Various: 20th Century Classics

The day I bought this boxed set, I walked out of Fopp with 24 CDs, having paid something under £35 for them. At the time (December 2004) it felt like I was getting a bargain, though before long all this music may be available online on-demand for a simple monthly fee, so should I have bothered?

Well, this set is another reference source rather than something to sit down and listen to from beginning to end.

As a non-aficionado, it seems to be quite well curated. There's a CD of European music, one of American, one of composers from Russia and the Eastern Bloc countries; then I guess the CD of Stravinsky and Bartók shares origins in folk music; and the last one, with Górecki, Orff, Holst and Messiaen, is a kind of sweep up of what's left. There's a mix of well-known pieces (The Rite of Spring, Adagio for Strings, Rhapsody in Blue, The Planets) and composers I'd never heard of (Khachaturian, Enescu).

MusicBrainz entry for this album