When this album was released, I felt a bit of Jam and Lewis fatigue. After doing right by Janet Jackson and the Human League (somewhat), the production duo seemed to be everywhere. Of course, 30 years later, I picked up this album at the thrift store because Jam and Lewis are on it.
Yo Majesty, Return of the Matriarch
It doesn’t feel like they went away.
Dmitri Shostakovich, The Symphonies (Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Bernard Haitink)
I’m incredibly familiar with the 15 string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich, but I’ve been ambivalent about his symphonies. So I’ve been picking up Shostakovich symphony albums piecemeal when they show up at the thrift stores. I finally lucked into a box set at the now-defunct Seattle location of Everyday Music.
Of course, I have to agree with consensus about the fifth symphony. I don’t think the seventh is actually that great, but I do like the crunchiness of the eighth.
Arditti Quartet, Arditti
I’ve actually wanted to own this album for a long time, given its proximate release to Kronos Quartet’s first few major label albums. But the flow of time made me forget about this album till I saw it at Everyday Music before the store’s closure. (I do own a disc of Ligeti quartets on which Arditti performs.) I don’t want to enter the debate about which quartet is “better”, but I can understand critics who would side with Arditti.
I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.
The monthly $0.10 CD Sale at Lifelong Thrift Shop was particular fruitful where classical music is concerned.
Catalog
CD
Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 4 (Herbert Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic)
Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 9 (Christoph Dohnányi, Cleveland Orchestra)
Benjamin Britten, Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo / Music of Bali / British Folk Songs (Benjamin Britten; Peter Pears)
Benjamin Britten, String Quartets Nos. 1 & 3 / Alla marcia / Three Divertimenti (Sorell Quartet)
Clara Schumann, Complete Works for Piano 3 (Jozef De Beenhouwer)
Dmitri Shostakovich / Sergei Prokofiev, Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 / Prokofiev: The Love for Three Oranges (Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra)
Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 6 / Theme and Variations / Scherzo / Suite “Alone” (Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra)
Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 7 (Yuri Temirkanov, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra)
Emerson String Quartet, Bach: The Art of Fugue
Fugazi, The Argument
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 1 (Sir Georg Solti, Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
Percy Grainger, Themes of Grainger (Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Ensemble)
Peter Lawson, American Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1
Sam Smith, The Thrill of It All (Deluxe Edition)
Samuel Barber, Music of Samuel Barber (Leonard Slatkin, St. Louis Symphony)
Samuel Barber / Charles Ives / Aaron Copland, Barber: Adagio for Strings / Ives: Symphony No. 3 / Copland: Quiet City (Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Sir Neville Marriner)