The Penguin Guide To Compact Discs And Dvds Yearbook 2004/5 (Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Dvds Yearbook)

Here's one trick to finding many, many imported CDs in the Amazon database--the only way I know of, in fact. Specially imported classical CDs retain their original label: Philips, Decca, Deutsche (from Deutsche Grammophon), Classics for... (from Classics for Pleasure), Archiv, Eloquence, Teldec, Virgin, etc. By contrast, CDs released domestically on these labels show up as Polygram, Universal, Elektra, etc. (these labels' "parent" companies).

So--if you go to the classical search page and type "Deutsche" in the label field and nothing else, you get about 400 or 500 results that are specially imported Deutsche Grammophon CDs. Likewise, if you search only for "Philips" or "Decca," you will be astounded by the results--hundreds of imported CDs on these labels that I don't think can be found any other way because most imports don't carry catalog numbers. For example, dozens of DG Galleria discs can be found only by searching with "Archiv" in the label box.

The peculiarity is that often these imported discs apparently have links and info for the performers, but if you search for this performer from the classical search page, these imported CDs still don't show up! Very strange... For example, searching for "Dumay" on the classical search page brings about 15-20 results, but clicking the "Dumay" link on an imported CD page brings about twice as many results! So--the other trick to searching is to click on links for a performer, and don't rely only on searching for a performer. You almost always get significantly more results by clicking a link than by searching.

You can, of course, also find many--but not all!--of these CDs on the Amazon.co.uk site, which is just as easy as using Amazon.com, but often the price advantage is in Amazon.com's favor, so it can really pay off to sift through the extensive import search results. And in the case of imports from Germany, the Amazon database often still carries imports that are no longer available through the UK outlet.

Examples of CDs I've found by doing label searches are Andras Schiff's box sets of Schubert piano sonatas and Mozart piano concertos, the Bruggen box set of Haydn's Sturm/Paris/London symphonies, all of the Dumay/Pires chamber music recordings on DG, Brendel's 4-disc set of the Haydn piano sonatas, recently released Double Deccas of Bizet, Hindemith, Stravinsky, and Vivaldi, Dvorak piano quintets by Richter and the Borodin Quartet, the Bohm set of the Mozart symphonies, the Alban Berg set of the late Mozart string quartets--all these recordings are very highly rated by either the Gramophone or Penguin guides, and I found all of them by sifting through the hard-to-find imports.

Finally, what I've sometimes done, and what other classical music-lovers can do is, after I've found one of these highly rated recordings, I use Amazon.com's recommendation feature to create links to this hard-to-find disc from other recordings of the piece. For example, from Kemff's Schubert box set I created a link to the imported Schiff Schubert box. It was through one of these links that I found the Chung / Zimerman Gramophone Award-winning recording of the Strauss / Respighi violin sonatas on DG Galleria-thanks to whoever did that!

Happy searching--and listening!!

Although I also like, and would recommend, the Gramophone guides, the amount of information contained in the Penguin guide is simply amazing! While the Gramophone guide lists several composers with ample and informative reviews on two or three of the recordings that they consider to be the best choices of a certain work the Penguin guide includes many more recommendations of each work although with much shorter reviews. The amount of composers and works listed and reviewed in this guide is incredible!

I bought this guide almost a year ago (from Amazon.com) and every single CD that I've bought this year, following this guide's recommendations, has proven to be the right choice! You just can't go wrong with the wealth and quality of information that you'll find within this guide's pages!

This is an absolute must for any classical music lover!