Will you outlive your CD collection?

[Dave2002]

There is Westminster Music Library, 160 Buckingham Palace Road, near Victoria Station for Londoners.

That sounds like the one I used to visit many moons ago.

[EdgeleyRob]

The idea that Live Performances give more of a sense of "freshness" than playing a recording for the umpteenth time - so often exactly the opposite in my experience.

Same here and quite a lot of the music I listen to these days is rarely if ever played live

[ardcarp]

...but being present at live performances (as opposed to listening 'live' on radio) surely brings many extra things into the mix?

[Pulcinella]

...but being present at live performances (as opposed to listening 'live' on radio) surely brings many extra things into the mix?

Yes: the costs of the ticket, travel, meal,.....
But I don't think you meant those.

[Dave2002]

Same here and quite a lot of the music I listen to these days is rarely if ever played live

This is a major problem - much as I love Beethoven, Mozart and the rest, there is a lot of good music which deserves occasional outings, and just does not get played to live audiences.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

...but being present at live performances (as opposed to listening 'live' on radio) surely brings many extra things into the mix?

Well, aside from Pulcie's wry suggestions ( ) - these "extra things" are not always welcome. Having sat through several concerts/recitals by tired performers giving the seventh concert in as many nights in a Town Hall to an audience of twenty-odd, I have no regard for the automatic priority given to Live events over recordings. I eagerly endorse the idea that attending a really good concert has brought an excitement and experience that is unique, and which no recording has matched - but these are proportionally considerably smaller than the number of "run-through-motions! Live events where I've wished I'd stayed at home and listened to the CDs of the work.

[cloughie]

Well, aside from Pulcie's wry suggestions ( ) - these "extra things" are not always welcome. Having sat through several concerts/recitals by tired performers giving the seventh concert in as many nights in a Town Hall to an audience of twenty-odd, I have no regard for the automatic priority given to Live events over recordings. I eagerly endorse the idea that attending a really good concert has brought an excitement and experience that is unique, and which no recording has matched - but these are proportionally considerably smaller than the number of "run-through-motions! Live events where I've wished I'd stayed at home and listened to the CDs of the work.

One question to ask re not outliving your collection which item(s) have you selected for which you will be the dead audience?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This is a major problem - much as I love Beethoven, Mozart and the rest, there is a lot of good music which deserves occasional outings, and just does not get played to live audiences.

- the problem (in these days where Arts Funding is a weep-provoking joke) is that audiences don't go to unfamiliar repertoire in sufficient numbers to make programming such repertoire financially feasible. Forunistas have often reported that they've been to concerts of "off the beaten track" works where the Hall has been more than half-empty. For all the (quite right) lamenting here that Tippett's Music deserves much more regular performance, there don't seem to have been many listeners (judging from the number of comments on it) to last night's concert which featured one of his very best works. Just over a year ago, I attended a concert in Edinburgh which featured the Mozart Dissonance, the Dvorak "American" ... and James MacMillan's Third Quartet. The Queen's Hall was a third empty.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

One question to ask re not outliving your collection which item(s) have you selected for which you will be the dead audience?

Good question - maybe I should get a George Lloyd CD or two from a Charity Shop - then it literally can be played over my dead body.

[Dave2002]

.... concert in Edinburgh which featured the Mozart Dissonance, the Dvorak "American" ... and James MacMillan's Third Quartet. The Queen's Hall was a third empty.

Ah - so audiences are bored with Dvořák and Mozart then!

[umslopogaas]

To answer the opening question, I am sure my CDs will outlive me: I am 68 and CDs are for all practical purposes indestructible. I have made a will and left the CDs to one nephew and the LPs to another; both have asked me to do so, so hopefully the discs will be cherished.

I buy a few CDs every month, based on reviews in Gramophone, concentrating on unfamiliar music: fond as I am of Beethoven symphonies, I have enough recordings of them. I do still buy LPs on the rare occasions when suitable items come up for sale, but I have given up on charity shops, where I have never found anything worthwhile. I regard myself as a collector of LPs, in that I aspire, for example, to own a complete set of the Columbia SAX series (but am very unlikely to find some of the rarer items at prices I can afford). I dont collect CDs, I simply accumulate them, there is no systematic approach.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ah - so audiences are bored with Dvořák and Mozart then!

[Zucchini]

I find my large but random CD collection rather depressing, and not just for the chaotic ordering of it. If I were to play them all back to back, how long would I have to live to get through them all?

In my case, about 4 days (ca 100 CDs) - 3ft of shelf space and a shoe box. I've bought 2 this year, bought 5 in 2016 and 4 the year before. Those I buy are usually 'auditioning' artists I haven't yet heard live - or recollections of artists/performances I've particularly enjoyed. I have just 11 by dead people.

It's pretty much live performances only for us, from advanced students to the mightiest names in music, sharing the experience with other people and the uncertainty of how it will all work out - and maybe shopping and eating. I could only sit passively in a chair at home listening to a CD for a short while.

[vinteuil]

.


... the smugness of having a lot is only surpassed by the smugness of those who loudly proclaim how little they have

[cloughie]

Ah - so audiences are bored with Dvořák and Mozart then!

Only a third of them!