And the fact that a US-citizen probably won't have to pay VAT makes it more than 16% less expensive (while having it shipped overseas increases the price, unfortunately).
I just got my copy a few days ago. Quite daunting to open it up and see all those discs. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I already have the Complete Symphonies (Hogwood/Academy Of Ancient Music) and Complete Piano Concertos (Bilson/Gardiner English Baroque Soloists), so those pieces will probably not get any play. However, what I've heard so far sounds nice to my ears, I'm discovering works I never would have otherwise seeked out.
I need to come up with some kind of system for keeping track of what I've already spun.
Philip: Thanks for posting the link to that article. I found the entire thing very interesting.
I found this section especially enlightening. This pretty much describes my motivation for getting the set. While there are certain pieces on which I might prefer particular performers...the ability to acquire all this music...in one place...at that price (sub $100 for me!) was a blessing.
So what's on the 40 disc set? Maybe we can arrange something when the complete Haydn comes out. Surely all the content you already have will be reproduced, as with their many Mozart sets (Symphonies, Piano Concertos, etc.).
I'm sure that everything in the 40-disc Haydn set will be in the complete set. They already put out a separate set of the complete symphonies, and the Masterworks set only includes #52 onwards. The Masterworks set doesn't include any operatic material, but it does include most of the other stuff.
I'm also wondering whether they'll do a complete Mozart SACD set once they finish re-releasing all the existing set's contents in smaller SACD sets. Has anyone heard them? How do they sound?