tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post727896743955810954..comments2024-03-26T15:57:13.443+00:00Comments on On An Overgrown Path: European politicians catch classical music bugUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-3276910745735033402007-07-27T14:25:00.000+01:002007-07-27T14:25:00.000+01:00Thanks for this superb post, pliable.We heard a fi...Thanks for this superb post, pliable.<BR/><BR/>We heard a fine performance of Portuguese Renaissance music last night at the Freer Art Gallery in Washington by Lisbon's Vozes Alfonsinas (which is reported to be just about to release its fourth album, The Ocean of Music, on EMI). <BR/><BR/>During the brief formalities before the concert, it was mentioned that Vozes Alfonsinas (eight members and music director)had been invited to perform for the European Commission next season when Portugal assumes the revolving Presidency of that organization.<BR/><BR/>Their program: Visogothic and Mozarabic chant!Garth Trinklhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11084463787729969177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-39384921556665428402007-07-26T13:58:00.000+01:002007-07-26T13:58:00.000+01:00Email received:In the days of my vinyl collecting,...<I>Email received:</I><BR/><BR/>In the days of my vinyl collecting, I managed to find a recording of Landsbergis playing Ciurlionis on MELODIYA. Back in the day, when I was growing up in<BR/>Toronto (which in many ways was a better city for buying records than New York),there was a strange store in the middle of what was an Eastern European<BR/>neighborhood in the Central West end of the city. The store was called Ukraïnska Kniga, and sold all sorts of products from the country of the Glorious<BR/>Revolution. It was the closest thing we had to a GUM store, including potential spys. The Russian community was convinced the store was filled with agents. While I kind of doubted it, the one thing the store WAS filled with were MELODIYA's and MEZHDUNARODNAYA KNIGA's that was every collector's wet dream, all selling for under $5.00! <BR/><BR/>The reason I was given for such low prices was because even though the"importer" tried to bring in classical titles, nobody in the Russian community expressed any interest. He had vinyl pressings going back to the 50's, as wellas some 78's! The store finally went under in the early '90's, but the "importer" still had a garage full (i.e. Thousands)of LP's. Along comes a fellow by the name of Peter Dunn, who was the master of second hand vinyl in Toronto for many years with his Vinyl Museum stores (alas, he dissapeared as well by the year 2000. He bought up the entire garage, and was now offering the MELODIYA's for less then $4.00 each! I already had the Landsbergis, amongst other titles, but I picked up other rareities including a Moscow recital of Toronto-born Teresa Stratus, dating from July 24, 1963 (the day before I was born!, and rare performances of Bella Davidovich, Kondrashin, Oborin, Oistrakh, you name it. I stayed and from the recording of Lenin's speech "How to rid the world of Captialism for-ever", only because I had the complete speeches on CD (for historical reasons, of course). <BR/><BR/>Reading of these politicians (one should include Edward Heath) reminded me, though tangentally, of the above story and the memory of how fun it used to be to collect recordings. Downloading, while technically a cornucoppia of wonderful recordings, still has serious sound quality issues, and just does not, and will never, have the same romance and satisfaction of holding an actual sound object (bigger than an iPod) in you hand.<BR/><BR/>Just thought I'd share my whimsy<BR/><BR/>Cheer David CavlovicPliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.com