Classical Music for Aficionados

Gs5556,

Schubert Trios arrived today.
Very nice recommendation!
Gorgeous Schubert, expertly played.
At first, fortepiano took some getting used to.
After that, sounded very natural.
Beautifully recorded.

Access to product.
Having purchased Classical CDs since they first started appearing in the early 80s, have seen the many changes that have taken place in the retail environment. These days there are no music stores left that sell new product (remember Tower records?) and you are facing first a decision to follow streaming or acquisition options and then how to find the music you want.
Classical recordings are notable for their ageless qualities. A great performance from the 60s still pleases. Sure there are remarkable improvements in fidelity throughout the last 50 years but ADD recordings can sound convincing on even the best audiophile systems.
So I prefer to buy CDs and have a hard copy even though I rip them into JRiver immediately and just store the original.
With this preference, I am currently ordering new product from Amazon and scouring the two used media outlets in my city for used CDs. We all know that used CDs are as good as new ones and, in conjunction with the ageless quality of classical performances, represent a genuine bargain for the classical aficionado.
Have tried HDTracks and other downloading services and not been pleased. Presto in England has most of the new offerings but their shipment to my state is uncertain and they have not downloaded to the US in the past.
DG is moving into the downloading area and I suspect some other companies are also active.
But I find that most downloading options are limited in the pieces made available.
So I am still visiting the used bins and using Internet reviews to identify new CDs to order from Amazon.
Suspect some of you on this site have found better access to CD product and would appreciate your knowledge.

Half-Price books is good source, here in Twin Cities they must have a dozen stores and the price is right .
My secret source is Berkshire Records on net .Don’t tell anyone else !

To me the LP always sounds better and easy to find here in stores plus  the 10 Goodwill stores within 8 miles of my abode,
I’ll like some feedback this, to ME the difference I hear is there is no air in the hall
on CD and there is on LP, and for ME, that makes all the difference .
Of course , I might be nuts .

Schubert,

  You’re not nuts.  The biggest difference between LPs and CDs is the air around the instruments.

The music of Brahms is often referred to as "autumnal".
Fifty years ago I thought that meant the color of a leaf or something.
Now , in my old age I see it as genius that still draws between the lines, sort of like Rembrandt compared to modern painters who just throw paint
unto a canvas .
Example #1 is his late piano music that is like comfort food to an old man.

Another composer who is an exemplar, to me anyway, is Faure,
the daddy of modern French music .An example is one of his last works the Trio for piano,cello and violin, Op. 120.
The recording I have enjoyed the most is the great American/Israeli violinist
Gil Shaham and Co. , "The Faure Album" CC03 on the Canary label .
I gather Canary is the Family business on the net, though I found mine at Barnes & Noble . I doubt there is a bad recording of it .

That said , the Canary has the advantage of starting with an early great work , Faure’s "Sonata for violin and piano, Op.13 and ending with the Trio
Op. 120 showing his progression from a young genius to an old one .
Faure , died not long after . His last words were to his son. "I did what I could.Now let God be my judge ".