I ACTUALLY BOUGHT RECORDS IN IPOH! @ FUJIYAMA RECORDS

Believe it or not, I actually bought some classical recordings in Ipoh! To begin, are there even record stores in Ipoh? Fortunately enough, I was directed to Fujiyama Records by Phan Ming Ruey, director of Thye Seng 105 Arts Centre at Kampar, Perak. Its located roughly midway between Ipoh old city and Weil Hotel on Jalan Sultan Idris Shah (Brewster Road). 

Fujiyama Records, a hipster hangout, also doubles as an apparel store for pre-loved clothing. The record store occupies the ground floor while the clothes on the upper level. Most of the recordings are vinyl, and the classical section is pitifully small, yet I was able to find several gems - both LPs as well as CDs. Most of these were Japanese pressings, as I later found out the owner was Japanese himself and most definitely sourced his booty from the homeland which is music paradise.

The Hiroko Nakamura recital LP
was actually autographed by her!

Who would have thought you could
find Harnoncourt and Jochum in Ipoh?

This post is dedicated to my friends, the Phan brothers, Ming Ruey and Ming Yen, who would have bought these same recordings had I not grabbed them first.

FUJIYAMA RECORDS

150 Jalan Sultan Idris Shah

30300 Ipoh, Perak

Fujiyama: Not Your Average Record Store | Ipoh Echo 

THERE ARE JUST TWO RECORD SHOPS IN KUCHING, SARAWAK

There are just two record shops in Kuching... and I went to both! Record or CD shops used to be ubiquitous. You used to find them in every shopping centre, arcade or main street. Now they are gone, or maybe hidden in plain sight. I did not look out for these in Kuching, Sarawak, but stumbled on the first one at Carpenter Street.

The sign in Bahasa Malaysia says,
"Beware of black vinyl. It'll empty your wallet,
ruin your life, and poverty awaits."
Damn right.

It's called Bandat Record Store, located on the second storey of a shophouse and entered via a steep staircase. It's mostly pop and rock music, with CDs, vinyl and cassettes. There's still a cool vibe about it, and its air conditioning is an escape from the hot Kuching weather outside. Nope, there is absolutely no classical music here, and Richard Clayderman definitely does not qualify, but I bought a Malaysian keroncong recording.

Everyone seems to worship Bob Marley

Thanks to the helpful young man behind the counter, I was directed to the other record shop, and that one is called Heavy Soul Vintage. It's located in the basement of a deserted Riverside Shopping Complex, sharing the premises with an apparel shop. It's Saturday afternoon, and there's absolutely nobody about! 

The cover says Vladimir Horowitz plays
Beethoven Piano Sonatas, but it's actually
Isaac Stern and Eugene Istomin playing
Beethoven Violin Sonatas. Caveat emptor!

There's mostly pop and rock, but guess what ... a second-hand section of used classical CDs. It's very small but here I found Isaac Stern, Jessye Norman, Herbert von Karajan and surprise, surprise a new mint-condition Denon recording of Mahler's First Symphony directed by Eliahu Inbal. The last three albums were MYR 10 each! Janet said my holiday in Kuching has been fulfilled, quite unexpectedly. While this is not Disc Union, she's quite right!

BANDAT RECORD SHOP

57 Carpenter Street

HEAVY SOUL VINTAGE

Riverside Shopping Complex

Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman

THE FIRST SIX CDS I BOUGHT OVERSEAS (HONG KONG)

Sadly gone, Hong Kong Records at Pacific Place.

Whether it is now or back in 1990, Hong Kong was always a better place to buy CD recordings than Singapore. Hong Kong had a more developed and active classical music scene during the 1980s and 90s, besides having a far better international arts festival. Similarly, buying recordings was always a pleasure in Hong Kong. 

There were more record stores and CD outlets, mostly independent and the ubiquitous (but now defunct Hong Kong Records) even before the advent of HMV or Tower Records. You could even buy CDs at bookstores and giftshops, which always carried a small but interesting collection.

These were the first CDs I bought in Hong Kong when I visited way back in June 1990. Not only did HK have a wider selection, the prices were also cheaper (given the exchange rate) than Singapore.  

A budget-priced compilation of Jorge Bolet
playing Liszt, which included the
Schubert-Liszt Wanderer Fantasy.
Bought at a little shop called Jackie's Records
on Causeway Bay. Autographed by
Bryce Morrison, programme notes writer.

You could always find this in Singapore.
But it's cheaper in Hong Kong.

Ditto. Just HKD 39.50
Later autographed by
Dong-Suk Kang and Pascal Devoyon.

Both CDs were bought at this 
Chinese bookstore on Nathan Road.

You cannot find this anymore.
Live performances from the 1989 Cliburn.
Later autographed by Cliburn winners
Cristina Ortiz, Vladimir Viardo &
Andre Michel Schub. Their photos had been
included in the full list of past winners. 
HKD 230 at United Records, The Landmark.

Latest releases from DG. Just HKD 92.

A keeper. Schoenberg had never
sounded this beautiful.
Later autographed by members of
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

That was when I first discovered Percival Records
on 35 Wing Kut Street, Central.
It was a small musty shop during 1990 but has
since gentrified. It still exists today!

CD shops no longer exist in Singapore, and that is a sad fact of our economy. However, CD shops are still thriving in Hong Kong, which is why we should continue to patronise them as opposed to buying online. But for how much longer?

Positively My Favourite CD Shop in Hong Kong: PERCIVAL RECORDS

Make no mistake about it: Hong Kong is still one of the best places in the world to buy classical CDs. Unlike Singapore, where CD shops have gone the way of the typewriter and LaserDiscs, the business of CD retail is still thriving, judging by the number of independent retailers in existence. This is positively my favourite CD shop in Hong Kong: Percival Records, on 35 Wing Kut Street, off Des Voeux Road Central.

