Don't forget the dinosaurs!

[LMcD]

There have been comments recently on the choice of recordings recommended on Building a Library, with an increasing emphasis on 'download only' versions and recordings available only as part of a box set. Although I do watch/listen to performances on the internet and have been known to stream, I mostly listen to music on CD and my alarmingly unsophisticated radios*. Consequently, when considering the purchase of a recording of a particular work, I'm usually looking for a straightforward recommendation that doesn't require me to purchase a huge box set just in order to obtain what is judged to be the 'best' recording. When I'm thinking of purchasing a further recording of a particular work I don't always want the same coupling, and am perfectly happy to end up with a recording which, while not necessarily the 'best', offers me a wider overall choice of listening - for example, my recording of the Dvorak Violin Concerto is coupled with his Piano Quintet Opus 81, and, of the many fine recordings of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, I opted for Perlman's as this is coupled with Bernstein's Serenade and pieces by Lukas Foss. I might well decide to acquire another recording of Stravinsky's Violin Concerto, but can cheerfully ignore the top recommendation if it's download only or involves the purchase of recordings of his complete works! It would be nice to think that reviewers could spare a thought for aged unsophisticates like me.
* I also regularly dip into my collection of audio cassettes.

[Anastasius]

There have been comments recently on the choice of recordings recommended on Building a Library, with an increasing emphasis on 'download only' versions and recordings available only as part of a box set. Although I do watch/listen to performances on the internet and have been known to stream, I mostly listen to music on CD and my alarmingly unsophisticated radios*. Consequently, when considering the purchase of a recording of a particular work, I'm usually looking for a straightforward recommendation that doesn't require me to purchase a huge box set just in order to obtain what is judged to be the 'best' recording. When I'm thinking of purchasing a further recording of a particular work I don't always want the same coupling, and am perfectly happy to end up with a recording which, while not necessarily the 'best', offers me a wider overall choice of listening - for example, my recording of the Dvorak Violin Concerto is coupled with his Piano Quintet Opus 81, and, of the many fine recordings of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, I opted for Perlman's as this is coupled with Bernstein's Serenade and pieces by Lukas Foss. I might well decide to acquire another recording of Stravinsky's Violin Concerto, but can cheerfully ignore the top recommendation if it's download only or involves the purchase of recordings of his complete works! It would be nice to think that reviewers could spare a thought for aged unsophisticates like me.
* I also regularly dip into my collection of audio cassettes.

Subscribe to Qobuz. Just checked ...that Perlman recording is available. I haven't bought a CD in years.

[LMcD]

Sadly, Qobuz subscriptions are rarely if ever to be found in charity shops and I'm not sure that such a service can replicate the enjoyment that me and the missus experience while sitting in our cosy armchairs - which, as it happens, also came from a charity shop - listening to CDs. Fortunately, as the latter become less fashionable they also become cheaper, and I'm always up for special offers for box sets - e.g. Haitink's 8-CD set of Vaughan Williams orchestral works for less than £14.
I guess I'm just an unreconstructed WWII relic who's more interested in what he's listening to than what he's listening to it on!

[Richard Barrett]

I guess I'm just an unreconstructed WWII relic who's more interested in what he's listening to than what he's listening to it on!

That's an argument for subscribing to a streaming service, not against it! Probably you remember that when CDs appeared many people thought they wouldn't get involved in this new fad, and everyone did, indeed everyone had to because that was the only way to hear new recordings, let alone older ones in better sound quality. And before that, exactly the same was true of the transition from 78s to LPs. I mention that since LPs were introduced in 1948 and CDs in 1982, making a difference of 34 years. Now, 39 years after the introduction of CDs, it's going to be increasingly difficult not to move on to the next medium, which will at some point be the only way to hear new recordings, and which once more (potentially) involves an increase in sound quality, but above all is a vastly more convenient and less expensive way to listen to an enormous variety of music. You've made that kind of change once already!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I have over 2,000 CDs. If I had none, I would have the option of subscribing to a streaming service. But if, for technical or economic reasons, I could no longer access this facility, I would have no music to listen to. As things stand, I have one wall in on one room in my house with CDs that attract interest from friends who visit (though not under lockdown). I have many ways to play these, and am not reliant on internet reliability or subscriptions. This was an issue for several months in 2019.
Anyway, the term “dinosaur” is no longer a good one. These creatures lived on the planet for 150,000,000 years. The human race has been around for a tiny fraction of that and is carelessly and systematically destroying itself.

[LMcD]

I have over 2,000 CDs. If I had none, I would have the option of subscribing to a streaming service. But if, for technical or economic reasons, I could no longer access this facility, I would have no music to listen to. As things stand, I have one wall in on one room in my house with CDs that attract interest from friends who visit (though not under lockdown). I have many ways to play these, and am not reliant on internet reliability or subscriptions. This was an issue for several months in 2019.
Anyway, the term “dinosaur” is no longer a good one. These creatures lived on the planet for 150,000,000 years. The human race has been around for a tiny fraction of that and is carelessly and systematically destroying itself.

