On Wednesday I was privileged to attend the launch of the CHARM online sound archive. Professor Daniel Leech-Wilkinson introduced the presentation, talking about the focus and background to the project. Then Rob Cowan talked us through a selection of the things he’d liked on the archive, including performers like Mark Hambourg, Yovanovitch Bratza, Norman Allin, Henry Wood and so on. These were part of the contents of a CD given out to people who attended the talk, which provided a sample of the thousands of sides available there. After Rob’s presentation we had the opportunity for tea and cakes on the terrace, with the  chance to chat to various other attendees. It was good to catch up with Nick Morgan, and to finally meet Andrew Rose of Pristine Classical, and Jolyon, and to briefly chat again to David Patmore. There were also one or two others I had the chance to talk to, but the event was over all too quickly. The archive is well worth exploring, though it could eat much of your time.

On the recordings side of things, there will soon be updates to my site. These will include Franz André conducting Elgar, Coates and Gershwin, and a much improved transfer of Frieder Weissmann’s recording of Rihard Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung. There will also be Elgar and Brahms from Stanley Chapple, 19th century show pieces played on the piano by organist Arthur Meale. There will also be some of the 78s recorded by the teenaged Julie Andrews. There are one or two other items that I’m considering, but that will have to wait.

I’ve still been trying to find time to keep up with CDs, including the recent Marston issue of French singers in Russian repertoire, which was a great pleasure, in impeccable transfers. I’m also attacking the Mendelssohn box from Brilliant Classics, which has given me a much wider view already of his younger works. “Legends of the Piano”  – a recent Ward Marston contribution to Naxos Historical – proved an interesting compendium of acoustically recorded pianists including Saint-Saens and Grieg.

As ever, there’s so much to listen to, and so little time