How do you organize your Mahler CDs?

[Jot N. Tittle]

I am in the process of reshelving my Mahler CDs--they are separate from other CDs--and wonder whether someone in this group has found an efficient and useful system of arrangement. I have had them arranged according to work: all of M 1 together, arranged by conductor; then M 2, and so on. Or is it better to arrange primarily by conductor, or by orchestra? There is a logic for each system, but each has difficulties also.

How do you organize your Mahler CDs?

     . & '

[Leo K]

Each symphony has its own section, arranged by the date of the recording.  My Mahler CD's also have their own shelf   

--Leo

[Ivor]

I group by symphony,then within those groups alphabetically by conductor.

Mind you,I.m talking LPs !! Does that count? will do the same with CDs when I have enough - I'm still dawdling thru the LP era.


  Ivor

[barry guerrero]

Within each symphony or major work, I put commercial recordings to the left, burns and "pirates" to the right. Both subdivisions are then organized roughly by recording or performance date. I don't care about alphabetizing conductors. To me, conductors are less important than plumbers or teachers.

Barry

[Jeff Wozniak]

My Mahler go with my Beethoven and Wagner in their own special drawer.  Not really in any order, since I'm constantly taking discs out and playing them in my car.  Or taking them to work. Or loaning them to friends I've convinced that their lives will change after hearing Mahler.

[Amphissa]

I put box sets and complete (or near-complete) cycles first. Then I group by symphony. Within each symphony, I arrange alphabetically by conductor. Unlike Barry, I do consider the conductor important - at least in regard to classical recordings -- even if I agree that teachers are more important societally. I make jewel box inserts for my recordings from broadcast, and interfile them in jewel boxes along with all the commercial CDs. LPs are shelved separately, of course, but I use the same basic principle for organizing those.

Mahler is actually pretty simple to deal with, because he did not write a lot of different forms of music. It is much tougher organizing a large collection of someone like Beethoven or Rachmaninoff. CDs often contain multiple works of different form (like concerto combined with sonata). Those are a pain in the butt to keep track of.

[wagnerlover]

My Mahler recordings have their own shelf.  Box sets are on the left:  (three Bernstein sets, Kubelik, Bertini,) then the single symphonies in order 1 to 10, since there are fewer than 10 each of these, they're not then in conductor or date order and I have no problem finding what I'm looking for.  On the far right are things that I plan to sell at Academy Records some day, i.e., recordings I don't like for whatever reason.

Of course there's a stack near my cd player, the stuff I'm "currently" listening to, right now it's Barshai's M9 and Kubelik's LvdE.

I am SO glad that my plumber is not issuing recordings of his work, but I do wish some of my teachers had.

db

[Jot N. Tittle]

Thanks to all for suggestions, which pretty much exhaust the possibilities--unless I'm missing something (almost a certainty).

I keep going back and forth between works and conductors as the organizational basis and encounter some problems each way.

Amphissa's approach, combining both, is quite appealing right now. I think I'll give it a try.

     . & '

[chris]

I'm with Amphissa as well, first off are box sets (arranged alphabetically by conductor), then individual symphonines....but with MTT's cycle nearing completion, I'm finding myself wanting all of them together rather than spread out.   Perhaps I'll get some heavy paper and construct a box? 

My Bruno Walter set of Mahler/Bruckner symphonies is under "Walter" though.   Mixed sets like that always throw me off.   

[Amphissa]

You should be aware, though, that you've not really exhausted the possibilities. For those of us who maintain a database or spreadsheet of every recording on every CD/LP/tape/DVD, there is a method that is far superior to the ones described. This is really useful for collectors (I know a few) who have very large numbers of recordings, of many different works, by many composers. I am on the verge of this now, as I'm finding it increasingly difficult to locate recordings that I want to listen to.

Each CD/LP/tape/DVD is given a unique identifier number. (A sticker on the spine.) The numbering is most easily consecutive, and every time you add a new item to your collection, it is given the next number in the series. Doesn't really matter what the number is.

In your database or spreadsheet, you create an entry for every composition on the CD/LP/DVD/tape -- composer, work, soloists if any, orchestra, conductor, date - and item number - the number you just assigned to the item.

You shelve items in order by number, not by composer. You can easily find anything you want to listen to in your database or spreadsheet, determine the item number, then pull it from the shelf.

Doing things this way has some disadvantages. If you misfile the item on the shelf (read the number wrong) it will be very hard to find it when you go to look for it, because it will not be in the correct location. It also means being good about keeping your database/spreadsheet up to date. But the advantages are great. You can spread into other rooms, even put items in boxes and note the range of item numbers on the outside. As long as you keep them in order, you can find them easily.

This approach has been around a long time for maintaining control of photocopied articles, technical reports, that sort of thing. It's often called the accession number filing system. It works.

And if you think it reduces serendipity, not true, Sit down in from of a randomly arranged collection and started scanning the items. You discover an amazing number of things that set off light bulbs -- "Wow! I haven't listened to that in years!"

Since I recently moved and most of my CDs are still in boxes, and I know I'll have things in 3 different rooms, I'm seriously thinking of transitioning to this method. But then, my collection is maybe quite a bit bigger than most people have.