Is it exciting for you to receive CD packages?

[Lance]

I look with great interest for the mailman every day, or the UPS man, sometimes the FedEx man. Even the USPS will deliver packages from Amazon/Prime on a Sunday. But is it me or is it a thrill to most everybody to look forward to getting parcels with CDs/books you expect and know you are going to get sooner or later? Gotta tell ya, it's addictive! Especially when there are multiple parcels.

[Belle]

Totally agree. I am awaiting a book ("The Square and the Tower" by Prof. Niall Ferguson) and am about to order "Die Meistersinger" based on some comments on that thread. Enjoy your new packages. The regular fellow who delivers the packages here always laughs when I rush out enthusiastically to grab it/them.

[RebLem]

Yes. In fact, I just reported on a 10 CD package of GUILD records I just received today from Presto Classical in the UK. It includes a recording of a concert conducted by George Szell in Cologne. Yes, I have found yet another Szell CD not included in the big SONY box. It was recorded 1958. Go see.

[Lance]

I just got about thirteen discs from them on Guild, too! Mostly Toscanini, one Furtwangler, some Barbirolli, and any Adolf Busch I didn't already have. I'll check out what you got.

[maestrob]

CD packages are likened to gold in my house. I love receiving them so much that I have about 100-125 unopened CDs on my shelves, all treasures. I'll be having a new furniture cabinet built in my entryway to accommodate them plus some piles of CDs on a temporary set of shelves I'v put up near my piano!

It's a never-ending joy and definitely addictive to order online from around the world and receive these gems. I've over-ordered for a few months now due to the enthusiastic postings here, so I must hold back for a while (Summer vacation? ).

As it is, I open just one new CD/week plus 1 small box/month. That is in itself a joyous occasion.

[Lance]

Glad to know others share this. At least I am not the ONLY hopeless case!

[Lance]

Come on guys, FESS UP! Let's hear what you have to say about this subject. Don't be shy!

[Belle]

CD packages are likened to gold in my house. I love receiving them so much that I have about 100-125 unopened CDs on my shelves, all treasures. I'll be having a new furniture cabinet built in my entryway to accommodate them plus some piles of CDs on a temporary set of shelves I'v put up near my piano!

It's a never-ending joy and definitely addictive to order online from around the world and receive these gems. I've over-ordered for a few months now due to the enthusiastic postings here, so I must hold back for a while (Summer vacation? ).

As it is, I open just one new CD/week plus 1 small box/month. That is in itself a joyous occasion.

This is very impressive. I don't know about you, but when I go to someone else's house (usually a friend) and I don't see any books or CDs I always think that's not a good look. Where are their cases of books, records, CDs, scores, musical instruments, DVDs? A home without these things is sterile. Yes it is!!

My grandchildren from Perth came here for our son's wedding in March. One is 8, the other 5. We had never met the second child and have only seen the 8y/o twice, last when he was 18 months old (don't ask!!). They rushed over to my DVDs and CDs and books and scanned all the titles as soon as they walked into the house!!! I was impressed and, of course, saddened that they're not a part of our lives. They both talk with a kind of educated English, which I found amazing and surprising!!

I literally drop everything I'm doing the moment a book or CD arrives. Coming home from shopping, unloading the car in the garage (or doing anything at all) and my husband will say "there's a package from Amazon at the back door". Sorry, but he ends up completing the unpacking of the groceries while I rush over to the hi-fi. He's used to it by now after 45 years!!! He's a bit the same when "The Spectator" arrives and the national daily newspaper - forget it!! He's reading it every day from circa 6am till 8.30am and completing the crossword. As soon as I step into the computer room there's a cup of tea ready for me and I'll hear those daily words..."come out here and clean up the crossword please; there's a couple I can't figure out".

Did I happen to mention that I have the world's most wonderful husband? He's put up with all my eccentricities these many years; yes, all of them!!

[jserraglio]

A home without these things is sterile. Yes it is!!

And a home with too many of these things is unsanitary. So I have been lovingly told.

[John F]

For a long time after LPs ceased being issued, I bought no recordings at all. Eventually I got back into the habit, but only for special projects - Koch/Schwann's Vienna State Opera live recordings, all the works I could find by Alfred Schnittke, dozens of pieces by the lesser contemporaries of Haydn and Mozart. But when the record stores closed, I stopped buying records again, and as far as I can remember, I've never received a CD package. If I did, I'd be more surprised than excited.

