I often pop into charity shops while on holiday and nearly always manage to find recordings of repertoire that was previously totally unknown to me. In this way I broaden my musical knowledge while supporting the charity in question. These recordings also serve as holiday souvenirs, of which the most recent, purchased earlier this week at the Oxfam shop in Kendal, are CDs featuring Peter Maxwell Davies's 3rd and 4th 'Naxos Quartets' and various works by Lutoslawski including the 3rd Symphony.
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Last edited by LMcD; 11-06-21, 01:40. -
I have had some great discoveries in the past when CD shops were more common and we could travel abroad. Other countries frequently have CDs that have not been widely available in the UK. -
The Supraphon shop in Prague is terrific!Comment
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This is insane!
CDs as holiday souvenirs?
What about the teddy bear your mummy bought you in St Ives?Comment
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It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, mad world you know.Originally posted by Zucchini View Post
Please specify to which St Ives you are referring - not that it actually matters, as my mummy was fully occupied bringing me up on her own and never had the time or the money to travel to either of them.Comment
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I don't think I could associate a particular piece of music/CD with a particular holiday. I did buy a CD of Grażyna Bacewicz (of whom I hadn't then heard) in Poland, but to be honest I can't even remember where I bought it (Warsaw? Kraków? Wrocław?). I can dimly remember what the street and outside of the shop looked like but that's hardly a holiday memory.
I'm a pathetically inveterate collector of postcards which do bring memories flooding back. But not CDs.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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In the days when they were a thing, I used to have this uncanny ability when on holiday abroad to sniff out the local CD/record shops without really trying. It was more a case of them finding me than the other way round! In pre-internet, LP days I'd even manage to find record shops in East Berlin and Moscow, some good Melodiya LPs to be had in the Beriozka shops around town.
Another thing I used to do, during spells of unemployment in the early 1970s and again mid 1980s, was to treat myself to an LP every time I went for yet another hopeless job interview. I got my first Haitink Mahler that way and also - a bit of a splash out this - volume 1 of the Richard Strauss/Kempe set. It made the failure to get the job easier to bear and I still have them. I obviously now have the CD issues but even now I'll have a quiet laugh to myself when I remember all those companies where I had the interviews. Where are they now? All long gone but those LPs live on!"The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard HaitinkComment
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Atmospheric purchases can be special.
Buying Elgar CDs at the Birthplace Museum (not possible now that they only sell the usual NT stuff).
Buying Britten CDs at The Maltings.
Hallé CDs at the Bridgewater Hall.Last edited by Eine Alpensinfonie; 11-06-21, 23:04.Comment
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The album that most brings to mind a memorable holiday was that of Berio's Sinfonia - the CBS with the cover resembling a GPO tunnel, with Berio conducting the NYP with the Swingles in its original 4-movement form - bought in Hanover while staying with my German then-girlfriend's parents in 1971. The LP would last much longer than the relationship.
But speaking of holiday mementos, while on holiday spent in S Wales with my father, soon after my mother's departure, a tourist shop yielded a lovely little black Buddha, made of south Welsh coal, which I greatly treasured. Dad was being looked after by a Welsh lady who visited home every day. On returning from that holiday, she wanted to know what, if anything, we'd brought back. On handing her the Buddha figure, she said, "Oh how lovely - and how kind of you to think of me: it will look lovely on my mantelpiece"!
In Buddhism they do of course say one should have as few possessions as possible...
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I have occasionally bought souvenir CDs of local music, eg we went to a tango evening in Buenos Aires and bought a disc. In Bagan, Myanmar, we heard the Burmese boat-shaped harp being played and bought a very appealing CD on sale in a local museum. Some tracks include bells and a drum.Comment
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Many years ago, on the last day of a break in Paris, I found myself with a lot of French coins that were weighing down my pocket - a problem which I solved by buying the Berwald symphonies on Naxos at Galleries Lafayette - not a charity shop, but the same principle applies - I had no idea what I was going to end up with when I entered the store.Originally posted by french frank View PostComment
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Well, none were (was?) shown on my tourist map of the city centre and I didn't want to incur the wrath of the tour manager by being late for supper at the hotel.Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View PostThey don't have charity shops in Paris, do they???
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I had to read that twice to tease out the meaningOriginally posted by LMcD View PostGalleries Lafayette - not a charity shop,
but the same principle applies
On the other hand, I remember going into GL with my mother years ago when we were actually after a humble packet of rubber bands. I suddenly spotted one thrown away on the floor and picked it up. Then there was another. And another. And another. Having gained a pocketful of discarded rubber bands, we made our exit.
Sorry, the glass of red wine got included by accident when I added the bold. It seemed appropriate to leave it.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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