Todd Michel McComb on, uh, suppliers and demanders:

>It sometimes seems as though "the majors" go out of their way to
>releaseonly  their least interesting recordings here.  Should we take it
>as an insult?  I don't know.  Five recordings of Manon Lescaut, and I
*still* can't find one I like.  What is a guy to do???

Todd, first a thank you for your recommendation of Virgin's re-released
"Feast of the Pheasant;" it has provided me with endless amounts of
new-found pleasure.  As has the Savall L'Edition: Mila, Purcell, Handel,
St. Colombe, etc; and Harmonia Mundi's King's Noyse--their "Pavaniglia,"
with the lovely "Voglio di vita uscir" sung by Ellen Hargis--tells me that
my wallet is going to continue to be empty for many years to come.

But...don't you think you're being too hard on the "majors?"  If John Smyth
in Sacramento, CA (circa 2001) can own the complete lute works of John
Dowland, someone must be doing something right.

>It's economics, and it's certainly the case that the American market
>is among the least sophisticated.

My friends would love to get into CM, but they don't know where to begin.
Debussy, Prokofiev, and Holst are as mysterious to them as Dufay,
Praetorius, and Hume are to me.  I make samplers for them and *then* we go
shopping--together.

Years back I had a few "skittish dates," (closeted men), move into 'I gotta
go' mode upon discovering my collection of CM.  (I put out basketballs and
footballs--I thought my apt was balanced enough.) Their problem not mine I
know, but if men cannot reconcile the rigid demands of modern masculinity
with the old-world masculine grace of CM and it's musicians, CM is going to
remain an vague and undeserved liability in the minds of some.

Perhaps it's not just a matter of a lack of sophistication.

John Smyth
http://facelink.com/j66560