Festival Of Light Classical Music

Why do I have a bulky 12-LP box set of "Light Classical Music" occupying some of my limited shelf-space when I have no intention of listening to the music therein? Sentimental reasons explain it. Visiting my father one day he asked what music I was listening to & I replied that about half of it was classical in some form or another. He'd never acquired any taste for it, he said, whereupon a thought occurred to him and he retrieved this box from another room and handed it to me: it had been his mother's.

I didn't imagine I'd end up with a keepsake of my paternal grandmother. It was surprising that anything of hers had survived some rather chaotic episodes in her house in the years following her death. Having said that, it had suffered considerable wear and tear: the box itself was broken, some of the inner sleeves were torn & stained, and one of the discs (no. 4) was in patently unplayable condition. Knowing it had been kept near a coal fire, and not far from my pipe-smoking grandfather's favourite armchair, my Dad was doubtful that any of the records would play very well, but the one I picked out to try sounded fine.

To me, the term "Light Classical Music" implies tuneful & low-intensity material. In practice, what's included here is a mixture of that sort of thing and of some slightly "heavier" old warhorses. There's none of Beethoven's anguish and drama, for example, but Wagner, of all composers, gets a look-in; as does Berlioz. Works from some forty-two composers are represented, with music ranging from the 18th century (Händel, Mozart) to the early 20th (Elgar, Ravel). In between are some less well-known names that I suspect have become obscurer still since this set was compiled in 1960: Auber, Flotow, Ponchielli... Short bios of all are included in an accompanying 40-page booklet, which has a introduction by Arthur Fiedler, of Boston Pops fame.

In my experience, this must be one of the most commonly encountered and cheaply-available vinyl box-sets in the UK's charity shops. I have seen a good many of them on sale at very low prices. Recently, I bought one (£2.50) which had an intact outer box, and unblemished inner sleeves. I took the discs (No. 4 excepted) from my grandmother's copy and put them in the near-pristine sleeves, along with the tatty booklet that had been hers, into the "new" box. While it's no longer 100% original, I'm happy with the compromise of keeping most of its contents in better packaging.

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