Terry Smythe inquired as to the status of the new CD, Rachmaninoff
Vol.  2.  It has been released: Telarc CD-80491.

We've had it at WCLV for about a month.  Should be widely available at
major stores by now, but if you can't find it anywhere, try Amazon.com
in a few days; they say they don't have it stocked just yet.  The
original release, Vol. 1, which they DO have in stock at $14.37, is
ranked 371 in total sales volume among all Amazon music titles (some
50,000!).  Pretty amazing for any classical disc, believe me.

Telarc tells us they've shipped more than 50,000 units of Vol. 1 -- an
absolute grand-slam homer for a classical title in the '90s.  It'll be
interesting to see how well the second volume sells.

If you're a friend of classical music on the radio, anytime you order
something from Amazon.com -- CDs or books -- please do so by connecting
to Amazon.com through our radio station's website, www.wclv.com ,
where you'll find a link to Amazon.com.  Just click on that link, and
Cleveland's classical station WCLV-FM will receive a nice commission on
anything you purchase.  It doesn't cost you any more for the products
you buy; Amazon just nets a few percent less on your order, and you
will support one of the last 30 classical stations left on the commer-
cial radio band at no cost to you.  It's pretty close to something for
nothing.

We heard a pre-release on the new Vol. 2 at WCLV in January; it has the
same spectacular sound as the original.  If anything, I'd say it's a
better first choice for a Wayne Stahnke disc than his original, just
because the selections are more wide-ranging.

Vol. 1 is Rachmaninoff performing only his own compositions.  Vol. 2
is Rachmaninoff playing everything from Chopin (five selections) to
Schubert, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Rubinstein, Bach and Paderewski,
plus a couple of piano reductions of orchestral works, among other odds
and ends.  Especially for more casual listening, the disc is a better
mix to my ear than the all-Rach-composed one.

I can't imagine that many of us MMD types wouldn't enjoy one or both
of these titles.  As has been said many dozens of times on these pages,
the Stahnke recordings are simply brilliant.

Rich Marschner