U.K. Piano Star James Rhodes Tweets of Stolen Solti 'Ring' CDs

British pianist James Rhodes is used to reaching out to new audiences for classical music. His albums on, variously, Warner and Signum, have titles such as Bullets & Lullabies, Now Would All Freudians Please Stand Aside and Razor Blades, Little Pills and Big Pianos.

And his rather unorthodox (but genuinely very cool) website is certainly refreshing: www.jamesrhodes.tv.

Classicalite loves the title, “JAMES: RHODES MY OFFICIAL WEBSITE (honest)."

But he’s inadvertently found a new audience, and maybe made some shady converts. Because a limited edition CD of Wagner’s Ring Cycle--in the classic Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra set for Decca, conducted by Sir Georg Solti--was sitting in Rhodes’ car, ready to be given as a present to his brother.

However, as Rhodes tweeted, both the set and his iPod were stolen when the car was broken into.

Rhodes was peeved at the loss of the £200 ($301.64) set, but his mission to bring high culture to the masses came first.

“Will all be worth it if they totally get into Rhinegold as a result” he tweeted further. He did, however, suggest that eagle-eyed Londoners watch out for the Ring turning up cheap in one of the capital’s markets anytime soon. If they see it, he suggested, they should of course grab the bargain!

Rhodes himself had an unusual entry into the world of classical music. As he writes on his website and has said many times in interviews, a fairly standard early piano education was followed by a decade-long abstinence from the keyboard, and eventually a triumphant return--but not before a spell as a patient of mental illnesses and, he writes, attempted suicide.

Rhodes, in fact, credits music--specifically, the music of Bach, for which he has been especially acclaimed--with saving his life.

He met his manager from a casual chat in a bar that turned into Rhodes playing him some music and winning his support. Soon, Rhodes’s 21st century approach to music presentation (though he doesn’t tamper with the music, itself) won him an album on the major Warner label, followed by a contract with respected indie Signum.

His latest album is entitled Jimmy: James Rhodes Live in Brighton. It features music by Bach, Beethoven, Moszkowski, Rachmaninoff and Chopin.

Rhodes will appear at the Latitude Festival in the U.K. on July 19, followed by a series at London’s Soho Theater. (He made his U.S. debut at the International Beethoven Festival in Chicago.)

Whether he will have a new, fully loaded iPod with him with which to relax backstage is unknown.

But whoever’s got his last one will, we can be sure, now have access to one heckuva playlist.