A few months ago I tried to order a recording on Sony Classical from my
local shop in Bath, but was told that it had been deleted around the end
of 2003, along with most of the Sony Classical list.  (I recalled hearing
about this purge at the time, but a search shows it wasn't mentioned on
this list).

I held out out hopes of obtaining a copy via the internet and ordered
(over Amazon) a copy from Caiman, which claimed to be able to supply it.
As the weeks went by, I enquired where it had got to and got word-for-word
the same message about it being 'in back order' and arriving in 2-3
weeks.  After 9 weeks Caiman admitted their supplier could not obtain
it so I was back to square one.

I tried again via Amazon's marketplace and this time tried German Music
Express as supplier, noting their claim that the Dutch postal service
is 'one of the world's most efficient'.  Be that as it may, my long-awaited
CD arrived in England within a couple of weeks.

I have no financial or other relationship save that of customer with any
of the companies mentioned.  The moral of the story is I suppose that
if there is a recording on Sony Classical that you've coveted for a
while, to take steps to get it before it's too late and if you don't
succeed with one supplier, to try another.  Can anyone shed any light
on how much of the Sony Classical list was deleted, and did it vary
between countries?

Virginia Knight
Personal homepage: http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/~ggvhk/virginia.html
Blog (mostly about singing): http://edward.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/~cmvhk/blog/