I am in total awe of Chirstopher Nupen’s film that follows the rehersals and subsequent preformance of Schubert’s Trout Quintet in A major by what seems to be the ultimate chamber ensemble captured in a different time and in their twenties at the outset of their extraordinary careers.

The musicians, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Pinchas Zukerman, Jacqueline du Pré, and Daniel Barenboim (the self proclaimed Jewish Musical Mafia) are captured with great authenticity early in their careers. The film is haunting in the way it captures the group -so young - especially Jacqueline du Pré who’s ability and passion is amplified by the knowledge of the tragic future that awaits her. Seeing the young Perlman too, is quite moving - his shear virtuosity, and emotional playing seems so pure as we watch him with the perspective of the years that have passed since the performance.

If you haven’t seen this film recently, or at all. I would highly recommend you check it out as it is a rare chance to see an unrivaled ensemble of talent in a film that captures the essence of being a classical musician in the sixties.

As of late I have become increasingly frustrated by the dwindling classical selection at music selling establishments. I live in Ottawa, Canada a city with a metropolitan area of over one million people and there is only a single music store that has an acceptable classical section where one can find most recent recordings and many popular recordings. Unfortunately even at this the best store in area it is unlikely one will find anything even on the fringes of obscure. For example a few months ago I was looking for “Mendelssohn: The Complete String Quartets” to no avail, previous to that I was after “Glass: Etudes for Piano, Vol. 1, Nos. 1-10″ again no luck. These are not “obscure” recordings by my estimation, but in a city of one million, not available. Probably one in four visits I find what I am looking for.

If the above was the standard shop or the middle of the road store I wouldn’t be complaining but in Ottawa, at any other shop, the classical section ranges from a full shelf, to a single row on a shelf, to nothing at all. But then there is my personal music store pet peeve - The Naxos Shelf. Nothing against Naxos because they do have some good recordings and I applaud them for their dedication to Classical, thank god for companies like them, but in my opinion the shelf does not sufficiently constitute a classical music section. Ten years ago CDs stores often had a completely soundproof area separate from the rest of the store for Classical / New age crowd. I don’t know when it started happening but it seems classical sections are being removed or scaled down, and as a result I buy less music. Logic indicates that this wouldn’t be happening if people were buying but perhaps this is a localized manifestation of Say’s Law (which states that there can be no demand without supply). More study required.

In any event I end up ordering CDs from the Internet that end up costing me $5 - $10 more when shipping is added, not to mention the wasted fuel and time going to the brick and mortar establishments to be disappointed. I wonder if this is the case in other cities or what the situation is like in Europe… If you have some insight feel free to comment.

As of this morning the much revered Andante.com has ceased operations. The site, started in March 2001 aspired to be the number one classical music website on the Internet and a leader in digital downloads of classical music. Andante featured an online store selling the Andante label’s archival CDs, a web magazine with news, reviews, interviews, and essays from a stable of top critics, concert listings and a selection of streaming music files.

Andante was founded by Alain Coblence and Pierre Bergé, a co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent and the former chair of the Paris Opera, and later sold in October 2003 to the French record label Naïve.

In recent months the site experienced significant technical problems leading to days of down time, and infrequent content updates. In the last days the site relyed on archived content - ironically the same content that contributed to the site’s previous success.

[From: Playbill Arts]