Naxos Frenzy....

After last night’s late e-bay session, I was up late today (by my usual standards anyway) at around 9. While Anne got ready to go out, I quickly compiled a new compilation CD for the car. The last couple I’ve based purely on the length of the track – around one minute to one minute thirty and around two minutes. This time, although I limited myself to tracks lasting between 3:59 and 4:01, I also chose the songs themselves for, shall we say, entertainment value…and so it was good and it did indeed entertain us as we drove to Patisserie Florentin for breakfast which was leisurely, relaxing and tasty.

We took a wander into Stockbridge where I indulged my obsessive compulsive disorder by once again trawling the shelves of discarded CDs at the Oxfam Music shop while Anne took a more cosmopolitan view of the verb “to shop”.

For a mere £2.99, I acquired The Palladin Ensemble’s release “An Excess Of Pleasure” which, according to their website, but I personally can’t remember, was Gramophone "Critic's Choice" of 1993 and won the Diapson D'or award that year after being released to unanimous praise. It featured in the UK classical charts throughout 1993.

So it’s quite a good record….it features music written by a variety of composers during the 17th Century and the ensemble is a four-piece band featuring one of my favourite instruments, the viol da gamba.

Then it was down to Leith and the Ocean Terminal Mall. We’ve been here a few times recently, mostly to go to the cinema but today we were here to shop. As you might expect however, I got caught up in HMV for an hour or so and after much deliberation finally emerged for a quick stroll round the rest of the centre with a copy of “The Best of The Shangri Las” and the new remix CD single of Yes’ 1983 hit, “Owner of a Lonely Heart”.

Anne had had a good time shopping for clothes and made a couple of purchases, one from a designer shop called “Jane Norman” which had a delightful sideline in fluorescent green bags. The skirt contained therein certainly passed the test of loveliness in my book.

I had been swithering in HMV whether to partake of their cunning marketing campaign encouraging innocent classical music lovers to buy 5 Naxos CDs for £20. Seeing as how Anne had spent as fortune on new clothes and, thus far I’d parted with £9.97, I decided it would be only right for me to even up the score a little (despite the fact that I have been shelling out willy-nilly on e-bay recently). So I returned to HMV and bought five Naxos CDs….but I chose carefully, looking for items which interested me in particular.

The first was a disc of three violin concertos composed by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1739-1799). I was surprised to see a coloured 18th Century composer and this sparked my curiosity. His is an interesting story indeed and you can read it here (http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/default.asp?pn=Composers&char=S&ComposerID=1843) - I think it’d make a good film…

The second was a disc of Piano Concertos by Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) whom I’d not heard of before but, apparently, he was among the most important composers of Italian opera in the later 18th century. Again, if you’re interested, you can find his biography under “P” on the Naxos site (http://www.naxos.com/)

The third disc was one of Naxos’ latest, “Spem in alium“ by Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). I’m pretty sure a version of this was included in the recent disc I bought of music by Tallis and John Sheppard. The disc included a free compilation of Early Music from the Naxos catalogue.

I love the oboe and so for my fourth choice, I couldn’t resist a disc of oboe trios by Beethoven (1770-1827) and his contemporary, Anton Wranitsky (1761-1820).

And last but not least a disc of 20th Century music by the American composer, Michael Daugherty (1954-) who’s written pieces with titles such as “Hell¹s Angels”, “Spaghetti Western”, “Time Machine”, “Jackie O”, “Bizarro”, “Motown Metal”, and “Niagara Falls”. I must admit this was another composer I’d not heard of but the disc is quite stunning and features the excellent percussion of Evelyn Glennie in one of the pieces, a suite entitled “UFO”.

So all these discs are recommended by CBQ.

We drove to The Shore looking for lunch and ended up at the small but interesting Leith Market where we bought some French grey bread and some olives (which I don’t like but Anne loves). At a nearby deli I picked up some egg, cheese and salsa to eat with my share of the bread and then we headed home, stopping off at Sainsbury’s for Anne to get some Goat’s Cheese to accompany her olives.

It had been a bit changeable weather wise but sunglasses had been used at the market. By the time we reached home however, a downpour had started and we were glad to be back inside where we relaxed with our “home-made” lunch listening to the Saint-Georges disc.

The rest of the day was spent buggering about on the computer, mainly transferring all my recent purchases to the jukebox (and another Uriah Heep disc secured on e-bay) interspersed with bouts of guitar playing and telly watching – Dr Who (looks like another Dalek episode is coming up next week – it’s been a great series); CSI New York; Law & Order Criminal Intent and the highlights of Scotland’s glorious 2-0 trouncing of the mighty Moldova.

Then an early night for me at 12:30 am…

What a good day!