Bill McGlaughlin, host of Saint Paul Sunday, lends his "Top Ten" thoughts: "Whenever this question comes up of naming a list of my ten favorite CDs, I always feel something of a fraud. I don't listen to CDs very much. I listen to live music all the time, make frequent attempts to play the piano, and otherwise spend my time at home content with the silence. It may be simply that we musicians suffer from always having music in our heads — either music that we're working on, or tunes we simply can't get rid of. (I love the German phrase for a melody that's burrowed its way into your cranium: 'earworm.')

"Still, I admit that when I come upon a list of someone else's favorite recordings, I always read it, out of curiosity alone. In that spirit, I hereby cough up a list of recordings in which I have taken pleasure and inspiration."

These recordings are available from

1. Monteverdi: Marian Vespers, 1610 —Nicholas Harnoncourt/Concentus Musicus Wien (Teldec 42671)

2. Bach: Goldberg Variations —Glenn Gould, piano. (Sony MYK 38479)

3. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas —Vladimir Horowitz, piano (Sony SK 53460)

4. Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 —Wilhelm Furtwaengler, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra (1951) (EMI CDH 69801)

5. Wagner: Tristan und Isolde —Wilhelm Furtwaengler, cond. (EMI CDC 47321)

6. Puccini: Tosca —Maria Callas, Victor de Sabata, cond. (EMI CDCB 47174)

7. Mahler: Symphony No. 9 —Bruno Walter, cond. (Sony SM2K 64452)

8. Schoenberg: Gurrelieder —Rafael Kubelik, cond. (DG 431 744)

9. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (Columbia 40579)

10. John Coltrane/Johnny Hartmann: Lush Life (Fantasy OJC 131)