Music PWing

[navneeth]

Dump all your random comments/thoughts on classical music, which neither belongs to the comments on B.com selections thread nor deserves a separate thread. Leave the origianal post-whore thread for hard-core pwing.
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I don't think I can ever listen to Haydn's 5th string quartet without picturing Michael Schumacher jumping on the top step of the podium.

[navneeth]

Msitislav Rostropovich is officially an octogenarian.

[Shapley]

Is Jo Sumi's last name or not?

I tried to find one of her CD's at the store, and it was in the "S" rack instead of the "J".

Well, okay, I'm not really mad about it, I just thought I'd ask the question.

[Catmando]

Msitislav Rostropovich is officially an octogenarian.

Wow, I can't imagine just being on a strict octopus diet.

[Shapley]

When you buy CD's online, you don't have to wrestle with that annoying security tape that is so hard to remove...

[Catmando]

Actually, sometimes they are still wrapped with that extra lining of tape on the top part, which is really irritating.

[Shapley]

I had accepted them as a fact of life, and then I recieved a CD of Prof. Peter Schickele's musis and a violin CD which I had ordered from B & N. I noticed when I opened them that there was no security tape to wrestle with.

I just had to share my joy online!

BTW, I first became aware of Prof. Schickele's non-PDQ music listening to B.com. This is the third CD of his I've purchased. It may be a small amount of royalties, but they wouldn't be getting it if not for internet radio.

The RIAA and the CRB will be doing their members a grave disservice if they succeed in killing internet radio.

[barfle]

Is Jo Sumi's last name or not?

I tried to find one of her CD's at the store, and it was in the "S" rack instead of the "J".

I've only heard her sing one piece, and based on that, I'll pass.

[navneeth]

When you buy CD's online, you don't have to wrestle with that annoying security tape that is so hard to remove...

Are you referring to that really thin, transparent tape thingy?

The thing that's more irritating to me are those stickers stuck directly on the case with the Indian price on them(I find this mainly on EMI CDs). Obviously, I wouldn't want them on the cover, and when I try to remove them, some of the sticky paper wouldn't come off.

[Shapley]

The transparent tape is on all CD's, whether you buy it online or not. It's relatively easy to remove.

The security tape is a (usually) white strip stuck to the top edge or, on some CD's, stuck to all three opening edges. They have a corner marked "pull" which is stuck just as securely as the other three corners. I've decided the 'pull' was put on there as a sort of cruel joke. The only way to remove them easily is to cut them with knife down the middle and then pull the two halves apart, except that they will usually tear into tiny pieces, each of which has to be removed seperately. The glue is very sticky, so the removed pieces will adhere to your fingers, the knife, the plastic wrap that you've already removed, and anything else you allow them to come into contact with.

I was quite relieved to find that I didn't have to wrestle them off of the CD's I purchased online...

[navneeth]

The security tape is a (usually) white strip stuck to the top edge or, on some CD's, stuck to all three opening edges. They have a corner marked "pull" which is stuck just as securely as the other three corners. I've decided the 'pull' was put on there as a sort of cruel joke. The only way to remove them easily is to cut them with knife down the middle and then pull the two halves apart, except that they will usually tear into tiny pieces, each of which has to be removed seperately. The glue is very sticky, so the removed pieces will adhere to your fingers, the knife, the plastic wrap that you've already removed, and anything else you allow them to come into contact with.

I think I found those on a couple of CD's I have. These are the compilation ones (25 Favorites from Vox) that were bought in the US. But only one of the three opening edges had them - white tape, with the album name and the bar code.

[Shapley]

Those are the ones. There are security monitoring devices at the entrances/exits to music stores here. If a CD passes through them without the security tape having been de-activated (which is done at the register during check-out), they sound an alarm. They are placed under the shrink-wrap and then made very difficult to remove to prevent thieves from slipping them off quickly. I think part of the reason they are made to stick to everything is so that a thief, even if he succeeds in removing them in the store, may find them stuck to his trousers or shirt or something when he tries to sneak the CD out the store, and it will still set off the alarm.

They don't really stop the dedicated thief, who devotes his life to finding ways around such measures, but they stop many of the casual shoplifters, which are thought to be the biggest part of the theft problem here in America.

Some people just don't want to plop down $10 - $25 for a CD...

[navneeth]

At the store I buy CDs from, a sort of thick piece of cardboard, or some similar material, with the bar code is stuck on the already wrapped CD/Cassette, and the whole thing is wrapped again.

[Shapley]

Yes, that is the low-tech solution to shoplifting - simply make the package too large to fit into a pocket or under a shirt. This probably works well in India, where normal outer wear is usually light. The problem here is that people wear heavy coats in the winter (and some people wear them most of the year), and our privacy concerns usually prohibit searching them unless there is some evidence (video camera or visual observation) that they have stolen something. Thus, the high-tech security strip allows the product to identify itself if someone tries to take it out the door without payment.

[navneeth]

????

It's thick (a couple of millimetres) but not large . Think of it as a thick sticky strip a few cms long. It does the same job. These shops have the detectors at the exit.

[Shapley]

Sorry, I misunderstood.

Some stores here attach them to large panels of cardboard, as I mentioned. This is common in stores that re-sell used CD's and tapes, that don't want to invest in the high-tech monitoring system. I though that was what you were describing.

Software is often packaged in a big box, such as you used to get when there was a manual and other items inside, at the center of which is a simple CD case and nothing else. It's the same general idea - make the box to cumbersome to conceal.

V/R
Shapley

[Catmando]

Upon some reflection on my ho-hum drive from work to home, listening to a Brahms' symphony, it came upon me.......

Wouldn't it have been neat if Mendelssohn had a included a little 'bit o' bagpipe in his "Scottish" symphony? Perhaps at the start of the 1st movement?

[Catmando]

Increasingly becoming a favorite work of mine is:

Variations on a theme by Joseph Haydn - by Johannes Brahms

PS - Unfortunately was unable to catch the 8PM Saturday night at the Opera. Will miss most of them as I'm usually out and about on Saturday evenings.

[navneeth]

I've seen pictures of him with the violin before, but this is a new one.

[Shapley]

These are comments on classical music attributed to Albert Einstein:

(1) Bach, Mozart, and some old Italian and English composers are my favorites in music: Beethoven considerably less — but certainly Schubert.

(2) It is impossible for me to say whether Bach or Mozart means more to me. In music I do not look for logic. I am quite intuitive on the whole and know no theories. I never like a work if I cannot intuitively grasp its inner unity (architecture).

(3) I always feel that Handel is good — even perfect — but that he has a certain shallowness. Beethoven is for me too dramatic and too personal.

(4) Schubert is one of my favorites because of his superlative ability to express emotion and his enormous powers of melodic invention. But in his larger works I am disturbed by a certain lack of architectonics.

(5) Schumann is attractive to me in his smaller works because of their originality and richness of feeling, but his lack of formal greatness prevents my full enjoyment. In Mendelssohn I perceive considerable talent but an indefinable lack of depth that often leads to banality.

(6) I find a few lieder and chamber works by Brahms truly significant, also in their structure. But most of his works have for me no inner persuasiveness. I do not understand why it was necessary to write them.

(7) I admire Wagner's inventiveness, but I see his lack of architectural structure as decadence. Moreover, to me his musical personality is indescribably offensive so that for the most part I can listen to him only with disgust.

(8 ) I feel that [Richard] Strauss is gifted, but without inner truth and concerned only with outside effects I cannot say that I care nothing for modern music in general. I feel that Debussy is delicately colorful but shows a poverty of structure. I cannot work up great enthusiasm for something of that sort.