<<  -- 5 --  Tess Crebbin    SHOPPING FOR OPERA ...

'Hmm, haven't seen the movies, but never mind,' I replied and then we turned back to things more important, such as who was the better singer, Hann or Hampson. The next ten minutes, we spent chatting away and then I handed him the dog leash and he spent a bit of time being dragged by my dog through the CD department while I went off to the other end of the store to get a different rare CD. Only when he wrote down his email for me so I could let him know what I thought of Hann (whose CD I bought because he bought Hampson), he introduced himself by name: Christopher Lee.

All this just to give you an idea what kind of people you might meet there. But, on a rainy afternoon, you don't have to be Christopher Lee, passing the time 'till the evening's award ceremony, to have a great time at Beck's. If you love classical music, what better way to kill a few hours in Munich than really get to know the world of classical music by listening through Beck's extensive selection? What makes it so interesting is that they have an enormous selection of very rare CDs there also.

For some brilliant pieces to discover, try a group of composers known as the forgotten geniuses. Most of them died young and were friends and students of the great masters. For circumstances outside their control, they did not become as widely known as their work merits.

The most brilliant, tragic story is that of Hans Rott (1858-1884), Bruckner's favourite student at the Vienna conservatory. He died, aged twenty six, in a mental institution, but his Symphony in E was rightly termed by his teacher Anton Bruckner to be the mark of such genius that music had suffered an irreparable loss with his death. The music was saved from oblivion only thanks to Bruckner and Rott's friend Gustav Mahler and it took more than a hundred years after the composer's death to record it. But now: voila. Check out R for Rott, and you will find the astonishing symphony for only twenty euros.

How about A for Arriaga (1806-1826)? The twenty-year-old composer died of a heart attack, having had such genius that people encouraged him to keep composing, and he died of overwork.

G stands for the Hungarian composer Karl Goldmark (1830-1915), who used to go for walks with Brahms and Liszt, and whose Rustic Wedding Symphony reflects the influence of both.

Try V for one of the most haunting and brilliant Stabat Maters you have ever heard, released by the label of Orfeo and written by Johann Baptist Vanhal (1739-1813), a close friend of Haydn and Mozart. Vanhal was known for his brilliance as well as his friendliness, and was too friendly to survive competition although his Stabat Mater easily holds up even to Pergolesi's (1710-1736) work of the same name.

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