I just bought this set on eBay, for 20 euros, and at one euro per CD I think I made a good deal:
Paul Tortelier The Great EMI Recordings, 20 CDs EMI 6 88627 2 (2010) (link to my review will open a new tab).
That said, the insufficient online documentation makes it a bit difficult to determine the exact contents of the 2010 set, if only to establish what had already been published on CD before and what was here new to CD. In particular, the set’s entry on Discogs.com only occasionally provides the credits of performers, making it difficult to determine exact content and sources, especially in the cases where Tortelier re-recorded some pieces, or with the shorter trinkets and “encores”.
So – after purchasing the set rather than before, and to find out after-the-fact if it was worth purchasing – I made my own research, which I can now share with the improbable music lover with an interest. It turns out that most of the material gathered on the set had previously been published on CD, mainly on EMI’s early and valuable mid-price Studio collection, in 1988 and 1989 (many of which I have – but not all), but a few recordings appear to have made there their first appearance on CD: Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata and Saint-Saëns’ Cello Sonata No. 1 with Maria de La Pau, Tcherepnin’s chamber pieces (but the more complete content of the original double LP was later reissued by EMI on 2 CDs), Schumann’s First Trio with Andre Previn and Kyung-Wha Chung (the original companion piece, Mendelssohn’s First Trio, had already been reissued in a Mendelssohn Chamber Music collection).
Note: my article is not a review of the music, but a discographic survey. I hope this is useful to one or two record collectors…