Ooof. With you on the third hour of a concert. Then I feel guilty for insufficient appreciation. And inferiority compared to all of the other seemingly still engaged concert goers. And miss the music anyway.
I can't count the number of times I've drifted off mentally in a concert hall. I like the kinds of mental discourses I can get from hearing live music much more than those I have when my brain is left to its own devices. Nice selections. I couldn't hear a bass or soprano in the ones from 57. Nice to hear the opening to BB1 in 52. BWV 61 sounds Renaissancy, or maybe a bit like the slow movement of "Winter." I did get what you meant by "plucky pizz pivot" when I heard it. Maybe I am getting better?
Oh, dear, nobody needs Richard Miller to tell that it's impossible to listen to Bach or Shostakovich, for example, or any other genius seven hours! But I (you) can read seven hours in the row and enjoy it! I am not musically educated. But nothing can compere with the ecstasy of immersing into music...
Too much of anything is still too much! We just aren't constructed to take that much in all at once. When my family was in London, while I was in college here, I used to go for the summer, and dreaded taking relatives around town - who wants to go to the stupid Tower of London, again? The first 40 times were one thing, but after a while you just can't do it anymore. One of the great things about living in a city, which I do, is that you can go to a museum, see one thing, and walk away - I can come back later and see more. One of the things I do in a concert hall, when I feel that same sense of being overwhelmed, is to think about which composer, who never lived to hear the piece I'm listening to, would I like to bring back from the dead to hear this piece? (My favorite thus far is The Rite of Spring, and Beethoven). I think what you are describing is so normal, and so human.
Ooof. With you on the third hour of a concert. Then I feel guilty for insufficient appreciation. And inferiority compared to all of the other seemingly still engaged concert goers. And miss the music anyway.
There’s no escape!
I can't count the number of times I've drifted off mentally in a concert hall. I like the kinds of mental discourses I can get from hearing live music much more than those I have when my brain is left to its own devices. Nice selections. I couldn't hear a bass or soprano in the ones from 57. Nice to hear the opening to BB1 in 52. BWV 61 sounds Renaissancy, or maybe a bit like the slow movement of "Winter." I did get what you meant by "plucky pizz pivot" when I heard it. Maybe I am getting better?
I didn't include any of the singing in those excerpts! (I should have made that clear.)
Glad you're enjoying the clips -- and that your ears are feeling sharper.
Oh, dear, nobody needs Richard Miller to tell that it's impossible to listen to Bach or Shostakovich, for example, or any other genius seven hours! But I (you) can read seven hours in the row and enjoy it! I am not musically educated. But nothing can compere with the ecstasy of immersing into music...
Too much of anything is still too much! We just aren't constructed to take that much in all at once. When my family was in London, while I was in college here, I used to go for the summer, and dreaded taking relatives around town - who wants to go to the stupid Tower of London, again? The first 40 times were one thing, but after a while you just can't do it anymore. One of the great things about living in a city, which I do, is that you can go to a museum, see one thing, and walk away - I can come back later and see more. One of the things I do in a concert hall, when I feel that same sense of being overwhelmed, is to think about which composer, who never lived to hear the piece I'm listening to, would I like to bring back from the dead to hear this piece? (My favorite thus far is The Rite of Spring, and Beethoven). I think what you are describing is so normal, and so human.
I loved having a MOMA membership when I lived in NYC so I could pop in at lunch at look at a few paintings and leave… a very different experience.
Thanks for persevering and giving us another great update!