Brownsfan, in response, let me explain that I've been a life-long music lover, but growing up I came from the jazz, R&B side of music. When I entered the workforce in the mid-80's, my company sublet office space to a division of Polydor records, and their employees could buy CD's (all the new rage!) for $5 each. They offered me the opportunity, and with the help of a colleague, I bought what I was advised was basic repertoire classical music, more because I couldn't pass up a good deal than any real love for the music. In the ensuing years, I listened a bit to Mozart and Beethoven and others more as background music, but wasn't really captivated. Fairly recently, someone bought me, as a gift, the CD's of Prof. Greenberg's course on classical music which, to my surprise, I found fascinating. Suddenly, I had an historical context for this music and went back to listening to those old CD's more intently and with greater understanding and appreciation. Then I happened upon a DVD of Abbado and the Berliner Philharmonic of a Beethoven symphony, which I played on my home theater system (different from my two channel set up). For some reason, watching the performance and hearing the orchestra on the more powerful and dynamic (but not as good sounding) home theater, I could appreciate the delicacy, beauty and immense power of the orchestra. I bought the entire Abbado/Berliner cycle on DVD, which I really enjoy. But I can't recreate that same sonic excitement in my two channel room with the old CD's. So I don't really have any experience with multiple recordings of the Beethoven symphonies to know what I find pleasing. It's funny, because buying multiple recordings of the same music is so foreign to me. From a jazz perspective, even if I love the tune "Satin Doll," I wouldn't go out and buy various recordings of that same song to hear different versions. You buy Stan Getz records because you love Stan Getz, and it almost doesn't matter what songs he's playing. I guess that's because jazz is "player's music" whereas classical is "composer's music." In any event, I'm excited to find better sounding recordings of Beethoven and continue my exploration of this (to me) new musical world.
