Kevin Sutton wrote:

>This brings me to one of my major pet peeves about many a music lover.
>What ever happened to going to the record store and grabbing something
>totally unknown to you and giving it a try just for adventure?

I am an extremely adventurous purchaser and in most cases I have
been able to be that way spending far less than $15-$19 a CD.  There are
discount labels of course, but the best thing, what I really love, are the
used CD bins.  All sorts of wonderful things find their way into the used
bins, even in stores that are otherwise nearly barren of classical music.

So I compulsively scan the used CD bins anywhere I happen to find them.
This is how I was introduced to the music of William Alwyn, John Biggs,
Diana Burrell,Alfredo Casella, Marcel Landowski, Guillaume Lekeu, Boris
Lyatoshynsky, Frank Martin, Peter Mennin, Pers Norgard, and Galina
Ustvolskaya among a number of other composers of varying degrees of
obscurity.  I love discovering a new composer.  Rarely, do I find that
there is nothing I cannot enjoy of someone's music.  And if I absolutely
hate a disc..and extremely rare occurrence...well, little is lost,
especially since I can usually trade exchange it for something else.

I've also picked up some great recordings of unfamiliar music by better
known composers, my absolute favorite in this category being a Japanese
produced recording of short orchestral pieces by Martinu that is just
riveting.

John Parker
Tucson, Arizona