If your search is failing to turn up the results you expect, you may be able to find an explanation among the quirks enumerated below. (And if you discover other quirks, please email me about them!)
I haven't included any fancier searching capabilities (such as alternative-chaining) yet, but might if there were demand for them. Let me know.
So your best policy is to search for "Concerto" or "Concerto for Vc" (or whatever), and simply ignore any spurious matches.
Finally, here is a mail I sent to someone, explaining why the database failed to turn up a certain recording that he expected. His questions are not uncommon, so perhaps posting my answers here will save everyone a little time:
From: Karl Fogel <kfogel@red-bean.com> To: JMPENNET@bouyguestelecom.fr Subject: Re: Henry's record collection. Date: Tue Feb 17 11:35:11 CST 1998 JMPENNET@bouyguestelecom.fr wrote: >The search software doesn't seem to work properly (perhaps am I to >dump): I can't find titles I can read in the data base. > >Well, I'm looking for a recording of Bellini's "Puritani" with >C.Deutekom, V.Terranova, etc. in Amsterdam (1992 or 1993), and Alta >Vista drove me through your site (where I can't find it however). I think the problem is that we do not have any Puritani with Deutekom listed as a soloist. This does not mean your recording is not present in the database, it only means that Deutekom is not listed among the singers for that item. So if you put his name under Soloists and try a search, you will get no results -- because the database cannot find a match for that one part. (I think the instructions explain this, but perhaps not as clearly as possible). Try the search without listing any soloists -- just specify Bellini and Puritani. >In fact, I'm looking for opera live recordings data base: does this mean >anything to someone with such official function? Ahh, perhaps our site can only be of limited help. It does not contain all recordings made, only recordings in Henry Fogel's record collection. This is very many, but it is certainly not a complete set of all live opera recordings ever made. I did the search for: COMPOSER: "Bellini" TITLE: "Puritani" And got these results: Match 1: COMP: Bellini TITLE: I Puritani: Excerpts SOLOISTS: Sutherland; Raimondi; Zanasi COND: Serafin ORCH: Orchestra del Teatro Massimo, Palermo DATE: 1961 LABEL: Myto 2MCD 973.158 TIME: LIVESTUDIO: L CDLP: CD FILEDUNDER: Opera DATECAT: 1997/11/22 XFLD1: Match 2: COMP: Bellini TITLE: Puritani SOLOISTS: Pierre Duval; Joan Sutherland; Ezio Flagello; Renato Capecchi; Flo Chorus COND: Bonynge ORCH: Florence May Festival DATE: LABEL: London OSA-1373 TIME: LIVESTUDIO: S CDLP: LP FILEDUNDER: Opera DATECAT: 1989/01/07 XFLD1: Match 3: COMP: Bellini TITLE: Puritani SOLOISTS: Ambrosian Opera Chorus; Montserrat Caballe; Alfredo Kraus; Matteo Manuguerra; Julia Hamari COND: Muti ORCH: New Philharmonia Orchestra DATE: 1979/06-07 LABEL: EMI CMS 7 69663 2 TIME: 172:18 LIVESTUDIO: S CDLP: CD FILEDUNDER: Opera DATECAT: 1989/01/04 XFLD1: Match 4: COMP: Bellini TITLE: Puritani SOLOISTS: Beverly Sills; Nicolai Gedda; Louis Quilico; Paul Plischka; Ambrosian Opera Chorus COND: Rudel ORCH: London Philharmonic Orchestra DATE: 1973/08 LABEL: EMI Angel AVC-34013 TIME: LIVESTUDIO: S CDLP: LP FILEDUNDER: Opera DATECAT: 1989/01/07 XFLD1: EMI ANL Match 5: COMP: Bellini TITLE: Puritani SOLOISTS: Antonio Zerbini; Ferruccio Mazzoli; Gianni Raimondi; Joan Sutherland; Mas Chorus COND: Serafin ORCH: Orchestra del Teatro Massimo, Palermo DATE: 1961 LABEL: Melodram MEL 460 (3) TIME: LIVESTUDIO: L CDLP: LP FILEDUNDER: Opera DATECAT: 1989/01/07 XFLD1: Match 6: COMP: Bellini TITLE: Puritani, I SOLOISTS: Gruberova; Lavender; Kim; D'Artegna COND: Luisi ORCH: Munich Radio Orch DATE: 1993 LABEL: Nightingale NC070562-2 TIME: LIVESTUDIO: S CDLP: CD FILEDUNDER: Opera DATECAT: 1994/10/30 XFLD1: Match 7: COMP: Bellini TITLE: Puritani, I SOLOISTS: Pagliughi; Filippeschi; Panerai; Bruscantini COND: Previtali ORCH: RAI Rome Orchestra DATE: 1952 LABEL: Pantheon PHE 6640-41 TIME: LIVESTUDIO: L CDLP: CD FILEDUNDER: Opera DATECAT: 1995/11/23 XFLD1: Match 8: COMP: Bellini TITLE: Puritani, I SOLOISTS: Gencer; Raimondi; Ausensi COND: Quadri ORCH: Colon (Teatro), Buenos Aires DATE: 1961 LABEL: Myto MCD 923.63 TIME: LIVESTUDIO: L CDLP: CD FILEDUNDER: Opera DATECAT: 1993/12/26 XFLD1: Match 9: COMP: Bellini TITLE: Puritani, I SOLOISTS: Callas; di Stefano; Panerai; Rossi-Lemeni; Chorus of La Scala; COND: Serafin ORCH: La Scala Orchestra DATE: 1953/02/24-30 LABEL: EMI 5 56275 2; Angel CL 3502 [LP] TIME: 136:05 LIVESTUDIO: S CDLP: CD FILEDUNDER: Opera DATECAT: XFLD1: I hope this helps, -Karl Fogel
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