Sad day: Canada’s last classical store shuts down
mainFrom Ludwig Van Toronto:
The last classical music CD store in Canada is officially closing. As the company announced in a Facebook post earlier today, L’Atelier Grigorian will be shuttering its last retail store in Toronto’s Yorkville in mid-June of 2019….
Read on here.
Very sad indeed! The days of spending hours checking “live” recordings for quality, etc., and building a unique collection are but over – the situation is the same WW!
At least, one has what one has!
The store maybe closing but there are millions of classical CDs for sale.
Yes the second hand store in our town has literally thousands. Certainly not worth buying new CDs these days unless you want brand new recordings.
I went there three years ago – a very interesting shop. However, it seemed that they carried waaaaay too many copies of new classical CD’s of artists that most people would have never heard of. It’s a pity – it’s nice to have places where you can just browse. On the bright side, I also went to an incredible used book and classical cd store in Montreal. I even bought a few things!
Carrying CDs of artists that most people have never heard of can be doing a great service to music and to serious record collectors. The ways artists become “heard of” these days are so slap-dash and chancy, and seem to emphasize skin shows and other extra-musical traits. Artists who refrain from these gimmicks are among those we never heard of.
I agree about the virtues of browsing. That and if the staff plays interesting recordings over the sound system are how I made my most interesting musical discoveries. When you shop online you know what you are looking for and seek it out. When you shopped (past tense) in a good record/CD store (or sheet music shop for that matter) is when you bought stuff you never dreamed existed just minutes earlier.
The most lucrative way to explore unfamiliar music these days may be on YouTube or SoundCloud. I’ve discovered many new (to me) items this way — and often it leads me to purchase the music in order to obtain maximum audio fidelity.
At least Québec still has Archambault, 15 locations according to their website. I always spend a couple hours there when we go to Montréal since I can’t do a good browse (both scores and CDs) at home anymore.
Noooooo!
Just back from Japan where there are still loads of (excellent) shops but everywhere else these shops are sadly dying. Even London has nothing these days
So sad. Hardly any culture-related business can survive in Yorkville Toronto due to extremely high rental fees. I guess this one will turn into a Cafe or a luxury boutique as well.
Sadly, Sikkora’s in Vancouver closed as well. It was a reason to go to Vancouver all by itself.
Toronto’s last, not Canada’s, from what readers are saying. It doesn’t mean a new one can’t open, but articles like this create a doomed atmosphere that prevents new enterprise. How long since America has had a classical music magazine? It’s all a question of attitude. Music lovers are far too prone to negative attitudes.