that thrill of discovery

Last week I bought the Poulenc Gloria and Stabat Mater (Georges Prêtre cond., with Victoria de los Angeles). I know I like Poulenc, and Prêtre, so I didn't really buy a cat in a sack, but I had never heard these particular works. I put the disc in the cd player, wondering what it would sound like.

For the next hour I was transported off of this planet, into heavens. What delicious music, what great phrasing, what joy and jubilation in the Gloria, what sorrow and pity in the Stabat Mater!

I also felt very proud of myself that I had 'discovered' this disc, and that I had know beforehand that I would like it. This strange, self-congratulary thrill is what I like most about buying new music.

Is it because I am still a beginner, compared to most of you? My knowledge of the classical catalogue is modest, to say the least, and my collection of cd's is laughably small. Do people who own thousands of discs still get this thrill from time to time?

Yes, but not often enough. And for the thrill to be complete, it has to be, not just a performance one has never heard, but a piece. On the other hand, when I first heard the Allegri Quartet's performances of Haydn's Op. 42, Op. 54, and Op. 55, they knocked my socks off even though I already knew the pieces. (In fact, I had been listening to an excellent Juilliard Quartet Op. 54 at the time, never believing that I could ever like any other Op. 54 as much, when the Allegri came along to prove me wrong.)

-david gable

I'm pretty young (24), but I'm often finding new wonderful music to get that 'thrill', and sometimes a performance makes all the difference

500, almost all of which I've

Whose version?

Tjeknavorian?

Oops, that must be Barbara Hendrickx. De los Angeles is featured on the Prêtre Enfance du Christ, which I also bought but still have to listen to.

I'm not sure there is a L'enfance du Christe with Prêtre. De los Angeles recorded it with Cluytens.

-david gable

to.

Indeed, you're totally right, that was a double brain fart... Thanks for correcting me!

I did listen to the Cluytens Enfance du Christ today, and it's very much worth having.

I was thinking about this again, while sorting out the Prêtre/Cluytens/De los Angeles/Hendricks-mess I made, and I discovered that there's a second thrill involved: finding these really good discs at a really low price. The Poulenc Gloria (Prêtre/Hendricks) was 5 euro, the Berlioz Enfance du Christ (Cluytens/De los Angeles) was 7 euro (double disc). Even Naxoi are usually more expensive.

I bought them in a store most classical music lovers wouldn't even dream of entering. It's called 'Mega Disc 500' and advertises as 'the cheapest cd store in Antwerp' with 'Over 50.000 cd's & dvd's'. They also sell underpants, toothbrushes, cheap jewelry, bowling shoes, ... They play techno or pan flute music. Most cd's are sorted on long tables, and are 50s/60s/70s/80s collections, hit box collecions, Abba's Gold Hits, stuff like that. And then, in the back, somewhere in a dark corner, next to the 18+ DVD section, they have a small but really decent and ultra-cheap collection of classical music.

It's my own little treasure hall

[snip]

By telling us that one can buy bowling shoes, and thus presumably go bowling, in Antwerp you've provided my thrill of discovery for the day!

Only orchestral musician but I am thrilled that you are thrilled. That (in my opinion) is what music is for: to thrill a person. Just one will do (that's all a composer writes for, I suspect) but if a beginner (and I envy you) you need to learn that other people will tell you that what thrills you should not thrill you (and they may add learning, scholarship, and any number of beguiling facts to back that assertion).

I suggest you trust your own judgment. We may BOTH be wrong but at the end of the day it is our judgment (flawed or not) and that is the only one that matters.

Poulenc was indeed a great composer (or NOT, depending upon whether our mutual judgments are right or wrong).

Poulenc still thrills me but not others. It really doesn't matter if there are just the two of us (but I THINK there are a few more). But if there are not a few more that does not matter either.

Kind regards, Alan M. Watkins