I've been doing very well in recent weeks restricting my music purchases to
recordings I must have, those I want to have, and those that I might have
an interest in.  On this particular day, all restrictions were off the
board.

Albuquerque is, with little exception, a sunny and dry town.  But, lately
there's been much bad weather which was capped off today with howling cold
winds and rain.  In this town, that type of weather really gets people
depressed and they start behaving in strange ways.  I knew when I woke
up this morning that I'd be better off staying home, but various work
requirements led me to the office.  That was a bad move.  I have eight
employees, and most of them were going bonkers.  My secretary and a realty
expert got into a shouting match over who is responsible for putting
staples in the electric stapler (I thought nobody even used the damn
thing).  Another realty type started crying profusely when she decided
that her "golden" work years should involve no stress.  The budget expert,
who can't tolerate crying, went home in a huff.  My youngest employee
decided to run down a flight of stairs two at a time, and just ended
up tumbling to the bottom.  His wife was called, and she took him home.
My most reasonable worker got a call from his wife telling him that she
couldn't stand living any more, so he went home.  That just left two of us;
I said to her, "Let's get the hell out of here before we go beserk".  I was
just going to go home, but I felt ragged from the work folks and needed a
big lift, so I hit the record stores.  It felt so good buying Klemperer's
Mahler 4th, Handel Italian Cantatas from Eva Mei/Il Giardino Armonico,
Handel German Arias from Dorothea Roschmann, Beethoven's 5th piano concerto
from Uchida, Beethoven's last three symphonies from Kubelik, Haydn piano
concertos from Andsnes, David Lasry on an 1874 Erard piano doing Debussy's
Preludes, and the violin sonatas of Delius played by Tasmin Little and
Piers Lane.  That made me feel better and more grounded.

When I got home, I had no idea if the weather was impacting my wife, but
Ellen Jane was her usual earthy and upbeat self.  I told her of the work
day, and she was clearly sympathetic to my feelings.  I didn't say a word
about the cd's I bought which are still stuffed in my car's glove
compartment.

But, on the way home I did some listening to the Handel/Roschmann and
Delius discs.  Someone on the list recently mentioned "sweet" music and
how it is less appreciated these days.  Delius violin sonatas are very
sweet indeed - something to possibly get used to.  Roschmann sounded
great.  She has a deep and gorgeous soprano voice which comes close to a
mezzo-soprano. I often complain some about many of the female vocalists
currently performing Baroque repertoire, but Roschmann is a treasure.
She puts Schlick, Argenta, and many others to shame.

Tomorrow we go horse-back riding, weather allowing, and I sure hope that
the horses display more sense than the people I work with.

Don Satz
[log in to unmask]

 [Those darn horses don't have a glove compartment to hide your CDs.
 What will you do?:-)  -Dave]