D. Stephen Heersink quotes Alex Ross's recent music column in the New Yorker:

>"Recordings, in short, are fetish objects, sublimations of a solitary,
>most male desire.

Should I care what someone who wrote that he doesn't like the Elgar First
Symphony thinks? (I think it was Mr. Ross.)

And David Harbin wrote:

>Can I ask: do you think that someone can become addicted to buying
>classical CDs?

Isn't everyone?

As a friend said, it's better than having a boat. Think about it.

>Do you get a rush of adrenalin when you savour the thought of that next
>purchase?

I'm jaded. Only the actual hunt and purchase gets my adrenalin growing. I'm
a man of action.

>Has your collection grown so large that you couldn't possibly listen to
>half of it again in a month?

My collection is so large that I will never hear all of it again (and some
for the first time) in my lifetime.

I have so many LPs that it makes moving a nightmare.

I wish I had more.

>Do you feel just a tiny bit embarrassed, wondering where all of the money
>has gone, when you take a guilty glance at those piles of CD cases?

No. I'm just glad that I play the trombone and not string bass. A great
trombone costs $2,500. I know a string bass player with a $35,000
instrument. And I'm guessing that's a cheap one. How can a string player
afford a huge collection of recordings? That's what I'm curious about.

Oh God. My wife's starting to clamor for a new viola.

>Do you think that the process of purchasing and buying the CD has
>overtaken the enjoyment of the music itself?

A friend of mine put it well as we drove back from Berkshire Record OUtlet
after two big hauls. "Hey, now that I've got this stuff, who cares about
it? I could throw it out the window and go back and spend $300 more."

>... As a challenge is there anyone out there who wants to join me and not
>buy any CDs for the last 6 months of this year?

No.

>Perhaps we can email each other fortifying encouragement when the lure of
>the bargin bin, internet sites or the high street CD store alomost gets too
>much.

I'd consider it spam.

>Laying down the gauntlet,

If it contains Jochum's Beethoven Symphonies with the LSO on English or
Japanese Vinyl or good clean EMI pressings of Cluyten's Berlin set, I'll
write you a check.

Roger Hecht