What's Playing in My Car ...

After a recent trip to one of my favorite shops in Boston, Orpheus Classics, I walked out with two used CDs which have been playing in my car for the last couple of days.

1) Mieczyslaw Horszowki and members of the Budapest String Quartet performing Mozart's Piano Quartets.  This is a CBS Masterworks Portrait reissue from the late 1980s that has been long out of print.  As a child, this was one of my favorites in my father's LP collection and would later get plenty of more use on the turntable when I studied and performed the G minor quartet with members of my high school orchestra during high school.  So, naturally, I was pretty happy to find a copy of this for less than 10 bucks.  Sound quality is okay, not superb, considering that they didn't have the finest remastering technology at the time of this reissue.  I find the vinyl to sound much warmer and less harsh, but this CD copy will still do quite nicely when I'm driving to and from work.

2) Mitsuko Uchida performing Debussy's 12 Etudes.  This is one of the highly praised interpretations of this set of piano works by one of my all-time favorite composers and may be the modern edition to own, though I'd put Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's right up there on the pedestal as well.  Beautiful playing with what I believe is top-notch recording.  For $5.99, it was an easy decision to buy this one!