in search of number eight

When I wrote my guest contribution to barondave's music column, I wasn't trying to say anything definitive about classical music. This was far too brief and informal a forum for that. Instead, I just thought of three disparate, newish recordings that had tickled my ears in the last couple of years and described those.

One of them was Philip Glass's Symphony No. 8, of which I noted, "Besides, the number is cool. If you're not a big classical collector, how many Symphonies No. 8 do you have, anyway, besides maybe Schubert's Unfinished? Be honest, now."

To find out how many I have, I check my little recordings database here. I have 24 of them, not counting multiple recordings of a few. Does that sound like a lot? Not compared to Symphonies No. 1 and Symphonies No. 2, of which I have over 90. Each.

I thought it might be amusing to go over my repertoire of Symphonies No. 8. Why not? It'd be an excuse to give a spin to some of my less-played discs, including several LPs. And that, o nobly born, is why I set out to refresh the needle for my turntable last week.

So here they are, in chronological order, ( twenty-four Symphonies No. 8 )