Mendelssohn

Advantages Soothing, with pathos, drama and then a vivacious finale
Disadvantages Someone should have strangled the lead horn

...I came across this masterpiece in an old record collection and promptly went out and bought a CD which also contained Fingal's cave (another work of art, you can easily envisage the sea and the storms lashing the rocks). The Version I have is Played by the philarmonia orchestra with Yehudi Menuhin playing violin and the late Efrem Kurtz conducting. The piece opens with an allegro molto appasionato that moves the soul with a mixture of pathos and tranquility - this blossoms into mild intensity and sweetness before returning to a more passionate version of the initial theme and a crescendo. I found out that the link between the first and second movements (with a basoon I think) was incorporated to stop the audience applauding between movements - This applause really disrupted the performance in Mendelssohn's eyes and annoyed him... Read review

Advantages Good story
Disadvantages None for me

...Looking at the cover of this book, which features a large close up photograph of Kate Bush's face one could be forgiven for thinking that this book is a biography of the singer that has often been dubbed "one of Britain's most eccentric pop stars". In fact Waiting For Kate Bush is not a biography at all, although it is packed full of so much personal information about the singer that it does serve as one, in a roundabout way. This is instead a bizarre story of one mans obsession with Ms Bush written by John Mendelssohn and told through the character that he has created in Lesley Herskovits. It is a fictional story that is packed full of facts and provides an unique insight into the life of one of the pop world's most elusive stars. Lesley Herskovits is a fifty something American who is so obsessed with Kate Bush that he has abandoned... Read review

Advantages Great music, fantastic value for money and fine performance
Disadvantages Onepiece with slightly overbearing clarinettist...?

...for the totally amazing price of just £3.99. Wow! That's the cost of 2 Unhappy Meals at McD's - and the music will give a lifetime of enjoyment rather than chronic indigestion and a place on the NHS waiting list for your local cardiology ward. I was especially pleased at my "bargain", as the combination of music on the CD is a little unconventional with the result that out of the 4 pieces, I was thrilled to realise that I didn't have recordings of 3 of them, which made it an even more spectacular buy. Whilst Beethoven and Schubert are mainstream classical composers, their music as featured here is from the much less frequently heard fringes of their compositional output and as a result definitely well worth exploring. The Mendelssohn Octet on the other hand, is far better known and often performed or broadcast - but fits perfectly... Read review