| LISTENERS' BOX February 5, 2002
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Very much enjoyed discovering your site and reading about the lack of decline of classical music recording. We have struggled with this ourselves in the bookstore, trying to keep a small but tasty selection of titles available for sale during a time when production is shrinking and distributors are going bankrupt. When my string quartet (Mendocino String Quartet) is researching new things to perform we often find even mainstream pieces out of print or out of stock indefinitely. I'd like to add that independent bookstores and independent music stores - esp. in rural areas such as Mendocino, but elsewhere also -- are happy to and good at finding and ordering special requests for customers. In our case, what people ask for is in part our guide to what we should be stocking. I would have appreciated in Michelle's article some live links to the companies she mentions. Thank you for a most interesting place to browse on the Internet. I'll be back often. Best, Reading your "The Crisis That Isn't" prompts me to say I concur — classical music and classical recordings are alive and well around the around the world. The saddest part of it all is that young people and students no longer have any real or continued exposure to classical music, which of course means that fewer and fewer of them choose to buy it on CDs. As "standardized" testing takes over the educational landscape through grammar school and high school, arts and humanity "skills" aren't being tested for -- read: aren't being funded, therefore aren't being offered, even as electives! While the number of people buying classical CDs remains about the same, that number is shrinking dramatically as a percentage of the growing total population. It's very sad. I have just discovered your organization and have enjoyed reading many of your reviews. |