Playing from vinyl is always a tricky proposition (I already had the needle stick on me once), but I think one well worth the risks. I hope you’ll join me this morning on WPRB, as I share selections from my own extensive record collection as part of WPRB’s Vinyl Week.
All of the recordings we’ll hear today are either out of print or available only as part of costly reissued collections of a composer’s complete works (Hans Werner Henze on the Deutsche Grammophon label). I’ve gone out of my way to select music that, for the most part, is not available even in alternative, digital recordings. What you hear this morning, you may never hear again. If you’ve heard it before, I trust it hasn’t been for a very long time.
For me, I get to relive my college radio days, cueing records, potting down and flipping LPs mid-piece, agonizing over timings when none are listed. But it’s worth it to be able to get in touch again with the humanizing effect of snap, crackle and pop. Playing vinyl is as much a tactile experience as it is an aural one. Furthermore, I will be discovering a lot of the music, much of it acquired from my days as an antiquarian book dealer, right along with you, since at the moment I don’t happen to have a functioning turntable at home.
We’re enjoying music in record time this morning, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. I’ll be bringing it old school on Classic Ross Amico.