Would You Like to Inherit My CD Collection?

Since I have lost the sight in my right eye, I’ve had to cut back on the number of reviews I do each month, but since the detached retina in my right eye was caused by a severe head trauma on that side only, there’s a 90% chance that I won’t lose the sight in my left eye.

Nonetheless, I have several health problems that don’t need to be discussed and, at age 72, I feel that I’m living on borrowed time. I think that, at the most, I have perhaps ten years left, possibly less. I have no living relatives who like classical music or jazz, and most of my friends are virtual and online.

But I would, if it is humanly possible, like to have my CD collection go to someone who might appreciate the decades I’ve spent collecting the best recordings of what I consider to be the best music rather than just have it all tossed into a trash can or recycle bin when I go. Thus I am willing to accept requests for my collection when I go rather than have it disappear into the ether.

If you are interested and young enough to wait another 7-10 years, perhaps less, please write to me at my email address which is on my home page, just below the blurb for the Penguin’s Girlfriend’s Guide to Classical Music and just above the Peanuts cartoon. If I get more than one offer to take it, I will have my lone survivor (who doesn’t want all these CDs) contact you at that time in the order in which they are received.

Please be aware that, although I am a professional critic, more than half of the CDs in my collection are homemade, burned from downloads. I never did get hard copies of most of my recordings, and in some cases I re-burned a CD to add some music not on the original disc(s). Nonetheless, they all play just fine and there are some extremely valuable recordings in here that can’t be found anywhere else.

If you write to me, I will send you my Excel file catalog of all my classical recordings. I haven’t catalogued the jazz, at least not yet, but although it is an extensive and wide-ranging collection ranging from Jim Europe’s ragtime band of 1913 to the latest free jazz, it only takes up about 8 rows of CDs as compared to 32 for classical (boxed sets included). Included are a fair amount of DVDs , perhaps 35 in all, mostly of operas but also DVDs of such famous conductors as Arturo Toscanini, Charles Munch, Michael Gielen (just a couple of Gielen, alas) and a few documentaries. These are not catalogued but I can make a list if you insist on it.

I’d love to close with one of those lines you hear in radio and TV ads, like “Act quickly! This offer can’t last!”, but I’d be lying if I said that. Still, since this is a first-come-first-served basis, I would like to have at least a couple of inheritors in mind for when I go.

Cheers,

Lynn B.

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