The tracks are in four parts: Two pairs of shorter tracks that share some aspects, and then two longer tracks from contrasting musical forces and genres. It soon became obvious to me that I could profitably fill just about one hour of listening by playing six tracks, all from the Norwegian audiophile label 2L. I began sifting through my various lists of demo tracks. (Note, I think that the word "classical" is stretchy enough to encompass "Bridge Over Troubled Water.") I volunteered to put together a playlist of high-resolution classical tracks that could do double duty as system-showing-off demo fodder while at the same time providing memorably engaging musical experiences. I was chatting with my friend Doug White, of the Philadelphia-area specialty high-end audio dealer " The Voice That Is." The subject was the then-upcoming visit from John Atkinson, Jana Dagdagan, and Herb Reichert, all from Stereophile magazine. I also love to put together playlists that create a narrative arc (that's fancypants-speak for, "tell a story"). A prime example is Clifford Brown's Clifford Brown With Strings. I love to introduce people to pieces of music (or entire albums) I think should be parts of our shared cultural inheritance but which, for whatever reason, remain comparatively obscure. If you aren't aware of the 2L catalog, then you owe yourself the favor of perusing their impressive catalog. I concur with him that 2L is doing important and splendid work in a new generation of recordings that bring a real freshness of the performing and audio arts into one place. In this case, John performs a handy task of his picks for the Western tradition in music with selections from the 2L catalog. Music, films, cars, cigars, wine, books, sporting events.just about anything, it seems.all partake of the human fondness for lists and rankings. List-making is inherent to all passionate pursuits of excellence. The full selections would take about an hour. In this column, republished from his blog site, John Marks of The Tannhauser Gate ( ) shares his six pack of choices for a seven-league-boots traversal of 1000 years of Western Music.
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