Culling CDs

[LMcD]

I agree. Never cull. So often I find that a particular type of music, composer, opera, or whatever, that I have gone off - sometimes for years, do come back into the fold of favour, again at some point.

I've given up trying to convince myself that I shall ever enjoy Bruckner's 4th - which I originally bought for its extra-musical associations - again, and in the unlikely event that I do there are quite a few performances on YouTube. Conversely, I made a point this morning of listening to my Nimbus recording of orchestral works by Alun Hoddinott and there's no way I'm letting that one go!

[Bella Kemp]

... there is of course wisdom in that approach. Another view, however, might be that one is building up a 'library' to which you can refer whenever you need. In the same way as the books I have acquired over the years.

And, yes, you may have 'a change in your musical interests' - but equally your interests may veer back again. And anyway you might wish to listen again to something which once had such appeal for you.

I find a certain satisfaction looking around the shelves of books and CDs, a reflection of current and previous interests, the worm-casts of my life. It's unlikely that I'll re-read much of the Fantômas or Jules Verne volumes - but looking at them I can recall the thrill of getting them and racing thro' them the first times round. I may be less enthralled now by Soler or Déodat de Séverac than I once was - but I never know if one day I might not wish to plunge back in again.

I never cull...


.

I completely agree. Never cull - this obsession with making space started with the IKEA ads of the 80s - chuck out your chintz! (and buy new stuff from us). It's madness to assume that because you haven't listened to, used or read something in a decade then you never will again. It must be several decades since last I read those annuals and books I used to get for Christmas every year in my childhood, but I know that if I picked up one now I would get a flood of joyous memories. I haven't listened to Jascha Horenstein's Mahler 3 on two lps that gave me intense delight in my twenties, for - alas - said decades, but one day I will listen again and I anticipate that moment with enormous pleasure. If you want to help charities give them some money. And buy new cds and books to support living Artists.

[pastoralguy]

I once read that, post WW2, the most referred to tome in the New York City Library was the Warsaw Telephone Directory. A previously insignificant reference book became a lifeline to thousands of mis-placed Polish people.

[Joseph K]

Didn't Umberto Eco write an essay about the virtues of having more books than he'd ever read?

Well, it applies to CDs, too. For me, I had a massive chunk of my collection involuntarily culled by burglars.

But I should start systematically listening to my CDs, though - instead of listening to the same few CDs again and again - or the temptation of youtube, which contains so much these days and of course is more easily pausable to return to long works where I left them, compared with CDs...

[Serial_Apologist]

Well, it applies to CDs, too. For me, I had a massive chunk of my collection involuntarily culled by burglars.

Really sorry to hear that, Joseph. The one hope might be that the burglar(s) will gain something by having them, and be personally enriched to become better human beings incapable of stealing again. More likely, though, they will have broken in in the hope of making money from the ill-begotten booty.

[Joseph K]

More likely, though, they will have broken in in the hope of making money from the ill-begotten booty.

I won't go into much detail, but yes: a couple of weeks later I discovered quite a few (but far from complete) of my CDs had found their way into a local pawn shop. So I got some back, as well as discovering the culprits.

[Pulcinella]

The eternal culling dilemma rears itself again.
The Mackerras Czech music box that Bryn recommended has just arrived, so that means I now have duplicates of the Martinu Field Mass, Double Concerto, and Fresques, which feature in it.
But the single CD booklet has the words of the Field Mass in it, which of course the bargain box booklet doesn't.
So that CD probably won't make it to the culled pile.

[teamsaint]

The eternal culling dilemma rears itself again.
The Mackerras Czech music box that Bryn recommended has just arrived, so that means I now have duplicates of the Martinu Field Mass, Double Concerto, and Fresques, which feature in it.
But the single CD booklet has the words of the Field Mass in it, which of course the bargain box booklet doesn't.
So that CD probably won't make it to the culled pile.

I sometimes take out the booklet/cover/whatever and keep it in the box set, if there is room, which does at least free up a space on the shelf.

One box I bought used ( The Lou Harrison Gamelan 4 CD set, ) had the booklet very neatly chopped up into single sheets.

[Serial_Apologist]

I sometimes take out the booklet/cover/whatever and keep it in the box set, if there is room, which does at least free up a space on the shelf.

One box I bought used ( The Lou Harrison Gamelan 4 CD set, ) had the booklet very neatly chopped up into single sheets.

This is probably going to sound crazy - it almost certainly is! - but when getting rid of worn-out LPs, I have sometimes photocopied the cover, if it is a good one, and then sandwiched it, in reduction if necessary, either into the CD case, or when insufficient room next to the CD in its place on the shelf - even when the replacement is a different orchestra and conductor. This I have done with the Beecham/RPO Elgar Enigma/Cocaigne/Serenade my father left me, with its wonderful side profile of the composer looking down on a score he's holding, surrounded by photos of the 13 Enigma dedicatees, with their pooches in the two cases referenced in the music. Then there's the CBS/Craft cover to "Pelleas und Melisande" with that Kokotschka portrait of Schoenberg on the front.

[french frank]

Didn't Umberto Eco write an essay about the virtues of having more books than he'd ever read?

More a problem with books for me. I often think I will take a bagful down to Amnesty and end up with one unwanted gift and a pamphlet I brought back from a barely remembered holiday 20 years ago. So they both go back on the shelf again.

[pastoralguy]

One of the great joys of being married is going to a concert with a wife who hasn't heard, (or indeed played!), the standard repertoire a few times. So, we are are going to hear Walton's 'Belshazzer's Feast' on Friday played by the magnificent RSNO & Chorus.

And so it's nice to be able to pull out the cd I bought in 1989 of the LSO and LSO Chorus under Richard Hickox. It's been a LONG time since this cd was played but there it is.