[Belle]

I certainly need to know more about Schnittke. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but do you have any particular recommendations for somebody at my stage of un-knowledge!!??

[Lance]

May I recommend a few Schnittke things (these are not "far out," as it were):
1) Suite in the Olden Style (many fine recordings available)
2) Congratulatory Rondo
3) Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 with Schnittke's cadenza (shockingly delightful!) with Gidon Kremer. Used to be on the Philips label (LP), released in 1980 with Sir Neville Marriner and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. (Arkiv had on a CD reprint. Perhaps it has since been re-released.)

I am particularly attracted to the Suite in the Olden Style.

I certainly need to know more about Schnittke. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but do you have any particular recommendations for somebody at my stage of un-knowledge!!??

[John F]

I certainly need to know more about Schnittke. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but do you have any particular recommendations for somebody at my stage of un-knowledge!!??

Any number of them. Schnittke is one of the few contemporary composers who wrote genuinely funny music, as in "(K)ein Sommernachtstraum" - not a midsummer night's dream. It begins with a sight gag: the stage is packed with a huge orchestra, but the opening is a neoclassical duo for violin and piano, who you can't see because Schnittke has specified that the violin part is to be played by the rearmost of the 2nd violins.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OaE_Esx8VA

Schnittke is usually described as a polystylistic composer, meaning that he has no one style of his own. Lance has mentioned his neoclassical "Suite in the Old Style." On the other hand, his mystical Choir Concerto is in the style of Russian Orthodox chant. This is the last movement.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykuF8h7sFwI

The text in English:

Complete this work which I began
in hope and with Your name,
so that my singing may become healing,
curing the wounds of body and soul.
If my humble work is finished
with Your holy blessing,
may the divine spirit in it
join with my meager inspiration.
The revelation You have granted,
do not extinguish it. Do not abandon my reason,
but, again and again, receive praise
From Your servant. Amen.

One more and I'll stop: the string trio, commissioned for the Alban Berg centennial and played in this recording by Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet and Mstislav Rostropovich. It's tougher music than the other selections, but it has recognizable themes and, I think, communicative power - stay with it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kueXf27ecz8

[Belle]

Thank you John and Lance; I'll investigate your comments and links on this long weekend - which is dull and overcast at this time.

[Mookalafalas]

Heck ya! My listening room is on the fourth floor of my house, facing the courtyard. The mailman comes on a motorcycle, and if there is a delivery, they shout, so I have to run downstairs. Occasionally it is for the neighbor
Adds a little spice to the whole day knowing something might arrive.

[Lance]

The FOURTH floor! If you are a heavy collector, books, CDs, LPs, etc. be careful as the fourth floor may come crashing down to the first floor! I had a problem like that storing books in the attic on home-made shelving using cinder blocks to hold the 3/4" shelves. We were concerned because we noted some heavy cracks developing in the ceiling. It would have come crashing down on our beautiful Baldwin grand piano! Had to have everything reinforced, but it wasn't too smart of me to use heavy cinder blocks for the shelving! Shame on me.

Heck ya! My listening room is on the fourth floor of my house, facing the courtyard. The mailman comes on a motorcycle, and if there is a delivery, they shout, so I have to run downstairs. Occasionally it is for the neighbor
Adds a little spice to the whole day knowing something might arrive.

[Mookalafalas]

The FOURTH floor! If you are a heavy collector, books, CDs, LPs, etc. be careful as the fourth floor may come crashing down to the first floor! I had a problem like that storing books in the attic on home-made shelving using cinder blocks to hold the 3/4" shelves. We were concerned because we noted some heavy cracks developing in the ceiling. It would have come crashing down on our beautiful Baldwin grand piano! Had to have everything reinforced, but it wasn't too smart of me to use heavy cinder blocks for the shelving! Shame on me.

I worry about the weight sometimes--I have a LOT of books. However, the houses here in Taiwan are all made with poured cement and rebar. They are incredibly solid, although rather sloppily put together. We had a huge earthquake a couple of years ago, with the epicenter nearby. A 10 story building a mile away fell over, but there wasn't that much damage to other homes and buildings. Apparently I have nothing to worry about (although sometimes I do anyway).