There seems to be a certain organisational order that all “Complete Works” and similar types of classical composer’s box sets follow.
Something like first the solo pieces for different instruments, then concertos, then chamber music, etc., ending up with choral music and the sacred works.
Why is it so? Couldn’t it work just as well with a different order?
It’s just a guess but I would have thought it was a marketing decision one way or another and that there is not necessarily much logic to it. Maybe some here have a label background and can comment.
For example, it may well be the case that a label kicks off a composer series with releases of solo and chamber works or maybe lieder because that is the cheapest to record and the demand for the composer needs to be proven before the label will commit to the costs and risks of the large forces of massed choirs and symphony orchestras you often find with sacred works.
On the other hand by the time all the recording is done and the label is ready to assemble a “complete” box someone in marketing may also believe it matters that the composers most famous works are at the front, regardless of what the recording and release schedule was. For example I can see that in both the Beethoven and Brahms boxes I have they kick off with the symphonies and not smaller solo and chamber works. So the organization probably does sort-of follow the pattern you observe from smaller to larger forces with some notable exceptions driven by commercial considerations.
It depends if it is a box set for an artist, an orchestra, a conductor or a composer.
Deutsche Grammophon and Decca use mostly a composer sort (besides composer box sets) for their sets while Sony Classical uses the recording date for their sorting of discs, e.g.
I strongly prefer a sorting by recording dates.
Box sets know no logic !!
Individual complete recordings sets can be Composer sort (Abbado), Release date sort (Argerich, Pollini) , no sort (Brendel) , in fact anything.
DG broke ranks in the ordering process with the 3 biggies Bach, Beethoven & Mozart for their recent releases. They also broke the pattern by using a mix of recordings across a genre , eg In 1989 the Piano Sonatas was Kempff , the recent one was a mix with many performers Pollini, Brendel Argerich etc.
The old Beethoven (1989 ?) was split in volumes in a logical order , mostly being repackaging of a previous box eg Kempff Sonatas and Piano Trios. The new BHTVN 2020 follows much the same pattern.
When you think about it the advent of digital libraries like Roon makes where a specific work resides almost meaning less , you are not going to a shelf to get the sonatas box to pick a disc any more , you are browsing a digital display so mixing and matching makes less difference
That’s true - with Roon I can hear whatever from the box, no matter where it was placed. But I tend to hear the whole box set in one go - and the last I hear is always Stabat Mater, Ave Maria and Te Deum, if the composer has made versions of these (and many have).
And then comes the historical recordings, of course, they are always last, so if the box contain any of those, they slip in after the sacret works.
But you are probably right in that the exact order isn’t always the same. I will try stepping through the boxes again - in your example, the symphonies come first, which is not always so, but it makes sence when considering what many buyers expect to see and hear first from Beethoven. I a Mozart box, these would appear somewhere in the middle.