Artur Rubinstein Collection

Advantages: Haunting, passionate music to get lost in.
Disadvantages: It's classical and this puts people off before they even try it.

...interrupt it - particularly something as mundane as housework. Floon and I are obviously not alone in finding the quintet special. This music has aroused the passions of many and the notes say” Many musicians have spoken in awe of its spiritual Elysianism, including the pianist Artur Rubinstein (who requested the slow movement be played at his funeral), the great nineteenth-century cellist Alfredo Piatti (who asked for it to be played during his dying hours to send him into the next world), and the renowned quartet leader John Saunders who had the opening seven bars of the first movement’s second subject inscribed on his tombstone above the following Shakespearian quotation (Sonnet XVIII): So long as man can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. String Quintet in C Major, D956 (1828) The title conveys... Read review

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Advantages: Recognisable tunes
Disadvantages: Neither fish nor foul. Best stick to the original

...I was prompted to shake the dust off a neglected corner of my record collection by a review posted by Nar recently. "The True Legacy of a Legendary Musical Divorce?" is about the Album "Legacy, a Tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours" - a CD of cover versions of the songs from the classic Mac album 'Rumours' released in 1977. Nar also said that he was '…forever on the look out for new versions and covers of songs by leading artists known and unknown.'. For completeness then, here is one for his collection and maybe one which may have escaped your attention the first time around. The String Quartet Tribute's declared aim is to concentrate on one well known performer or group at a time and produce classical (instrumental) versions of the songs 'note for note'. Some albums are compendiums of the original's more well known titles; others... Read review

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Advantages: Very exciting and powerful piece of emotional hysteria
Disadvantages: If you're obsessed with classical form and beauty, then this might just be too much

..."FATUM" Pjotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was an unusual Russian composer of the 19th century. He was considered authentically Russian outside his own country, yet was scorned by the nationalist composers of Russia. The Mighty Five of nationalist composers (César Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin and Mily Balakirev) were spearheading the idea of national Russian music as opposed to mainstream German Romanticism that was on the rage in the late 1800's. Their intent was specifically to counteract Anton Rubinstein, a composer known for being very academic and often producing music profoundly dull. This caused them, particularly Balakirev, to seriously suspect the viability of solid academic training, rather opting for music with an "authentic" Russian stamp on it. To them, Tchaikovsky seemed too cosmopolitan... Read review

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