Aus dem Guardian-Link :
Why was it love at first sound for me? Well, in those days not many language teachers played gramophone records to their class, but Mr King did. They were old and very precious to him and us, and he kept them in brown paper bags in a satchel that he put in his bicycle basket when he rode to school.
What did they contain, these precious records? The voices of classical German actors, reading romantic German poetry. The records were a bit cracked, but that was part of their beauty. In my memory, they remain cracked to this day:
Du bist wie eine Blume – CRACK – So hold und schön und... – CRACK (Heinrich Heine)
Bei Nacht im Dorf der Wächter rief… – CRACK (Eduard Mörike’s Elfenlied)
And I loved them. I learned to imitate, then recite them, crack and all. And I discovered that the language fitted me. It fitted my tongue. It pleased my Nordic ear.