To all concerned, I have noticed that lately the large majority of
recordings that I have purchased have been New recordings.  In the past
week, I purchased Schumann Quartetts from the St.  Lawrence String Quartet
on EMI and Mozart Piano Ctos.  #9 & #25 from Richard Goode and the Orpheus
Chamber Orchestra.  I have also picked the recent recordings of Mahler #3
and #7 on the Teldec label.  In addition, I still buy many Naxos recordings
and have been very happy with most of the pieces from their "American
Classics" series.

I have been very pleased with all of these purchases and I think my point
is that there are talented artists out there and there is good music being
released.  I think that we have been spending too much time in this group
complaining about all the problems in the CM marketplace and not enough
time praising living artists who keep CM alive.  Also, I have enjoyed many
of the Proms broadcasts that I have been able to catch over the Internet,
although, I wish that the sound could be better.  Again, however, the point
is that there are musicians out there who have interesting things to say.

I say do your part to support CM by voting with your pocketbook and
supporting struggling artists by giving them the chance they need.
I have been very happy with the new music that I have invested in.

Steve M.