| ROBERT E. BENSON has
collected recordings for many years, with particular interest in historic
performances. He wrote countless
reviews for numerous publications, including Forecast FM, Hi Fi Stereo Buyers
Guide, High Fidelity, Stereophile, FI and Schwann/Opus. "Basic
Libraries" were written for Stereophile: Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra (comparing
28 recordings, July, 1991); Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (comparing
36 recordings, November, 1992);
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (comparing 38 recordings, July,
1992); Holst's The Planets (comparing 36 recordings, December, 1992);
Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade (comparing 37 recordings, March, 1993);
Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5
(comparing 53 recordings, December, 1993); Respighi's Roman Trilogy,
(comparing 27 recordings, June, 1994), and Orff's Carmina Burana (comparing
24 recordings, September, 1994).
Bob also is author of Leopold Stokowski - A Life on Record, the life
of the famed conductor and an overview of his major recordings from his first
(1917) to his last (1977), published in Schwann/Opus,
Summer 1994; Willem Mengelberg - Life and Recorded Legacy , the career
and recordings of the famed Dutch conductor, published in Schwaan/Opus, Winter
1993-1994;
and a feature article Recording in the Concertgebouw, a history of the
acoustically-perfect Dutch concert hall and recordings made in it, from the first
(1926) to the present time, printed in FI, April, 1996. Bob also has had an extensive career in public radio beginning with WFDS-FM in Baltimore, which later became WBAL-FM until they changed format and became "98 Rock." After that he was associated with WBJC-FM as host of their highly-successful weekday morning program, and then for ten years was a host of classical music programming on WJHU-FM. Now retired from the Maryland State Arts Council where he was Director of Community Development for two decades, he lives in Glen Burnie, Maryland, where he grows orchids in his "underground" greenhouse (a hobby of three decades), and listens to music on his elaborate surround sound system. Since 2004 he has been working with mirrors and stained glass, creating varied art and decorative pieces. For more information on this, visit this site: www.shinyhappythings.com |