This has been a long time without a new post since Anne was kind enough to link to me – and much thanks to everyone who showed up and took a look around – but I have been waylaid applying for a job and preparing for my long-desired vacation (August 5th through 17th, baybee). So in place of an actual constructive thought about something, I will note that Daedalus Books and Music is having a sale on Arte Nova CDs where you buy four (at prices of about $4 per CD) and get the fifth one free. Given that you can bypass shipping charges by hauling your automobile up to their HQ in Columbia, Murrland, this is a pretty big sale.
You may think, “But cheap CDs are normally those Essential Chopin-type compilations, which lose.” You’re right, but Arte Nova is not that. Here’s what I picked up a week ago:
- Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1 – Powerball!
- Christopher Hogwood: Klassizistische Moderne, Vol. 1 (underappreciated treasures of neoclassicism. This one has an amazing Martinu concerto grosso)
- Janacek’s Idyll, Mladi, and Suite (who doesn’t love Mladi? Seriously? I can never hear that one enough. “Songs of My Youth” for wind quintet by a 70-year-old? Sign me up. The rest of the performances are lovely too)
- Baroque Organ Music from France (still getting used to this, but some interesting stuff)
- William Boyce, Symphonies (had to go a little pop there)
So I paid $16.80 for that, and those five were by no means the only interesting CDs on offer. (I plan to go back up and get Vol. 2 of the Hogwood joints at the very least.) The sale runs through September 30, and most of the good stuff on the website is also at the store. Personally, I only stopped shopping at the store because the basket of loot I was carrying became so heavy that it hurt my wrist. A highly recommended way to cheaply explore interesting repertoire. (Note: I also own this CD of Schubert piano and violin music, and it is a boring recording.)
I probably won’t get back on the blog before I leave, so have a great couple weeks, and I’ll see you at just about the time the rest of Washington is returning from its vacation.