James Galway - The Complete RCA Album Collection

If you want a fairly comprehensive flute repertoire reference set played by one of the foremost (or maybe the foremost) flutist of our generation, this is it!A few caveats:1) Classical/art music purists may object to the large number of popular and folk songs and classical "lollipop" showpieces in the collection. Some of the popular songs verge on bad wedding music. For example, when Eric Clapton sings "Tears in Heaven" it's about the pain and loss he felt following the tragic death of his four-year-old son, Conor. But for any other performer (even one of the calibre of Galway), it's just a sad tune.2) There is a fair amount of duplication. For example, the Mozart flute and harp concerto appears on four CDs (recorded in 1978, 1984/5, 1992, and 1995) and one DVD, each time with Marisa Robles as the harpist. (Galway and Robles have been playing the piece together since 1962!) The DVD is a TV documentary about the 1992 recording session.3) The CD sleeves have a tiny reduction of the original front and back LP sleeves. The backs are generally too small a font size to read. However, this need not be of much concern because the set comes with a handsome hardbound booklet with a (very readable) track list for each CD plus two indexes a) by composer (for the art music/classical pieces) and b) by song name (for the popular and folk songs). Oddly, John Denver's "Annie's Song" appears in classic repertoire index and not the popular index. This is probably a typo caused by the it being the only popular song on CD7, which otherwise consists of art music.4) Omissions: I wonder why Galway never recorded "Density 21.5" by Edgard Varèse? Or "Voice" by Toru Takemitsu? Or "Sequenza I" by Luciano Berio?

I purchased this because is I love good music (and my daughter plays the flute!). This is another superb, large (71 CDs/2 DVDs) set focused on flautist James Galway. The first recordings start in the 1970's and the sound quality is excellent throughout (I think many/most of the recordings are remastered). The discs are presented in replica sleeves of the original recordings with the original sequencing; therefore most individual discs are in the 40 minutes range. I like the "historical" aspect of this but the discs are therefore not "full" like some other sets. The print quality is excellent but the type is necessarily small, and you will need a magnifier to read most of the text (the text is NOT available in the enclosed large booklet). The booklet nicely lists the individual discs and musical works in addition to a brief essay about Mr. Galway. I am not an expert in classical flute music, but there is a lot of classical flute music included; probably the majority of the typical (and less well known) classical repertoire. There are a few duplicates of some pieces like the Mozart concertos. There is also quite a bit of "popular" repertoire included (Mancini, John Denver, etc) that some may regard more as "easy listening" music. I assure you it is all well orchestrated, played, and recorded, and frankly fun to listen to. I place a high premium on classical sets that have uncommon and unusual works and recordings (how many copies of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony does one need, even if superbly played and recorded?). This set definitely offers the variety. I rip all my discs to iTunes on an iMac computer; all discs have worked perfectly. Highly recommended and a bargain at about $2/disc.

This is a very listenable collection whether or not one is a flute enthusiast. But what I most like here is that it's a wide sampling of the "flute repertoire," or in some cases (Rodrigo fantasia, etc.) what has been stretched into the repertoire.Hopefully you own a magnifying glass. This is typical of LP covers that have been reproduced as CD covers. But it's all right. I don't think I'd trade this set for 71 LPs and some reels of 2" videotape. How would I store all that?I don't mind at all that some of the pieces (Mozart flute & harp concerto, etc.) appear more than once, especially in instances where they were recorded more than once. Even if the artist doesn't change, many interpretations are possible, and it's instructive to track nuances that appear over time.

I am a flute lover and very pleased to receive such an album. When I come across playing any piece of music, I would choose that from the album and play it in my music system as a reference. I won't mind to buy another album say from Pahud etc

Way back in the early '80s I heard him on a TV show and went nuts. I got the Annie's Song LP and played it so much in the first 24 hours I went out and bought a flute. Now I've got that on CD and 71 glorious others. It's got to be similar to dying and going to heaven.

This is wonderful and it came in perfect condition.

James is a Genius. Love the whole set.

