Barrett Reynolds wrote:

>...  That's why I wanted to ask, as seasoned veterans of collecting,
>are many of us loyal to a particular label, orchestra, or conductor?  I
>ask this because, in my brief history buying these CD's, I've developed
>a particular fondness (almost a fettish) for any CD which boasts the
>golden Deutsche Grammophon label.  If it's good enough for Alex in "A
>Clockwork Orange", it's good enough for me!  But besides that, this
>seems to be the most consistently great label that I have found, and it
>occupies almost 90% of my collection.  Anybody else have any favorites?

I used to feel that way about EMI and Philips.  As I've gotten older,
I've discovered that, except for egregiously bad performances (of which
there don't seem to be that many) it doesn't matter that much to me.
For musically untrained me, perceivable differences in performance are
simply different ways of presenting a mucical work that I like...or don't
like.  It's the music more than the performer.  If it's a work I know,
I hear it in my own idealized way (probably as it was performed when I
heard it for the first time) almost independently of the interpretation.
If it's a work I don't know, I really have no way of judging the
interpretation.  I suppose that, if I don't like it, I should reserve
judgment until I hear a different interpretation, something I might do
if a particular alternate interpretation is sufficiently praised.

Walter Meyer