Home Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

If only your premise were true

4.246.120.32

I played in a semi-pro community orchestra and was close friends with the conductor. I also managed the Classical room of an independent CD store in a University town. Two observations:

When I first started ordering stock for the classical room, I did exactly what you would do, started ordering "ephemera" (sp) like the Vaughan Williams Piano Concerto or Zemlinsky's Mermaid--stuff I thought people would want to buy because I wanted to buy. The manager would strike a lot of such things off my list and replace with 5 copies of Orff's Carmina or Beethoven's 5th on Naxos...Naxos! With the Upper Arctic Philharmonic. Who would ever buy these, from the curious student to the seasoned collector?? Well, guess what sold.... A word about the seasoned collector: we sold used as well as new, and aged professors would come in, (who's houses around the campus--bought for $500 back in the day were now worth millions), examine a $5.99 used CD multiple times, and put it back, not wanting to spend the money.

Same thing with selecting Orchestral rep for the next year. I begged the conductor to select something like Respighi's Church Windows, etc., but he told me, and he was right year after year, that it was the Beethoven and Brahms that brought people--young and old, curious and seasoned--back into the hall. I don't get it, but I saw it with my own eyes.



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  • If only your premise were true - jdaniel 09:20:32 04/12/07 (1)


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