A Great Classical Collection

When I was in college, I had a bunch of greatest hits albums. To me they seemed like a good way to get the “best” songs from a particular group. A friend of mine HATED greatest hits albums for two reasons. The obvious reason was that they contained only commercially successful songs and often missed real gems that didn't happen to get radio play (because they were too long or whatever). The other reason was that some albums fit together well as a whole and that unity and continuity is destroyed when individual songs are plucked out.

I have come to agree with his position, and though I think that this sort of greatest hits thing is not a bad thing to expose people to classical music, it does so by plucking out PIECES of pieces. For example, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony has several movements, and I would argue that the BEST is the second movement (one of my favorite bits of music that I've ever heard). But the Symphony was intended to be heard as a whole. Plucking out the bum bum bum BUMMMMMM part that everyone is familiar with doesn't really expose them to anything NEW .. and doesn't really even expose them to what Beethoven wanted them to hear.

So .. if you like some of this stuff, get the FULL pieces and hear what the artist intended.

Yes, I also picked up a list of full works related to a book I'm reading.