How to file classical recordings has always been a conundrum, and probably always will be. I don't know of a good comprehensive strategy. It's about as elusive as the Unified Theory in physics, sort of the Holy Grail for amateur record librarians. You'll have albums with:
1) One work by one composer, performed by one artist/ensemble - easy enough.
2) Several works by one composer, performed by one artist/ensemble - which work do you file under? Usually it's easy to discern which is the major work, but not always.
3) Several works by one composer, performed by different artists/ensembles - whaddaya do?
4) A variety of works by different composers, performed by one artist/ensemble.
5) The rare, but possible album that features different works by different composers, played by different artists/ensembles - usually some sort of "theme" album like "All the Classical Music Your Family Will Ever Need" kind of thing. What in the hell do you do with that? (Besides not buy it in the first place.)
Answers to any of these can be worked out individually, some more easily than others, but so far I've yet to find a single, comprehensive strategy that can apply to them all.
And then there's the additional confusion that comes from multi-disc complete works collections, at least when they're not in a box. For example, I have all of the Hogwood Beethoven Symphonies on individual discs. Do I keep them together, or do I insert the other isolated Beethoven Symphony recordings I have into the mix? IOW, do I interrupt the Hogwood discs to put in my Fritz Reiner/Chicago Beethoven 5th, which is not part of a set? Does it go after the Hogwood 5th (alphabetical by conductor) but before the Hogwood 6th (numeric)? And do complete sets come before or after the individual recordings? And for that matter, which member of the ensemble is the more important one for filing - the conductor or the orchestra? Tradition dictates the conductor, but is that always the sound approach (no pun intended)?
My head is spinning....
