Shops in Dublin?

staple

Hello,
Where do people buy their classical CDs? I don't buy that many, but the selection seems pretty small everywhere. HMV Grafton Street seems like the biggest record shop, but their classical section keeps dwindling.
Any advice gratefully received.

HusseinSarhan

Tower or Amazon.co.uk

ilovemybrick

i love buying some of my classical stuff on vinyl in second hand shops. seriously you have not lived until you've heard original Shostakovich recordings/or Karajan conducting Mahler with the Berlin in 1943. other than that online is a much better resource although the NCH has a small shop open now which is very well stocked sometimes.

dub45

staple wrote:

Hello,
Where do people buy their classical CDs? I don't buy that many, but the selection seems pretty small everywhere. HMV Grafton Street seems like the biggest record shop, but their classical section keeps dwindling.
Any advice gratefully received.

Sadly fewer and fewer people are actually buying Classical cds:eek: talk to any of the guys who work in the classical departments and they will tell you this. so we now have a catch 22 situation - fewer buyers fewer classical cds stocked etc etc.

Calina

iTunes, increasingly. Amazon for the more obscure stuff.

But I get confused. Listen to the request show on Lyric at lunchtime today and some people are asking for the most obscure stuff going...and I'm wondering how they ever get their hands on it. I spent a day searching for a Brahms piano concerto in the city centre last year...was not impressed.

staple

dub45 wrote:

Sadly fewer and fewer people are actually buying Classical cds:eek: talk to any of the guys who work in the classical departments and they will tell you this. so we now have a catch 22 situation - fewer buyers fewer classical cds stocked etc etc.

I don't doubt you, but I wonder why this is? Surely there's more money about generally, and the population is increasing. I can't believe most classical fans switched to online buying (certainly this would have hit rock and pop much harder). Perhaps it's declined as a _share_ of the market, with other music and DVDs drawing lots more ready cash, while classical CD sales remain steady ie decline in relative terms. Would there be any reason for the popularity of classical music in this country declining? Maybe the hardcore fans replaced their vinyl with CDs ten years ago and now have stopped buying? How I wish I'd appreciated that big section in Virgin Aston Quay when it was there.

dub45

staple wrote:

I don't doubt you, but I wonder why this is? Surely there's more money about generally, and the population is increasing. I can't believe most classical fans switched to online buying (certainly this would have hit rock and pop much harder). Perhaps it's declined as a _share_ of the market, with other music and DVDs drawing lots more ready cash, while classical CD sales remain steady ie decline in relative terms. Would there be any reason for the popularity of classical music in this country declining? Maybe the hardcore fans replaced their vinyl with CDs ten years ago and now have stopped buying? How I wish I'd appreciated that big section in Virgin Aston Quay when it was there.

I think there are any factors and the decline had set in long before the download boom began. The Classical record companies have been in trouble since the effects of the Pavorit/world cup and cd vinyl replacement phase passed. Recently I read that none of the major American orchestras had a record contract while some of the big name musicians have had to start their own record labels.

I sound like an old phogey saying this but young people are not getting into classical music the way previous generations appear to have done. Very few people actually sit and listen to music any more which is probably necessary for classical music. Classical music is harder work than lots of other music. Naxos is wonderful for the ordinary cd purchaser - very bad for the major record companies - classical music is not 'present' on the tv in the way it used to be - I was reading bits and pieces about Leonard Bernstein recently and it is amazing how many people seem to have been influenced by his televised young people concerts - similarly with Andre Previn's programmes on BBC - there is no mainstream presence for classical music on tv.

And ironciallly there were never so many resources available to get into classical music -cheap cds - all of the Beethoven Symphonies for 20 euros for instance - radio 3 and lyric fm - loads of stuff on the web etc etc - loads of live concerts.

Ernest

Tower Records now seems to be the best place ( in Dublin anyway) to buy tangible as against virtual Classical or Opera CDs etc. Since Virgin Megastore closed down and HMV Grafton Street shrunk back to a token classical section, the first floor of Tower records in Wicklow Street seems the only place left with a good selection and with staff who seem to know about what they are selling.
Buying on-line might be another way if you don't wind waiting and wondering but in my experience anyway, Amazon can be a bit hit and miss and their customer relations when delivery fails I have found to be appalling.