are great to play from my iPhone in my car. Just what I need to erase the traffic from my mind and relax. Plus, you have the opportunity to discover composers you may not know, or want to get more into.

This aptly named collection, "The 99 Most Essential Allegros", contains 99 of the most recognized pieces of classical music. This is not of the true classical music aficionado, but rather for the casual listener who wants to familiarize them selves with the music or just to have a collection where each piece is a "hit". I bought this set to load into my cell phone (an HTC EVO) so that I would always have some enjoyable music with me (I have an iPod Touch for my more serious listening).

The quality on the collection is generally very good and there are no really bad inclusions in the collections.

Recommended!

CFH

This is disappointing. A great number are from the Romantic era, I greatly prefer Baroque or even Classical. It's my ow fault for not reading through the list of songs. Glad it was only $5

Yes, you get all 99 for 1.99 - Just buy it - I did!
It's good for your soul.