What are you listening to now?

[Michael]

A lot of Haydn today: Clocks and Hens and Surprises.
I am deliberately staying away from Beethoven for a couple of months and I am doing very well, thank you. In fact, I'm feeling great, but then again the tablets do help.

[AeolianHarp]

A lot of Haydn today: Clocks and Hens and Surprises.
I am deliberately staying away from Beethoven for a couple of months and I am doing very well, thank you. In fact, I'm feeling great, but then again the tablets do help.

I don't believe you for one minute Michael! Why would you want to stay away from Beethoven?!

[hal9000]

You don't want to gorge yourself on too much of a good thing, otherwise you will become sick of it. In my experience I have unfortunately lost some enthusiasm for some of Beethoven's pieces that I used to love from overexposure, so I also take brief breaks from Beethoven to listen to other composers I neglect. In the end I'm always drawn back to Beethoven.

[Michael]

The trouble is I have several recordings of all of Beethoven's huge output so if I get tired of certain works (which I never really do) I can move on to others.
There are nearly 700 works in the canon (ranging from pieces lasting 2 seconds to 2 hours!) Obviously, they are not all masterpieces, but they are never less than interesting.
And to think that he produced only half as much music as Bach, Haydn or Mozart.

[hal9000]

In my experience taking prolonged breaks from certain pieces does often rekindle the flame if that flame has dimmed, as well as, like you said, finding other recordings of the piece that makes one hear the work in a new way, or shines a light on a facet of the work that I never heard before because the other recordings just didn't successfully project such moments. I didn't listen to Beethoven on the fortepiano, for example, until Aelion started linking such recordings here. I never get sick of Beethoven, but the emotional impact of some pieces has waned unfortunately, which is why I'm very selective of when and under what circumstances I listen to some of his pieces. For example, I will never listen to Op. 111 as background while I do something else, or if I'm tired or stressed. It's entirely dependent on my mood now when I listen to certain pieces, and I have the rather good sensibility to know when is a good time to listen to some of Beethoven's more emotional pieces. I think I can listen to pure Beethoven music indefinitely though.

You are right in that there is so much Beethoven that I can just easily move on to other pieces if I am so inclined. I'm listening to his String Quintet Op. 29 now by the Endellion SQ (I'm loving what I am hearing from their cycle so far) and it is a piece I have never really given much time, and I'm really enjoying it.

[AeolianHarp]

I never get tired of any of his music I have got and I have still so much more to discover!

[Decrepit Poster]

I'm doing no serious music listening at the moment and don't expect to for another week or so. Why? My primary computer went belly-up this past Friday. Until things are back to normal I'm pretty much dead in the water. My secondary computer, which I am using now, has only headphones which work well for everything BUT classical music. For what it's worth, I attempted to watch/listen to a performance of Haydn's 104th symphony this morning, but gave up during the first movement due to less than stellar headphone reproduction.

(As for my primary computer, I await arrival of an SSD drive that will be used as my primary partition. It should be here tomorrow. I then began the slow process of reinstalling Windows7 and all my programs. Not looking forward to it. I used to be something of a guru at this sort of thing, but those days are behind me.)

[Sorrano]

This morning:
MacDowell: Piano Concerto #1 in a, Op 15

This is a composer I need to listen to more often.

[Decrepit Poster]

Here is my latest opera selection and this one a real treasure. See if you can guess who the bass is. You are familiar with him:
Clip with subtitles.

Here is the full opera (no subtitles in this one): Pergolesi - La Serva Padrona 1958

This turned out to be surprisingly easy, despite him looking so darn young! Didn't get a chance to watch much of the full opera due to my primary computer conking out on me.

[Michael]

Broke my vow of abstinence and listened to Beethoven's substantial Trio for two oboes and cor anglais. Medication did not work.

[Harvey]

This turned out to be surprisingly easy, despite him looking so darn young! Didn't get a chance to watch much of the full opera due to my primary computer conking out on me.

It is remarkable how much his facial expressions and mannerisms are nearly exactly the same from 1958 to 1981.

[Harvey]

(As for my primary computer, I await arrival of an SSD drive that will be used as my primary partition. It should be here tomorrow. I then began the slow process of reinstalling Windows7 and all my programs. Not looking forward to it. I used to be something of a guru at this sort of thing, but those days are behind me.)

Have you considered switching over to Linux for an operating system. I have been quite pleased with Linux. Rocco can tell you more (He is my IT guy).

The SSD drive is a great idea. Rocco told me you want to make sure that you don't do disk defragment on it (which may be automatic in Windows) as it will shorten the life of the drive.

[AeolianHarp]

Broke my vow of abstinence and listened to Beethoven's substantial Trio for two oboes and cor anglais. Medication did not work.

Honestly I find 3 hours abstinence is too much. Was watching that Cilla Black documentary and had to stop and put the Waldstein rondo on...I am just so in the wrong century...I was desperately craving to hear Beethoven.

[AeolianHarp]

Have you considered switching over to Linux for an operating system. I have been quite pleased with Linux. Rocco can tell you more (He is my IT guy).

The SSD drive is a great idea. Rocco told me you want to make sure that you don't do disk defragment on it (which may be automatic in Windows) as it will shorten the life of the drive.

I second that, you couldn't pay me to go back to Windows ( and I am broke right now!!!)

[Peter]

R.Strauss - 'Der Rosenkavalier' waltzes.