Andras Schiff plays the Goldberg Variations - confusing metadata

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1

Schiff has made two recordings of the Goldberg Variations by Bach. The first in 1982 for Decca, the second in 2003 for ECM. I don’t have the files, I am streaming from Qobuz.

The search function in roon shows only… which one? The album cover is for the ECM version, but with a 1986 release date, without any booklet and with a description that fits the Decca version rather than the ECM version. The timing of 1h 11min fits rather the ECM version.

The Decca version does not show up in the results of a search, even with an additional focus on the composition.

What a surprise: the Decca version shows up as a version of the ECM version, with the timing of the Decca recording. Actually, the ECM versions are also shown as versions of the Decca version… which is quite coherent! These are two distinct recordings, the one should not be shown as a version of the other.

In the Qobuz app, both versions show up normally, the ECM version with a booklet.

I don’t know how the catalogue of Qobuz is integrated into roon. But for that degree of confusion, I guess there was a lot of hard handwork… :wink: For the time being, I consider the music behind the ECM entry in roon is from the ECM recording, since the timing corresponds, But there remains some insecurity.

roon is my entry point into the world music library for many years now,

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Indeed. Identifiers in the ECM version like the release date are all wrong and refer to the earlier Decca version. But the text description initially refers to the later ECM version:

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The minute though, that you try and correct the release date, roon then overwrites with the earlier 1982 release description:

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I find that this release confusion is not at all uncommon with Classical releases that are not remasters, but entirely different performances, decades apart, often on different labels, even with different soloists and primary performers. I haven’t looked in a while, but I remember having a lot of trouble with Karajan’s 4 Beethoven cycles. Same with Abbado, Klemperer, etc., etc. Roon seems to do much better with pop, where the releases are essentially the same performance remastered, but maybe the misidentifications are just less glaring.