A Guide to Buying Classical Music

Buying pop music is easy. You know which piece of music you want? You buy it. There are not, thankfully, ten versions of Miley Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball." The older the music, however, the harder the decision gets. Settling on a piece of music is often the easiest part of buying a CD or MP3 Album.

Let's say I'm off to buy a recording of Tchaikovsky's underrated 2nd Piano Concerto. The first page of an Amazon search result lists over 15 different recordings. And that's just the first page. How should I pick which recording to buy?

Hey Nonny No!

Here's a thought for the day, a 16th century poem expressing contentment with an imperfect world:

Hey nonny no!
Men are fools that wish to die!
Is ‘t not fine to dance and sing
When the bells of death do ring?
Is ‘t not fine to swim in wine,
And turn upon the toe
And sing hey nonny no;
When the winds do blow,
And the seas do flow?
Hey nonny no!

~ Anonymous