Klassiske Komponister – Classical Music for the newbie

Last month, I bought a large collection of classical music CDs. Actually 67 in all and were presented in wonderful horizontal wooden stand. I thought that these would go nicely with my Bang and Olufsen BeoSound Ouverture with CD stand (that provides clutter-less CD environment. I just love it. Best B&O furniture ever) but sadly they don’t fit and are too tall. Oh well at least I have the wooden stand.

The collection or series is called in Danish “Klassiske Komponister” or translated to Classical Composers and is a wonderful introduction into the world of classical music. It was published in 2004 by International Masters Publishers, Delta Music Plc., Retrospective Recordings Ltd.

Each composer is divided by genre and defined by their masterpieces, for example with Beethoven you get his Fifth Symphony as No.1 and Piano Sonata No. 14, aka. Moonlight Sonata as No.2 on the track CD. Mozart is interesting enough contains The Marriage of Figaro as No.1 and Clarinet Concerto In A Major K 622 as No. 2, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik as No.6 and Requiem as No.10. So you get all his best pieces.

I am teaching my seven year-old niece about classical music – she loves Beethoven – and I’ve been looking for something like this for years. It can be daunting for those wanting to listen to classical music but don’t know where to start. This is where this series is absolute best.

Each CD contains a small biographical booklet so you can learn more about the composer’s life and background of each classical piece. It really is perfect and convenient; and the little ones can easily learn to recognise a couple of classical pieces quickly with general Q&A games that we sometimes do. I usually take one or two composers with me for listening when I drive to work in the morning. My niece plays Classical-DJ and decides which piece to listen. It really is a great way to learn.

There are about 12 tracks on a given CD – all the best collected, conveniently for the newbie who is starting out listening to classical music for the first time or the devotee that’s looking for an enticing all-round collection of the best masterpieces of the world’s best classical composers.

I highly recommend this. It’s a wonderful collection. If only I knew more about it. I would love to know how many originally were issued.

Good listening.

My new B&O BeoSound Ouverture

BeoSound Ouverture was manufactured between 1994 – 2003. Designed by David Lewis it replaced the Beocenter 2500 in 1994 and comprised a CD player and cassette recorder, Stereo FM and AM radio with connections for Power Link and (later) MasterLink. This product was born with two names: BeoSound Ouverture in Europe and BeoSound 4000 for the rest of the world. My second Bang and Olufsen product is the BeoSound Ouverture (the first was B&O BeoCenter 1 that I blogged about earlier). The Ouverture is really a beauty and they are dead cheap second hand. The one I acquired is black and not purple unfortunately. I also managed to find a B&O CD stand that was specifically made for the BeoSound  Ouverture/2500/3000/3200 and it works very well to hide my CD collection. Not sure what the official name of the stand is. It’s the same one in the picture above but in grey.

I’m so happy that everyone’s gone over to digital streaming, Spotify, Wimp and all that; it suits me fine. I don’t really care for streaming; it’s because you don’t really own the music you’re playing – you pay to lease it and when you cancel your subscription, your collection and albums that you’ve meticulously used hours to find, favourite and save gets wiped out in seconds. And what’s the point of streaming over the internet – the bitrate is much lower compared to a physical CD. Like books and physical things there is something wonderful about CDs, to takes things slow, browse your CD collection, contemplate, choose, open, insert and press play. I don’t have any speakers yet. I’m still looking on acquiring a second hand set of Beolab 6000 speakers but they’re expensive and I’m waiting for the right price. A cheap price that is! But everything is slowly gathering pace.