i am quite impressed with this set

Il y a trois ans déjà que je me suis offert ce beau coffret, puis, en faisant cadeau à quelques personnes, ai récolté des remerciements qui sonnaient juste : je suis surpris de le voir toujours en vente, à plutôt vil prix. Est-ce que James Galway serait tenu pour “second rayon” par les cuistres qui prétendent nous dicter nos goûts? Peut-être n’a-t-on pas là la flûte puissante de Jean-Pierre Rampal, mais c’est une flûte douce, caressante, et extrêmement agréable, en partie du fait des choix de l’artiste. Le répertoire baroque est bien entendu présent (Vivaldi, Bach, Telemann, Quantz, Cimarosa, Galuppi, Tartini, Mozart surtout, avec abus : 4 interprétations des K 313 & 314, ainsi que du K. 299) mais ne couvre qu’une vingtaine de CD sur 71; il y a pas mal de khontemporaine, que je suis étonné d’apprécier, moi qui n’en suis pas fan à l’ordinaire. Ce que nous sommes accoutumés à tenir pour les Très Grands Noms en est presque absent, d’ailleurs : à part un CD consacré à Nielsen, un à Khatchaturian, un à Ibert / Chaminade / Poulenc, on ne voit que des Lowell Lieberman, John Meyer, Lennox Berkeley, etc, ou un disque de compositeurs australiens connus surtout dans leur île, je présume. Ce qui me séduit, c’est que Galway semble les avoir choisis pour son plaisir, et que ce plaisir est en général communicatif. Je goûte plus encore les grandes œuvres de musique de chambre romantiques ou postromantiques (sonate P-V de Franck, op. 8 de Beethoven, sonate pour arpeggione, sonatine op. 109 de Dvorak, sonate op. 13 de Fauré (dans un joli “french recital”, CD 57) transcrites pour la flûte (remplaçant violon ou violoncelle), les récitals de mélodies japonaises, hélas trop rares (CD 11, 40), et, s’il faut avouer cette préférence populacière, les 20 ou 25 disques d’“encores” qui s’égrènent du n°1 au 71, à thème ou sans thème, où “Träumerei” côtoie “La plus que lente”, “Danny Boy” la Vocalise, la Méditation de Massenet des dizaines de mélodies moins connues, mais non moins envoûtantes. Le livret vous en énumérera l’ensemble, sans vous faire grâce d’un doublon. Je crois que s’il fallait donner la palme à un CD, c’est pour le 58, “The Celtic Minstrel” que je pencherais. Artist at home! Quant aux deux DVD, notamment l’irlandais, on m’en a dit du bien. Le coffret retraçant toute la carrière du flûtiste, les 35 premiers CD sont des reproductions de vinyles, avec les inconvénients de ce type de choix : dos illisibles, et CD de 45 minutes en moyenne, ce qui est court; ça s’améliore avec les 36 derniers : 1h04 l’un. L’avantage, c’est que chacun d’eux est homogène. Et qu’ils donnent tous de ce flûtiste l’image d’un homme décidé à n’écouter que la dictée intérieure. Bravo et merci.

Was soll man zu dieser tollen Box sagen? Man erlebt viele Facetten eines einzigartigen Künstlers, eines tollen Instrumentalisten, eines Mannes, der Musikgeschichte geschrieben hat. Und das ist die Box: Musikgeschichte pur, zum Bewundern, zum Genießen.

ゴールウェイのCDを聞き始めた人にとっては、めぼしい盤が一気にそろう超お買い得品である。逆に古くからのファンにとってはすでに所有しているものが多いだろうからCPはあまりよくないだろう。

Finally released, I've been waiting for this box for a while. And it was worth it. There's 71 CDs in this box, which may not represent absolutely every LP/CD Galway recorded for RCA, but it comes close. While some accused Galway of becoming too "mainstream", putting out LPs of (gasp!) jazz and (double gasp!) "popular" music, instead of sticking with classical fare, there's no denying Galway was a true master of his instrument regardless of what he was playing, and that he did a great deal to popularize classical music in the process. Some of the non-classical CDs are just plain fun. I love the Mancini/Pink Panther disc, as well as the combinations with the Chieftains, for example, but balance those with the "serious" music in this box, and you've got something for most people.While this box is not inexpensive, on a per-CD basis it works out around $2 a disk. Granted, collectors will have a few of these already, but I managed to find quite a few discs in the box that I did not already have, and those were welcome additions.The recordings are RCA standard fare. Perhaps not really as superb as some other labels managed at the time, but certainly not bad by any means. The CDs in the box do not seem to have been remastered from earlier CD issues, although I could be wrong, but in comparison to CDs in my library they seem identical in the cases I checked. It would perhaps have been nice to see remastering to SACD or similar audio levels, but that wasn't to be.OK, so what about the music? There's no question about the players: Galway is a master, of course, and the accompanying orchestras and conductors (where classical music is concerned) are all either good or great, with nary a bad disc in the set. For the more popular fare, the players range over quite a spectrum, but the discs are still entertaining. For the classical fan, there's some excellent interpretations here, as well as some "pretty good" ones, keeping in mind not all this music was originally intended for flute.There are also two DVDs included in the box. The first features Dudley Moore talking about Galway, and the second is a concert recorded with the Chieftains. Nice little extras, but there's little in the way of documentation to overwhelm, which is an unfortunate miss by Sony (who owns the rights to these RCA recordings).If you are either a Galway fan or a repertoire collector, you'll want this box. If you are looking for some of the classical music repertoire for flute, you'll also want this box. It's not a small investment, alas, but you do get a considerable amount of music for the money.

Questo cofanetto, semplice ma ben confezionato, mescola classico e popolare, a volte fra dischi diversi, a volte all'interno dello stesso disco. Direi che è stato pubblicato in un momento opportuno, con l'artista ancora in vita, per premiarlo con un giusto riconoscimento, ed con una carriera discografica ricca ed abbondante alle spalle, per gratificare l'acquirente. Spero il prezzo rimanga sotto i cento euro, perchè in tal caso si tratta di un ottimo acquisto. Non tutti i dischi mi son piaciuti, la qualità dei video non è soddisfacente, ma nel complesso si tratta di un prodotto godibilissimo. Le incisioni sono tutte moderne, quindi i CD audio suonano molto bene.