There are times when putting on a record whisks you though time and space, and places you down in an achingly familiar yet strange world. Suddenly you are watching Sunday television sitting on a beanbag in a shag-pile carpeted lounge-room. It is 1973. The theme music from the shows of this period is distinctive, evocative. You can almost smell the faint linger of cigarette smoke in the drapes, see the burnt-orange tiled coffee table.
It is now hopelessly daggy, even a bit tasteless, especially when lovely music from the past has been put through a crushed velvet mangle and served with a prawn cocktail. Mozart for shopping malls. My dad, a classical music purist, hated this “classics up-to-date” style with the fire of a thousand suns. Listening now, even on open-minded and inclusive Planet Vinyl, ya have to admit it: he had a point.
But, hey, it was of its time. It gave musicians a living. And it transports me back to a world in which there were wholesome black-and-white television shows about show-jumping, macramé pot hangers and English country houses. There are worse places.
- Artist: Waldo De Los Rios,
- A Side: Mozart: Symphonie N° 40 En Sol Mineur K. 550 – 1er Mouvement (Allegro Molto)
- Format: 7”, 45 rpm, vinyl, stereo
- Label: Hispavox
- Made in: Belgium
- Catalogue: 2022 004
- Year: 1971
Many of the records featured on this blog, and hundreds of others, are for sale via Discogs
Planet Vinyl 
2 replies on “Mozart for shopping malls”
This cover looks weirdly familiar to me — I suspect it may have resided in my parents’ collection briefly. Maybe it was a gift, because my father wouldn’t tolerate anything but straight classical recordings! Anyway, if they ever had it, it’s disappeared now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was very popular – you find it in pretty much every op-shop. I had never noticed before that each composer is squeezed into a highball glass with a bilious cocktail below. True class.
LikeLike