The Collection Grows

 

During the Great Inadvertent Hopper Hiatus of 2023 I continued my record collecting hobby. It brings me a surprising amount of joy – seeking out quality records of desired works of favorite composers for that sweet spot of price, $6, give or take a few bucks. To date my collection has grown to 30 albums in 13 months, or about a purchase every 13 days. I’m “leasing” Little One’s record player for 25 cents a day and I tend to listen to a record in the evening a couple times a week up in my office after the family’s gone to bed.

In the past six months my collection doubled. Most I’ve picked up myself but a few were gifted to me. All in, I spent $58, or $5.25 a record, on those that I purchased.

What a bargain!

So what were these additions?

Well, Patch bought me four – four! – records for my birthday. Although she knows very little about classical music (just the bare amount she learned from four years playing saxophone in school band), she seems very confident in the albums she selected for me:

 

   Tchaikosky (her favorite composer) – Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 (this is actually the second Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 she bought me, the other being a Christmas gift!)

   Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture, Hamlet Overture, and two lesser-known overtures

   Brahms – Symphony No. 1 in Dm, Op. 68 (perhaps my favorite classical work)

   Mozart – “obras para piano a cuarto manos”, very nice background music for hard mental work

 

I also picked up album versions of some favorites that I first collected twenty years ago on CD:

 

   Holst – The Planets

   Sibelius – Finlandia, Swan of Tuonela, Valse Triste, two other lesser works

   Grieg – Peer Gynt Suite

   Rodrigo – Concerierto de Aranjuez, Fantasía Para un Gentilhombre (classical guitar!)

   Handel – Water Music

 

Purchased a couple of symphonies on a whim:

  

   Haydn – Symphony No. 88 in G, Symphony No. 92 in G (“Oxford”) (I like Haydn.)

   Mahler – Symphony No. 1 in D (I just don’t get Mahler. Believe me, I’ve tried. I have Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” on CD, “Das Lied von der Erde” on CD, and have borrowed Symphonies 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 from local libraries back in the day, to no avail. I think I’m done with Gustav.)

 

And found a record shop in McKinney, Texas, where I took advantage of this sweet deal: one classical record at regular price, the others at 25 cents apiece!

 

   Brahms – Symphony No. 4 in EM, Op. 98

   Dvorak – Symphony No. 5 in Em, Op. 95 (also known as Symphony No. 9)

   Schumann – Symphony No. 3 “Rhenish” in Eb, Op. 97

   Schumann – Symhony No. 4 in Dm, Op. 120

 

Hm. Tonight’s a good night, I think, to put my collection in alphabetical order. Or should it be purchase order? Or compositional chronological order? Decisions, decisions …