Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas part 3: re-gifting and music

In my family we have another tradition to reduce the crass consumerism (and increase the laziness factor) of the season: re-gifting. Instead of buying each other gifts we mostly just give each other things we already own. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you'll get something you tried to get rid of the year before. Re-gifting at its finest!

CDs are common currency among re-gifters in my family (with a cameo this year from clementines, since we bought about a thousand by accident). Since we all like the same sorts of music, or at least there are areas of overlap, this works out pretty well. This year it gives me opportunity to launch a new blog theme: recordings I love to regift because they're the best ever!



It really annoys me how every CD on Amazon has a five star-rating, due to--I can only hope--a combination of ignorance and selection bias. But really...those reviews are unhelpful. Sometimes they actually make me so irrationally angry I have to write my own, for instance for the Beaux Arts Trio recording of the Dvorak trios. [That's actually a really funny story! I'll have to tell it again another time.]

Anyway, the recordings I'll write about are not only worthy of five stars in my humble opinion, but generally changed my whole perspective regarding the music they contain--or music in general! Up first: Ivan Moravec plays Chopin ballades and mazurkas....



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