Compassionate Curmudgeon

Li'l Abner in Jazz

BTW, while I was browsing at the iTunes store, I came across a delightful jazz rendition of some of the songs from Li'l Abner performed by a trio headed by André Previn. This dates from the 50's, when Broadway musicals were still part of the popular music of the time.

It is available from Amazon as well as the iTunes Music Store.

Intelligent Design

Having just complained about the stupidity of a music company, I thought I ought to mention that not all recording companies are created equal.

I've just come from the iTunes Music Store where I was perusing the latest addition by the Emerson String Quartet, a complete recording of the Mendelssohn String Quartets.

There are several things about this release that stand out. First of all, at a cost of about 6 bucks, one can buy a listening guide to the quartets, where the members of the Emerson Quartet give an overview of the music.

Next, the total cost of downloading the music is substantially less than the price of the CD version, even if one buys the listening guide. The CD set is $46 from Amazon; the downloaded set is $35 from iTunes. More important, one doesn't have to purchase the entire set. Each individual work can be purchased separately, at a cost of 3.96 to 7.44, and many of the individual movements can be had for 99 cents each. Now that's the way it ought to be.

As a bonus, the set includes Mendelssohn's Octet in E Flat, which the Emerson recorded in two separate sessions that were then combined in the editing room. What's more there are a couple bonus tracks that contain the recordings of the Scherzo before they were mixed together.

Good job, Emerson!

P.S. Mendelssohn's Octet, BTW, is the chamber music piece for those who think they don't like chamber music.

Stupidity--Music Company Style

So here I am listening to Chaikovsky's Symphony No. 1 ("Winter Dreams"), which is traditionally my music of choice for a snow storm. I've been ripping more of my CD collection into the iTunes music library, and I suddenly realize that I don't have a recording of Chaikovsky's Symphony No. 3 ("Polish").

So I hop on over to the iTunes Music Store and do a search on "tchaikovsky symphony polish" (they have an odd way of spelling Chaikovsky's name over there). Glancing over the results I see that they have only one recording of the Third, part of an integral set conducted by Yuri Temirkanov.

Problem is, they don't sell the symphonies separately. If I want to buy the Third Symphony, I have to get the whole set, for 70 bucks!

This is so stupid on so many levels, I find myself at a loss for words.

Note: This is not a stupidity on Apple's part; the prices and policies for the sale of music are set by the recording companies, in this case RCA (or whatever RCA has become these days).