I first discovered Percival Records by accident in 1990, while traipsing through the narrow alley-ways of Central in search of bargains. Then it was a musty little shop with wooden cabinets and classical CDs placed behind glass, but it had the lowest prices: HKD 90 (full-price) and HKD 45 (mid-price) of all the shops in Hong Kong. The range was excellent, covering all the mainstream labels as well as some independent labels, but arranged in a haphazard manner. The only drawback was that it did not accept credit cards then. Suddenly it disappeared during the mid to late 1990s, to be replaced by a generic costume jewellery shop, for which Wing Kut Street was famous.

Fortunately for me and fellow CD lovers, Percival Records returned with a major face-lift sometime after the turn of the millennium. The wooden cabinets are gone, replaced by face-on displays which were far more visually appealing and most tantalising. The CDs are still arranged by label rather than by composer or genre, but most titles could be located with the help of the two sisters who run the shop.

This is a family-managed business started by the Shiu family in 1977, and it continues to be run the family's second generation. Both Shiu sisters speak good English and are very polite and helpful. More importantly, credit cards are now accepted, which means thousands of dollars could be readily blown buying CDs in a happy spree! 

Here is a partial list of titles which I bought on this trip:

Vladimir Horowitz in Carnegie Hall 

(Sony, 41 CDs and 1 DVD):

HKD 818 (approximately SGD 136)

Decca Sound The Analogue Years 

(50 CDs): HKD 830 (SGD 138)

Vladimir Ashkenazy 50 Years on Decca 

(50 CDs): HKD 850 (SGD 141) 

Verdi Requiem / Barenboim (Decca, 2 CDs)

HKD 115 (SGD 19)

Tyberg Symphony No.2 (Naxos)

HKD 55 (SGD 9.20)

These were significantly cheaper than all the other CD retailers I had time to visit. Classical CDs are now way down the list at the HMV shops, and there is little reason to view its pitiful (and still expensive) display. How the mighty have fallen.

Here's how to get to 35 Wing Kut Street. It is one of the pedestrian-only side alleys off Des Voeux Road Central. From Central, take a westbound tram and get off the first stop after passing the Queen Victoria Street Central Market. Then walk a short 50 metres (past Gilman's Bazaar) and take a sharp left into Wing Kut Street. Percival Records is the second shop on the left, beside a popular and over-priced noodle shop. 

Happy browsing and spending!

CD Retail Therapy in South Korea

H.J.Lim's Beethoven sonata cycle
on EMI was the in-thing to get in 2012!

Our trip to South Korea was not meant to be a musical holiday, but it is hard to resist finding out what kind of music shops exist in this most musical of lands and the range of classical CDs available to the public. I was not to be disappointed. For starters, South Korea has its own classical recording industry that produces its own CDs of Korean artists on international labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, EMI Classics, Sony Classical and Warner. The prices were very reasonable, about W15000-16000 for full-priced CDs and W24000-26000 for double-CD albums. Even imported CDs were not too expensive, about W4000-5000 more per CD.

Korean artists were rightly given pride of place in every shop I visited, with CDs by Myung-Whun Chung, Kyung-Wha Chung, Sumi Jo, Kun Woo Paik, Julius Kim, Hai-Kyung Suh, Son Yeol-Eum, Lim Dong Hyek, H.J.Lim, Sarah Chang, Han-Na Chang and many more widely available. It is hard not to fall in love with these wonderful  musical emporia, big or small. The best CD shop, according to my friend Pete Song of Universal Music, was Poong Wol Dang, somewhat inconveniently (for me) situated in Gangnam. Perhaps the next time! Meanwhile, these were the CD shops that I visited, with the damage amounting to hundreds of thousands of Korean won.  

KYOBO HOTTRACKS is attached
to the humongous Kyobo bookstore,
at the basement of Kyobo Building in Gwanghwamun.
Very conveniently located and
can be accessed by the Seoul Metro.
The Classical section has a central shrine erected to the
conducting supremo Myung-Whun Chung.

The only time I ventured south of the Han River
was to COEX Mall, where one will find
EVAN RECORDS.
Its Classical section is a true piece of art. 

Another view of the wonderfully serene
 (other than the classical videos
blaring in the background)
classical section of Evan Records.
One could just spend hours here.

Much smaller is this outlet of MusicKorea at Itaewon.
Curiously, half of the shop-space
is devoted to women's cosmetics.
You know which side I went.

A small but quite respectable Jazz and Classical section
at MusicKorea with many titles by Korean  artists,
including Kim Daejin, Kim Soovin,
Clara Kang and the ubiquitous Sumi Jo.

Jungang Underground Shopping Mall in Jeju City
is your usual centre with long corridors,
populated mostly by boutiques and fashion outlets. 

Jungang Mall's only music shop is BONO RECORD,
which also has a small but satisfying classical selection.
Kun Woo Paik's Beethoven  Piano Sonata cycle
and Myung-Whun Chung's recording of
Mahler's Second Symphony
are available here. 

The high esteem accorded to Korean musicians
may be found in this waxwork display at
Jeju's International Peace Centre at Jungmun Resort.
Sumi Jo and Myung-Whun Chung
are on display along with other Korean greats
like Kim Dae Jung, Park Se Ri, Baek Yong Jun,
Hwang Myung Bo and Guus Hiddinck.  

This Japanese sushi restaurant (Backsa Sushi)
in Jeju City chooses to display  a large  photo of
Kun Woo Paik and his famous actress wife
Yun Jeong-Hie as its most illustrious patrons.

A piano tuition centre in a side-alley of Jeju City.
There are probably more all over the cities of Korea.
Little wonder South Korea produces
so many wonderful pianists!