For nearly two years now, I have subscribed to the music download service eMusic.com. I was introduced to this service by my friend Ryan Martin, a fellow music lover and Zune aficionado.

A quick digression: eMusic is still a good place to download music, although they’ve recently just changed their pricing structure. As things stand right now, a CD on eMusic probably averages $6.00 or so; not bad, and a bit cheaper than iTunes, but not as great as it was before they added Sony/RCA/etc. If anyone is reading this and thinks, “I’d love to have a good place to download classical CDs,” let me know; I’ll send you an invitation to join, and if you do, you get bonus downloads, and so do I.

Anyway, my new subscription plan allows me to pick new downloads every three months; I thought I’d list here the CDs I just acquired. I haven’t listened through them all yet; I may do a follow up post with some very amateur evaluations. (One item on my long list of “things I plan to do when my dissertation is done”: study music theory.)

So here’s the list:

Psalms for the Soul
Choir of St. John’s, Elora, Noel Edison

Music of the Reformation
Himlische Cantorey

Brahms: The Complete Works for Violin and Piano
Nikolaj Znaider, Yefim Bronfman

Beethoven: Violin Concerto
Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov, The Prague Philharmonia, Jiří Bělohlávek

C. P. E. Bach: Cello Concertos
Hidemi Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Birgit Remmert, Hans Peter Blochwitz, Ensemble Musique Oblique, Philippe Herreweghe

Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius
Robert Tear, Alfreda Hodgson, Benjamin Luxon, The Scottish National Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Alexander Gibson

The American Cello
Paul Tobias, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Joann Falletta

Respighi: Il Tramonto
Brodsky Quartet