Recordings That You Are Considering

[ChamberNut]

Is this required?

[Brian]

I'm just on my first journey through it right now, packing it as car listening. It will probably come down to your interest in the repertoire. First I suggest you go through Madiel's post history since he has been posting about each disc.

But if you love woodwinds - the repertoire is fun and fairly diverse, the album covers are amusing (shirtless Edo de Waart alert!), I wouldn't say the ensemble has a distinctive instrumental sound like, say, the 50s Czech winds or old Paris orchestras, but they are truly and consistently excellent.

There aren't exactly tons of woodwind box sets; I have this and the Philadelphia Quintet box, which have almost zero overlap of repertoire.

[Madiel]

Is this required?

Yes.

I mean, not every single disc is a must have but to me it does SUCH a good job of hitting some really key works in the woodwind literature. You get all the Mozart (and even some spurious non-Mozart), all the Beethoven, the Strauss, the Stravinsky, the Dvorak serenade. I certainly don't regret it being in my collection.