Russell McCullogh, the classical expert at Waterloo Records, mentioned the store had recently acquired an extensive classical and jazz collection from an estate sale. I stopped by Waterloo last night and browsed through some of the classical offerings. (They’re laid out on a pair of tables in the back corner of the store’s north section.)
Russell mentioned most of the collection includes 20th Century tonal composers, and while I did see a smattering of Krzysztof Penderecki and Arnold Schoenberg — with a Mahler and a Beethoven here and there — the collection had an impressive diversity. I managed to find a number of albums I owned on cassette but never upgraded to CD: orchestral works by Joan Tower and Tobias Picker, as well as Kronos Quartet’s recording of Witold Lutoslawski’s string quartet.
But if you’ve been reading The Rest Is Noise by New Yorker writer Alex Ross, a lot of the composers in that collection will sound familiar: Max Reger, Bohuslav Martinu, Paul Hindemith, Alan Hovhaness, Samuel Barber, Ned Rorem, George Perle, Morton Gould. I went to Waterloo thinking I’d just pick up the new Ex-Boyfriends album and be done, but no … I spent half an hour sifting through that collection, and I didn’t even scratch the surface.
I don’t know if any of the jazz offerings are out on the floor, but the classical selection includes a lot of tempting titles. I should be greedy and not mention it, but really — fans of this kind of music ought to check it out.