Checking out my purchase of a portable radio at Circuit City (a local
discount appliance chain) I saw a bin of off brand classical CD's at $1.99
each.  Figuring I didn't have much to lose, I bought three and am now in
the middle of listening to the second.

The first two are both Chopin CDs.  The one I've finished listening to
contains 12 items, three of which are movements from larger works (the
two concertos and the funeral march from the second sonata).  The CD
lists the artists as Pogorelich, Bunin, Argerich, Harasiewicz, Varjon, and
Jablonski...and fails to identify who plays what.  I suspect many reading
this would immediately recognize most, if not all, of the artists w/out
such program guidance, but I confess that I could not.  Nor, on reflection,
do I really care.  For two bucks, I've just heard some magnificent Chopin.
(Even my wife thinks it's almost as good as Schubert, on whom she seems to
have developed a fixation!) (Delta 14 536)

But that's not all.  I'm now listening to the other Chopin CD, containing
assorted etudes, scherzos, mazurkas, a nocturne and a waltz.  Played by
Krzystof Jablonski, Yuval Fichman, Jean-Marc Luisada, and Kemal Gekic, all
from the 11th International Chopin Competition, Warsaw 1985).  This time
the artists are linked to the works they play.  I'd not heard of Jablonski
before and am enjoying his playing of the Nocturne in B, Op. 9, No. 3, the
Etudes in Gb major, Op. 10, No. 5 and b minor, Op. 25, No. 1, and the
Scherzo No. 1 in b minor, Op. 20, which I'm listening to now.  (Music
Digital 31 005)

The third CD still remains to be listened to.  "American Portraits"
featuring Barber's Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 and Serenade for Strings Op.
1, played by the Budapest Strings, and Medea's Meditation and Dance of
Vengeance played by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Marriner;
Villa-Lobos' Brasilian Dance played on the guitar by Rita Honti; and
Marriner leading the Stuttgart Radio symphony Orchestra again in Copland's
El Salon Mexico.  (LaserLight 12 472)

Walter Meyer