Our collection of CDs is arguably the most attractive feature of our dining room, with the possible exception of the artificial flowers, and many of them have very attractive cover photos/paintings/designs upon which I can gaze with pleasure while listening. I'd be quite happy with an alternative to 'dinosaur' to describe people of my age and attitude - how about 'old-timer'?

[kernelbogey]

I find myself resistant to the idea of downloads and streaming services. As I have aged I notice that reluctance to enter into new things generally (not just technology) - something that irritated me, when younger, about my father...!

[Richard Barrett]

I have over 2,000 CDs. If I had none, I would have the option of subscribing to a streaming service. But if, for technical or economic reasons, I could no longer access this facility, I would have no music to listen to.

But you do still have them, as do I, as does LMcD. And of course if one is worried about issues around streaming, all one needs to do is download the material and then you have it in your house just as surely as if it were on CD. (And I know several people whose entire CD collection has been lost to water or fire damage or burglary.) Remember the thread began with the "problem" that some recommended recordings are download-only. That situation is going to become more of a "problem" as time goes by, rather than less.

As I age I notice that I can more easily see which new things are worth committing to and which aren't!

[french frank]

That's an argument for subscribing to a streaming service, not against it! Probably you remember that when CDs appeared many people thought they wouldn't get involved in this new fad, and everyone did

But payment by subscription is a different economic proposition, enforced consumerism. Am I right that Qobuz subscriptions start at £12.49 per month? Are there cheaper options? At least with CDs (cassettes, records &c) you can choose whether to buy every month or not without forfeit.

[gradus]

[QUOTE=LMcD;843340]Our collection of CDs is arguably the most attractive feature of our dining room, with the possible exception of the artificial flowers, and many of them have very attractive cover photos/paintings/designs upon which I can gaze with pleasure while listening. I'd be quite happy with an alternative to 'dinosaur' to describe people of my age and attitude - how about 'old-timer'? [/QUOTE

I use streaming because, next to radio, it is the simplest way to reproduce recorded music in the home. CDs are a half-way house for me and I certainly don't miss the bother of my LP ritual with its Manual Parastating and Dust Bugging.

[Bryn]

But you do still have them, as do I, as does LMcD. And of course if one is worried about issues around streaming, all one needs to do is download the material and then you have it in your house just as surely as if it were on CD. (And I know several people whose entire CD collection has been lost to water or fire damage or burglary.) Remember the thread began with the "problem" that some recommended recordings are download-only. That situation is going to become more of a "problem" as time goes by, rather than less.

As I age I notice that I can more easily see which new things are worth committing to and which aren't!

As I have mentioned previously, I lost the majority of my favourite LPs in a house fire, back in the '80s. Most of the downloads I have purchased remain available for repeated downloading from the vendor at no extra cost. Again, backing up of downloads is a very much simpler operaton than is backing up a CD.

[Pulcinella]

A fairly regular grouse about streaming services is how bad their search engines are. I'm not sure if this is particularly the case for classical music, or a more general complaint.
Deezer is certainly pretty grim, as there seems to be no standard format to how any information is entered/available: soloist, orchestra, conductor, title of work.
Even once you've found what you might be looking for (in one recent case, the box set of French piano concertos) there's often no composer information visible; in that case, I had to resort to Presto's site to find out what piece was what.


It's an interesting pastime to listen 'blind', though, and play 'name that composer'!

[Richard Barrett]

Am I right that Qobuz subscriptions start at £12.49 per month?

Considering what you get for that amount I would say it's next to nothing.

[cloughie]

Subscribe to Qobuz. Just checked ...that Perlman recording is available. I haven't bought a CD in years.

I think you miss the point Anastasius, Quobus is streaming or downloads which for anything like decent sound quality requires linking computer to a hifi system.

https://youtu.be/NR7_TbMIVnA

[antongould]

A fairly regular grouse about streaming services is how bad their search engines are. I'm not sure if this is particularly the case for classical music, or a more general complaint.
Deezer is certainly pretty grim, as there seems to be no standard format to how any information is entered/available: soloist, orchestra, conductor, title of work.
Even once you've found what you might be looking for (in one recent case, the box set of French piano concertos) there's often no composer information visible; in that case, I had to resort to Presto's site to find out what piece was what.


It's an interesting pastime to listen 'blind', though, and play 'name that composer'!

At a tangent I find the search facility on BBC Sounds far from good .... a friend suggested I listen to Nicola Walker in a BBC R4 drama series about a Norwegian detective, without providing the name ..... so I put in Nicola Walker and it didn’t appear although other programmes she was a minor participant in did ..... Wikipedia saved me .....