SZIGETI COLUMBIA ML COLLECTION NOW COMPLETE!

[Frank Forman]

Szigeti Columbia ML collection now complete!

Yesterday, ML 4870, Beethoven Sonatas 5 & 6, arrived. $15 from Irvington
Records came in. I've only seen one other, which Albert Rodewald (where is
he?) let me tape. And today, $51 from e-bay came in the very last one,
Mozart: Sonatas in Bb, K. 454, and in Eb, K. 481, both with Szell at the
piano, which I used to own. I have no idea when I got my first ML disc. I
used Creighton to make up a list of them. Sam Hopper got me to make a
little discography of them.

I may have the only collection of them all, public or private. This disc
is the most I ever paid for in current dollars. I spent $50 for the 10"
Supraphon, conducted by Scherchen (I think from Canfield), and $36 each
for the live Brahms First, Mengelberg, which I bought from Parnassus.
These are the most expensive in constant dollars.

Sam Hopper got me do up a discography of these MLs.

So, the end of an era. I doubt I'll ever buy another LP. I no longer have
a turntable. This is pure collecting. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the opera
composer who dabbled in philosophy, said that collectors pine more over
the holes in their collection than rejoice in the treasures they own.
Today, my rejoicing is not tempered by any holes, at least as for the
monoaural Szigetis on the Columbia ML (Masterworks Long-Playing) records
go. This is a day to remember!