What I listen to and why

I've decided to start a blog, a blog about listening to music, classical music, on vinyl records (LPs). This all came about after a conversation with my parents, who, for as long as I can remember have owned boxes upon boxes of classical LPs, and for as long as I can remember have never listened to them. Knowing that I do enjoy listening to a good Beethoven Symphony, they had offered to bring me out a few boxes of what will be, no doubt, the beginnings of my inheritance.

I'm happy enough with just the couple of boxes of records, but the whole conversation got me thinking (mistake one), and I started to wonder (mistake two), about the condition of the records, would they be warped? Would they be new? Would they have duplicates? How many different recordings of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony (my personal favourite) would there be? I added another piece to the puzzle. I had been reading about a young conductor from Montreal who was taking the classical world by storm and was to make his New York debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival. The article spoke of the way this conductor could bring about emotions with the sweeping of his arms, and how he could make these centuries old pieces, that have been played millions of times, by thousands of amazing musicians jump with new life. And I wondered, when it comes down to it, can a conductor/symphony/soloist really make that much difference? And don't those 10,000 records that my parents are heaving my way (with one or two hernias no doubt) help me become even the slightest bit more cultured, or refine my taste?

The easy answer is yes, who is playing/conducting the piece does make a huge difference. The other answer is no, I will not be a better person, or have better taste, be more cultured if I listed to one classical record ever day for the next 10,000 days, compared conductors and symphonies, time frames and soloists. But that doesn't mean I won't enjoy the challenge.

So here is my project, for the next 10,000 days (approximately 27 years) I will listen to one record (both sides), and at minimum post what piece it was, who performed it, when it was performed, and who conducted; on a good day I will try to add a review/observations. And ya, I doubt there are 10,000 records, and I won't be able to do it every day; but I might as well see how far this pony will take me.