A nostalgic musical journey through DGG

In the late 50s, I went for studies to Germany from India. Though I had a musical ear, I had no exposure to western classical music. The elderly lady of the family with whom I was staying as Paying gGuest, urged me to listen to western classical music and played an LP of Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nacht Musik"! This wonderful piece of music induced me to listen to more compositions. The students' hostel where I later shifted to, gave me the opportunity to hear many more compositions, my favourites being Mozart's 40th Symphony and Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, KV 466, Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor. With these exposures to the beautiful world of western classical music, with my limited finances as a student, I embarked upon the mission to buy the then available vinyl Long-Playing records. My first major invesment was in buying DGG's complete set of Beethoven's Symphonies conducted by Karajan, at the introductory Offer price, followed by similar offers from DGG of Beethoven's Misa Solemnis and Brahms' Symphonies. Now there was no looking back. Near my college was a book shop, whose owner, knowing my insatiable hunger for western classical music used to get almost "mint" condition "used" (mostly) DGG LPs every month and would sell these to me at a concessional price. Thus, I built up a modestly "large" Collection of Western classical LPs. Ocassionally, I also bought from regular full-price shops Beethoven's violin concerto played by Wolfgang Schneiderhahn and Bruckner's 8th and 9th symphonies conducted by Eugen Jochum, brought out then by DGG. Upon my return to India, I continued my passion for collecting western classical music. The era of the LP was coming to a close and the magnetic cassette tape had been introduced. In Mumbai, the availibility was reasonably good and my buying power had also increased, enabling me to expand my Collection of Casettes. With the advent of the Compact Disc, and with the easy availibility of DGG's and other CDs, at a reasonable price in India, I can now proudly say that my Collection of instrumental western classical music covers a vast canvas of music composed by the great Masters, from Bach and Beethoven to Brahms/Bruckner and Richard Strauss. In recent years, DGG has also brought out a huge Series of DVDs of Karajan and Leonard Bernstein among other Conductors and Rubinstein and Pollini, to name a few great soloists. With this great variety of music being made available, there is never a dull moment. The nostalgic journey that I embarked upon, thanks to the grand old German lady who took me as Paying Guest, my Colleauges in the Students' Hostels, the Owner of the book shop near my College and Deutsche Gramophon's zeal to bring out more and more classical music from their Archives and new offerings, still continues, even after my first "brush" with western classical music fifty years ago in Germany. Harshad Shah

09-12-09 by Harshad Shah