CLASSICAL LOST AND FOUND
(CLOFO) WHY NOT TRY LISTENING TO SOMETHING OFF THE BEATEN PATH, BUT WELL WORTH THE DETOUR! - SEE THE CROCKS NEWSLETTERS LISTED BELOW - |
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WELCOME TO THE CLASSICAL LOST AND FOUND HOME PAGE
FORGOTTEN MUSIC BY GREAT COMPOSERS AND GREAT MUSIC BY FORGOTTEN COMPOSERS
Back in 1982 the digital entertainment medium blossomed with small silver discs known as CDs. They've become an invaluable source of music that's off the beaten path, but well worth the detour! Moreover, those recent ones that are of more than passing interest and potentially lasting intellectual value, could be regarded as Classical Releases of Current Key Significance, or "CROCKS".
CROCKS NEWSLETTER
CROCKS are the sole subject for the reviews that appear in the CROCKS NEWSLETTERs published periodically on this web site. These will introduce those looking for rare Classical repertoire to forgotten music by great composers and great music by forgotten composers (subsumes little-known, living ones). These write-ups also flag those superior-sounding discs, which will appeal to audiophiles. Incidentally, each has a "RECOMMENDED CLASSICAL MUSIC WEB SITE OUTLETS" panel with URL links to the following major, online retailers:
CROCKS NEWSLETTER REVIEWS
Every CROCKS NEWSLETTER review includes an album cover photo, descriptive caption, rating stripe and pertinent commentary with a signature tag. Additionally, each ends with a product "AVAILABILITY" panel. This has as many as four URL boxes that invoke different internet vendor's product pages for the subject album, thereby facilitating the ordering process.
DESCRIPTIVE CAPTIONS
The descriptive captions are concise titles summarizing an album's content. They're of three types, the first and foremost being "COMPOSER" oriented. Then there are "PERFORMER" ones, having the names of artists as well as ensembles, and "ALBUM TITLE" tags that often read like something out of a TV commercial.
BASIC RATING STRIPES
As for the rating stripes, they're meant to categorize overall listener/reviewer reaction to a given album, and come in four varieties. These are differently colored and bear the names "RECOMMENDED", "AUDIOPHILE", "SUGGESTED" or "QUESTIONABLE", e.g.,
They also show the number of CDs or SACDs involved.
BEST FIND RATING STRIPES
At the beginning of each year, all "RECOMMENDED", "AUDIOPHILE" and "SUGGESTED" reviews that appeared during the previous one, are carefully compared. The most outstanding earn permanent, somewhat darker colored stripes with "BEST FIND" added after their original rating name, e.g.,
Admittedly, all this is subjective, considering it depends on personal musical tastes, which brings to mind that old expression, "One man's meat is another man's poison". What's more, "AUDIOPHILE" ratings also involve an individual's hearing perception, to say nothing of sound equipment and listening room characteristics.
IN-HOUSE CLOFO SEARCHES
Those looking for particular CROCKS NEWSLETTER reviews can access them via three URL boxes respectively labeled "AUDIOPHILE SELECTIONS", "BEST FINDS OF LAST YEAR" and "CLOFO RECOMMENDATIONS". These appear at the bottom of this as well as other CLOFO pages and represent separate, search domains.
They each invoke menus with panels having four URL boxes respectively labeled after the general classical music genres of "ORCHESTRAL", "CHAMBER (INSTRUMENTAL)", "VOCAL (CHORAL)" and "OPERATIC (SHOWS)". These in turn call up indexes listing captions for all albums in the chosen domain and genre, each of which has a URL prefix indicating the year its parent CROCKS NEWSLETTER appeared. Clicking them brings up their associated reviews, and perusing these is like browsing through albums in one of those old time, brick-and-mortar, record stores.
GOOGLE-POWERED CLOFO SEARCHES
Besides the above method of ferreting out reviews, there's also a powerful search engine courtesy of GOOGLE. Entering any classical-music-related key word or phrase in the box below will call up something on CLOFO.com, providing there's relevant material on at least one of it's pages.
NETWORKING SERVICES
Hopefully CLOFO will be a source of many rewarding classical discoveries, which you may want to share with others on these networking services:
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- FOUR MOST RECENT CROCKS NEWSLETTERS -
(CLICK DATE TO SEE NEWSLETTER) |
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DATE | FEATURED COMPOSERS |
30 SEP 2024 | Bohrer, A. & M. · Bohrer, A. · Bohrer, M. · Bruk · Howell, Dorothy · Ysaÿe |
31 AUG 2024 | Neukomm · Puccini · Reicha · Rosner · Tarkiainen |
31 JUL 2024 | Côrte-Real, N. · Fernandes, A.J. · Labor · Lalo · Pejačević · Vienna da Mota, J. |
30 JUN 2024 | Bach, C.P.E. · Dauprat · Flury, R. · Graun, J.G. · Hoffmann, G. |
- TABLES OF ALL CROCKS NEWSLETTERS -
(CLICK YEAR TO SEE TABLE) |
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YEAR | TABLE |
2024 | All CROCKS Newsletters for 2024 |
2023 | All CROCKS Newsletters for 2023 |
2022 | All CROCKS Newsletters for 2022 |
2021 | All CROCKS Newsletters for 2021 |
2020 | All CROCKS Newsletters for 2020 |
2019 | All CROCKS Newsletters for 2019 |
2018 | All CROCKS Newsletters for 2018 |
2017 | All CROCKS Newsletters for 2017 |
2016 | All CROCKS Newsletters for 2016 |
2015 | All CROCKS Newsletters for 2015 |
2014 | All CROCKS Newsletters for 2014 |
- SEE OTHER CLOFO SERVICES - | ||
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AUDIOPHILE SELECTIONS | BEST FINDS OF LAST YEAR | CLOFO RECOMMENDATIONS |