Kenneth: Thanks for the information. I knew about the BPO channel but not of this free-special!
Anand: I always encourage people to buy as many CDs and Blu-Rays as they can afford, even though some of the materials are "available" online, in order to do 'the right thing', as well as support the industry. As for having met Penderecki, yes, it is one of those moments you carry with you, one of those moments that you feel more alive because you're closer to the flame, brimming with meaning. There have been other occasions like that, the most recent of them last year when I met and chatted with Terry Riley after a concert.
Bill: Thank you for the wonderful post, you are always a fountain of great information! I had never heard of Thomas Wilfred. I just briefly checked him out, what beautiful and original concepts! I remember how amazed I was the first time I saw screensavers on my first computer, which sported a 17" colour monitor. I was amazed at these abstractions, and that was 1984, not 1930!
As for the soundtracks of the '40s-'50s etc., with faux-Rachmaninov/Wagner/Strauss and later '70's-'80s faux-Prokofiev/Holst/Shostakovich/Mahler, of course that has almost always been the case in film, and to us they were laughable at times when things were taken to extremes. However, the imitators of the great masters, at least they knew the craft. The last two decades of soundtracks have been just 'faux' (the vast majority).
But the last point you make rings very true, and I take solace in it.