For the last few days I have been listening to a Bach Orgy on the radio. Twice a year, the Harvard Radio Station, WHRB, devotes about a month to special radio programming. Not all of it is classical. Some is Jazz, some is Rock, Blues, Hillbilly. They have had Warhorse Orgies, orgies for a particular performer or monster orgies devoted to the works of one particular composer or genre, or instrument. There have even been comedy orgies. They go on around the clock, and classical music orgies are VERY special! For the first time these orgies can be heard on the internet at <www.whrb.org>! This one will continue till January 18th, and will include ALL of Bach's music available on recording. There will also be live concerts, and interviews with Christoph Wolff, Bach scholar. Imagine this: over 200 hours of Bach, broken only for a soccer game and a live Metropolitan Opera broadcast. This is the third Bach orgy I have listened to. Last one was in '85 I think. Each time I am more impressed. Each time I can see my own taste changed, growing, expanding. And each time, I can not tear myself away from the radio. Thirty years ago, there may have been only one or two recordings available for a particular piece and now there are dozens! Today as I listened, I had a dramatic realization. When I was younger I was far more inflexible in my taste. There was only ONE best performance, only one way something ought to be played. I was especially fussy about violinists, since I was a string player. Today I listened to many different performances of the unaccompanied sonatas and partitas for violin, and the keyboard and violin sonatas. There were some performances that are in my own collection, and some I have never heard before. I heard different performers from very different eras, bowing and fingering in very different styles, giving different interpretations, and producing very different sound qualities (scratches and hisses from the oldest). I heard Szigetti, Milstein, Makarski, Podger, Alice Harnoncourt, Manze, Kuijken, Szeryng, Stepner. There was Romantic Bach and HIP Bach, muscular Bach, dreamy Bach, and it was ALL beautiful and intelligent, meaningful and inspiring. This array of styles and musical fashions was repeated over and over with vocalists, wind players, keyboarders. There were small choirs with little vibrato, and there was a blockbuster Philadelphia Orchestra - Temple University Choir performance of part of the Saint Matthew Passion! There are several sections of the orgy set aside for historical performances. I heard Kirkpatrick on harpsichord and Clavichord, William Kappell on Piano, I could compare Schiff and Gould and many others. And I COULD NOT tear myself away. They were all fantastic. They all said important musical things, and it was all Bach. (The complete program listing is available on their website.) On our MCML, it is not unusual for someone to request advice for the 'best' recording of a particular work. I used to leap in and extoll my favorites, but all the while, I knew it was impossible to chose the "best" of anything, and it was especially difficult to pick something for someone else. The best advice I can give to anyone is "listen to as much as you can, compare, and keep an open mind." The way I have listened today is the most exciting for me. I have been able to hear the best of the best, and know that for every fine performance and performer I 've heard today, there are dozens more that are equally interesting and valuable. I've been listening to "orgies" for over thirty years, and when they are not on the radio, I run my own. I'll borrow performances, buy second hand duplicates of favorite pieces, borrow from the library. I've enjoyed listening to music this way for as long as I can remember. I am so happy that so many college radio stations are going online! I hope many of you will now be able to enjoy these broadcasts as much as I have in the last few decades. (I am looking forward to the Proms on BBC3, too! Untold riches online!) Mimi Ezust <[log in to unmask]> listening to Rostropovich playing Suite #5. Ahhhhhh.