Cool. I'll have to pick that album up sometime.

Likely a cheap-buy used, not exactly as popular as Nirvana unplugged, but same vintage and actually sounds better in terms of SQ. And now that the lead singer of A&C is gone, his music really does seem more inspired. oldest trick in the book.

If you've ever heard Mad Season, you'll know that he didn't have to kick the bucket to seem inspired. That was one fantastic group.

Mad Season "Above" is on my short list of the best music made in that era - still in the rotation. My wife picked up a Pearl Jam bootleg while in Spain in the 90s. It was nothing great, but it had a few live tracks of Mad Season (in some form or another) which was a cool surprise.

Smetana's Ma Vlast(My Country)is a grouping of six tone poems expressing with colorful and emotional music the Czech landscape and legends. It's always the feature presentation at the Prague Spring Festival and never fails to bring forth patriotic fervor and often copious tears.

A disc that I've included in suggested collections a few times in the past certainly also deserves individual consideration here. Excellent performance by the superb Dresden State Orchestra directed by Berglund and in fine sound, all at a bargain price, it's my overall favorite of the six Ma Vlast's that I own and dozen more that I've listened to. Available from several sources of course, but the best buy at this time appears to be from the Buy.com sellers for as little as $6.50 shipped.

John, out of curiosity, do you plan on stepping into Blu-ray anytime soon? As more classical concerts get released onto the format, it would be nice to have someone like you giving recommendations on which ones to get. I think having the visual aspect of the performance would help me appreciate the music that much more.

Not really, Charles. I don't put much emphasis on the visual aspect of orchestral performances. Although I've looked at a few on regular DVD, I don't own even one. Any suggestions that I'd make about them would be based on the performance quality without consideration of the video.

One area of classical performance that relies much more heavily on the visual aspects is the ballet, and I have a collection of the classical ballets(Cinderella, Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, etc.)on DVDs. A few months ago I did view an excellent Swan Lake on Blu-ray at a colleague's home. Although I wasn't so overwhelmed(my whelm threshold is fairly high)that I felt compelled to rush out and buy a Blu-ray player, I can certainly recommend this Kirov performance to those with players.

Lyle Lovett "step inside this house "

disc 2 flyin shoes .

well produced and good imaging .

John,
A general question - after years of listening to mainly pop and rock, I have discovered that I really like listening to Classical. Most of these links are not functioning - I would not ask you to repost as I can search the site. The thing is that most searches bring back multiple options. Would I be ok in picking any of the options or are there specific CD's that are the "better" recordings?.........Rob

OK....By now it should be obvious that I am reading through this for the first time. THIS post echoes my feelings exactly!....Rob