No, Alex Ross (of “The Rest is Noise” fame, both blog and book) isn’t being mean to eMusic; in fact to my knowledge he’s never mentioned it, at least on his blog. What I mean is that several of the releases on Ross’s list of recommended CDs (CDs? how last century!) can be found on eMusic:

Note that of 18 items on Ross’s list, 13 are on eMusic. This is yet another example of how eMusic is becoming a great site for classical music, especially for people like me who want to explore “contemporary classical” works at relatively low expense.


Prent Rodgers - 2007-11-29 19:16

I did the same on Microsoft’s Zune.net. 7 of 18. Not so good. See http://bumpermusic.blogspot.com/2007/11/alex-ross-picks-on-zune.html

Jennifer Sardam - 2007-12-26 01:17

Thanks for the write-up. I just began a trial membership with eMusic, which gives me 25 free songs to download. I was disappointed when I found out I hardly recognized anyone on there, but I do like classical and will check out some of these pieces you mentioned.

Lisa Moore - 2008-01-18 12:09

Correction: The Bang on a Can All-Stars never recorded Music for 18, I think Alex is referring to the Steve Reich Ensemble Nonesuch recording of the 90’s, which had one member of the All-stars in it. This had nothing to do with the All-Stars as a group of organization.

hecker - 2008-01-18 12:49

Thanks for the correction. Note that the mistake is my own, not Alex Ross’s. I was referring to the recording as included on the box set “Steve Reich: Works 1965-1995’ put out by Nonesuch. There was indeed a Bang on a Can performance in this box set (“Eight Lines”), which must have been the source of my confusion. My apologies.