Lasting A Lifetime

This time last week, when Noi was over in Melaka, I was giving Wagner's Das Rheingold a spin when I discovered big problems on my CD with the start of the third act. Just at the start of all the singing between Alberich and Mime down in Nibelheim there were big gaps in the music and lots of jumps and the like. One look at the surface of the disk was enough to show the signs of decay.

Now I can't honestly say I was heartbroken. I'm not a huge fan of Wagner. I bought the Solti Ring cycle on CD a few years back essentially to educate myself, to see, or hear, what all the fuss was about, and I think I've only played the whole thing through a couple of times I sort of have enjoyed it, but it's been a bit of a labour. In fact, I haven't yet bothered to check the rest of the CDs and really don't know if I care enough to replace what's been lost.

But the incident set me to thinking about the publicity given to the CD format when it first came out. The claim of the record companies promoting the things was that they would last a lifetime, though immediately a fair amount of scepticism ensued. But now we're getting to a position to judge, I suppose. Most the stuff I bought in the middle 80's when I moved on from vinyl has lasted I'm pleased to say. I played my first ever CD purchase - a collection of Respighi's tone poems on Roman subjects - just this afternoon and it sounded and looked in pristine condition. And over the years I've lost very few disks to decay - curiously nearly all 'classical' recordings - Bach's Well Tempered Clavier, Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony and Robert Simpson's 9th (this one a keenly felt loss - you don't see it around all that much). I say 'curiously' because back then rumour had it that classical recording were being given a superior treatment in terms of the qualities of the pressings of the CDs compared to that afforded to more disposable forms.

Anyway the point of all this is that I'm not complaining. That the vast majority of my recordings have lasted is something I never really expected and feel generally grateful for. If anything it's slightly troubling to think that the Respighi may last a lot longer than me.