A Lark Ascending

You might find there are other places you can meet people. Try the pub. I never found record shops particularly sociable - more like the urinals hilarious commented on by the Mole Jazz owner.

There's a lot of truth in that, but I do find it possible for an interpretation to "bring out" aspects of a composition in such a way that what I once found wholly/largely uninteresting now piques moments of interest. May or may not change my ultimate opinion of the piece, but it'll also give me a better idea of why I dislike it because X, even though Y & Z. Firstly, Peter puts it perfectly. Secondly, I agree with your last point, Jim. I too have heard versions of pieces I've previously been indifferent to that have opened them to me. My irritations comes when it becomes primarily about the performer rather than the music. Schnabel's Beethoven rather than Beethoven's X Sonata as played by Schnabel. And it saddens me to see new listeners sucked into this. Get to know the music and, over time, if you like it enough and want to hear other versions then you might just gain pleasure or instruction by hearing those differing interpretations. But classical music is frequently sold as if those maestro interpretations are what it is really about. Just buy a box of Gould and swoon under his supreme artistry. You're just not going to hear that unless you spent some time listening to the alternatives. But the record company blurb promises you instant magic. It's not hard to see why. Most classical listeners don't venture much beyond a 1700-early 20thC timespan (nothing wrong with that) so there's a marketing need to find a way to sell the same pieces again and again. The maestro myth does that. This is not a beef specific to this site - classical music sites are far worse. Endless 'who's best?' debates; very little discussion of the music itself.

You can only get it in that 356 CD 'The Great Artistes' box put out by Epicure. Be warned, the gravy leaks from the packaging.

HMV on the skids: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20708295

Then you need to taste Schlumpferling's 1938 Vienna pot roast (NOT his Berlin 1938, of course!). Sublime. No pot roasts compare.

Of course I exaggerate. It's just that listening to classical music is so often portrayed as being all about famous maestros. Buy a box of Schnabel or Gould and get instant Wine Club membership. That someone who has listened for years can hear differences and will have preferences goes without saying. Just seems extraordinary to me that so much discussion seems to be of the 'whose best?' variety and so little about what makes the music so extraordinary, exciting, engaging etc. Because I like the pictures on the sleeves. I'm as partial to a bit of packaging as the next man (I even make covers for my CD-Rs from downloads based on the original sleeve!). When I post from my Iphone and it's too fiddly to put up a picture all you do get is the composer and composition. I'm not a musician, musicologist, music student or music critic. Why do I need to study music? I play it because I find immense pleasure in it. I have quite enough 'study' tied up in the day job.

Trust the composer and the composition. The rest is about selling records. The medium is not the message.

Trust the composer/composition. There are differences in interpretation but classical connoisseurship greatly exaggerates these in order to establish pecking order debates ('classical connoisseur top trumps'). Gets to the point when establishing the pecking order of the interpreter becomes more important than the composer/composition (note those discs where the interpreter's name is in bigger type than the composer [a sure sign that you are in the world of bollocks]). If it's a genre of music you don't have much interest in, do you really think some superior interpretation is going to transcend that? Only the music will do that.

How desperate are you to have approved interpretations? If you like the composers/compositions keep it. If they mean nothing to you, return it.

Love the contents...I'll rephrase that...Love the music. But the packaging?

This stands out as the new jazz recording I got most pleasure from this year: Enjoyed lots of things but most are still being absorbed. I'd select these as having been especially enjoyable: Abercrombie John - Within A Song Iles Nikki Trio - Hush Johnson Marc - Swept Away McGarry Kate - Girl Talk Neon Quartet - Subjekt Surman John - Saltash Bells Tobin Christine - Sailing to Byzantium Truedell Ryan - Centennial Alexander Hawkins - All There, Ever Out (late entry - thought this came out last year).

Borrowed from another thread: Is this what they mean by a vanity case?

I still can't work out what the heck is going on in that one... Very nicely shot though, if you pardon my pun. The clue lies in the patterns on the jumpers! Apparently there are remakes planned in both the UK and the USA of 'The Bridge' - speculation as to where. The Channel Tunnel, the US Mexican border! The good news is that a second non-Andorran series is due though not until next Autumn. 'Borgen' returns in January - another excellent bit of Nordic gloom and intrigue.

Is this a reference to the box, the 'now where did I leave my monocle look' on Klempy's face or the dire quality of my photoshopping skills?

The version of 'Frosty the Snowman' (three rehearsal out-takes also included) displays such sublime artistry. Such tone! Such touch!

But have you heard the 25-bit remaster? I haven't. Is that the one Teo Macero cut up and reassembled in a different order? It's quite controversial as he took out the last 33 seconds and then pasted on a copy of the first 33 seconds to return it to the full length.

That would be good. I can't even say if it's any good - I could only bear trying to listen to it twice.

I can only assume its those people getting multi-million pound bonuses but who've run out of product to buy.

People pay those sort of prices?

I have the Disconforme reissue from 10 or more years back and, to be frank, it's a dreadful transfer, especially what was side 2. Very, very muddy. Better to wait for one of the labels putting this stuff out slowly to do it properly.

'The Hour' and 'The Killing III' continue to hold my attention on TV. Now on series 6 of: The ridiculous Crane brothers continue to delight.

When I first started listening to jazz one of the earliest things that caught my ear on Jazz Record Requests was the mid 50s 'The Way You Look Tonight' but it was Desmond who got my attention. A bought an album with two of those 'College' records included but couldn't really connect with Dave's playing - always sounded like he was playing with mittens on. I think I was also guilty of shunning the DBQ because they seemed too populist ('I was so much older then....). Over time I've come to enjoy the DBQ recordings much more and to appreciate DB as a composer. Anyone with a curious ear should give this recent record a listen: Unlike most 'tribute' discs it does much more than revisit the hits; it takes some of Brubecks tunes and reconstructs them. The version of Blue Rondo is amazing. Brubeck heard the disc and was as gracious as many of the other comments mentioned in this thread. “This CD will be an inspiration for me. I’ve never gone so far into the unknown as you three, but I have opened the door and peaked in. Your CD is an invitation to enter.”

Look forward to this, Alex. "If I Should Lose You" is a favourite - a great version by Booker Little from way back when.

Yes, check you've done that. I've only used manual since I first got one.

You may just be missing that MG. If you look on the left hand pane under Devices and click on 'Music' you get a full list of everything on your iPod. You can sort according to the fields at the top or add/delete fields. Or you can search - put in Bax and everything with Bax in it gets brought up (not sure how many Bax's there are in Mali!). You can also delete what you no longer want on there. There are also various programmes you can get that allow you to download your iPod contents to your computer or an external drive. I've used this for a couple of years: www.candysoft.com/index.php?SRC=1 It's pretty basic but does the job. Several times I've downloaded the entire contents so I can reassemble them on another iPod. This is all on the exist iTunes, not the new one. ************ Agree you about the lunacy of labelling but it's easy enough to rectify. The thing that niggles me is the 'genres' they attach to music in the iTunes shop. For some reason 'Folk' no longer exists as a genre - you have to hunt in either 'Singer Songwriter' (that's a genre? expect to find Schubert there one day!), 'Country' or 'World'.