Albie:

>Sheesh...  if that's how it went and he was genuinely satisfied and stayed
>that way for years, then congrats...  He da man!:-)

I've loved the pieces I mentioned, myself, for decades.

>What I gotta wonder, though, is *how* he did this? Most of the works you
>listed, particularly near the start, get pretty much NO play at all...  how
>did he come across all these works that he immediately clicked with as a
>newbie...  was it hit after hit...  or a hit-and-a-*lot*-of-miss.  So hard
>to try-before-you-buy with non-standard rep.  Also, why did he avoid the
>standard rep guys for so long (not even listen to them once??) when they
>are so much more widely available?

It was hit after hit.  This was way back in the late '50s and there was a
radio station in New York--not WQXR--WNYC I think, that played them.  Then
he noticed that Mercury and, especially, Howard Hanson, recorded a lot of
the kind of music he liked.  BTW, he now lives in Eugene, Oregon and goes
up to Seattle to hear Gerard Schwarz play some of this same repertoire.

Jim Tobin