Vienna’s premier CD store is now a cannabis joint
NewsAn update from conductor Frederic Chaslin on the Kärntnerstrasse:
So, THIS has been for decades, the largest classical recording store in Vienna, and one of the largest in Europe on three floors. It was once the admiral vessel of EMI. I remember walking through gigantic alleys of classical recordings, operas, and some goodies like autogram… pic.twitter.com/mweLu72j9T
— Frederic Chaslin (@FredericChaslin) May 16, 2023
When they shout ‘bis’ at the Vienna Opera, they must now mean canna-bis.
It’s still giving people highs, but not musical ones.
Vienna. I don’t know what the city is coming to. The other point is that at last count the crooked violin dealer Dietmar Machold was working in a watch shop in that city. Funny old world…..
Interested to hear news about Machold. I knew someone who was ripped off by his crooked ways. (They were one of so many victims who lost fortunes.
This is because people buy from amazon.
Very sad state of affairs.
No. This is because people stream their music and don’t buy physical CDs.
Not the older generation. They would not know
How to do it. Some do not even have a lap top.
This makes me incredibly sad. I remember passing this store zillions of times. It’s not that I lament the passing of LPs and CDs, but I lament the fact that people are trading real diversions for simply getting high. A very slippery slope.
Not good. There is no higher high than that provided by (above-grade) music/music-making. As for ‘bis’ at the Staatsoper, in the face of low-expectation singing standards endemic today, indeed a ‘bis’ there has to be a cry for some other high elsewhere.
Gonna go there to ask for some BIS Records
Maybe the head shop can expand and at least sell some Grateful Dead, Berlioz and Scriabin CDs.
Be careful if you go there wanting Scriabin’s ‘Poem of Ecstasy.’ If they don’t know what you’re talking about, you may be handed real Ecstasy – which in any event will never be as good or fulfilling as Scriabin’s.
In the past I spent many happy hours in that store each time I visited Vienna. It’s a sad reflection on the age in which we live.
This comes hard on the heels of the imminent re-opening of the HMV shop in Oxford Street. By the time they closed, the classical CD shop had already been drastically reduced in size – I doubt whether it will re-emerge in any format when they re-open it.
I just want to say that somebody has decided that society should end up like this. Most of you probably agreed.
It has nothing to do with getting high, people. There are many cannabis products, the most popular being CBD oils. Really, none of you know what is sold in such stores?
And as for records (as well as books), all trade in them has long since moved to the Internet. And this is a very good thing because anyone, no matter where they live, can buy any CD (or book) they want.
HB you are correct. i have mobility
issues i cannot stand for long
browising in a record/CD shop.
lucky we have amazon delivered
to my door.
also cheaper
Dave’s not here. (one for the teenagers there. gets coat)
So weird that these stores keep popping up – Marijuana is not even legal in Austria, so they can only sell CBD products.
I’m afraid I differ on the importance of the HMV shop on Kärntnerstraße for classical music. For me, it was always Da Caruso at Operngasse 4 (directly across the street from Staatsoper), which closed its doors some time ago and I can’t even tell you what’s in there now.
HMV was not strictly devoted to classical music: only the top floor. They also sold rock/pop and had a nice jazz collection. Da Caruso was where you could get a pirated CD of any opera broadcast in the history of the wireless.
There aren’t many streets left in cities, towns (or even villages) where you can escape the mind messing, putrid odour of cannabis (plus an assortment of illegal substances). I suppose it has supplanted cigarette and diesel fumes as the perfume du jour.
Honest question from a citizen of the 21st century: what is a CD?
Far sadder -in my humble opinion- than the disappearance of shops selling CDs is the demise of sheet-music shops. Here in Paris, we still have two first-rate ones. But for how much longer?
CD? What’s a CD?
How we miss the experience of shopping the gargantuan selection at Tower Records in Manhattan and at Picadilly Circus. I fondly remember the mega Virgin records store in Paris (there are still CDs at FNAC at av. des Ternes). Does Berlin’s Dussmann still smother its visitors in CDs?
I also miss tower records in piccadilly.
Wonderful selection of classical and jazz CD box sets. Because i worked in London i went
In there a few times a week spending money.
I still miss Tower Records’ stores (both locations at West 4th street and Lincoln Center at 66th street).