Listening Habits

[Gurn Blanston]

Curious if any of you (as I have) have developed any curious listening habits over the years, and with the advance of technology. Since a drive nearly 2 hours every day round trip to work, and there is no classical music radio where I am, I took advantage of MP3 technology (sorry Bernhard, but I DO rip my own CD's, I have never downloaded even 1 off the 'Net) and burned 5 discs that have all the numbered opus works in order. It is a pleasure to put in 1 disc, and listen for example, to start the Horn Sonata, 6 string quartets, a piano concerto, a wind & string septet, a symphony, a piano sonata etc. For me this mix really shows off the composer's prowess. I have also done this with Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and Dvorak, so far, with others to come. Have any of you similar "habits", or others that would be equally pleasing to me and others?
Gurn

[Rod]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Curious if any of you (as I have) have developed any curious listening habits over the years, and with the advance of technology. Since a drive nearly 2 hours every day round trip to work, and there is no classical music radio where I am, I took advantage of MP3 technology (sorry Bernhard, but I DO rip my own CD's, I have never downloaded even 1 off the 'Net) and burned 5 discs that have all the numbered opus works in order. It is a pleasure to put in 1 disc, and listen for example, to start the Horn Sonata, 6 string quartets, a piano concerto, a wind & string septet, a symphony, a piano sonata etc. For me this mix really shows off the composer's prowess. I have also done this with Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and Dvorak, so far, with others to come. Have any of you similar "habits", or others that would be equally pleasing to me and others?
Gurn

Mmmm...I got lots of 'habits', many beyond the scope of this forum. However I spend 90% of my listening time 'on the move' to and from work. I got a top-of-the-range Sony CD walkman, wafer thin, that lasts two weeks on one charge. I suppose the only peculiarity I have (..er..in this context at least) is that I listen to my collection in strict order, there are no favourites. Considering I continually weed out the less than satisfactory interpretations this is not an uncomfortable procedure.

I presume you are not sampling the mp3s available at the Beethoven Reference Site? Free, but there with the motive of encouraging more interest (and thus more money) in Beethoven's music (and obviously cds).

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[This message has been edited by Rod (edited December 14, 2002).]

[Joy]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Curious if any of you (as I have) have developed any curious listening habits over the years, and with the advance of technology. Since a drive nearly 2 hours every day round trip to work, and there is no classical music radio where I am, I took advantage of MP3 technology (sorry Bernhard, but I DO rip my own CD's, I have never downloaded even 1 off the 'Net) and burned 5 discs that have all the numbered opus works in order. It is a pleasure to put in 1 disc, and listen for example, to start the Horn Sonata, 6 string quartets, a piano concerto, a wind & string septet, a symphony, a piano sonata etc. For me this mix really shows off the composer's prowess. I have also done this with Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms and Dvorak, so far, with others to come. Have any of you similar "habits", or others that would be equally pleasing to me and others?
Gurn

I also like to mix it up. I like to listen to a concerto and then a sympnhony sometimes even just one movement of a piece usually the allegro or scherzo. Sometimes I don't have a taste for the slower movements at all and just lsiten to the 'faster' ones.

Joy

[spaceray]

Originally posted by Rod:
I suppose the only peculiarity I have (..er..in this context at least) is that I listen to my collection in strict order, there are no favourites. Considering I continually weed out the less than satisfactory interpretations this is not an uncomfortable procedure.

So what do you do when the Monkeys CD is next on the list and you just don't feel like listening does it get bumped to the bottom again?

[Chris]

I sometimes listen to the same piece over and over for as long as a couple of weeks without listening to anything else in that time.

[Rod]

Originally posted by spaceray:
So what do you do when the Monkeys CD is next on the list and you just don't feel like listening does it get bumped to the bottom again?

Sorry, only the Classical Music section is so strictly ordered. The other stuff I listen to in an order that typically depends on how drunk I am after a 'big night out'.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Gurn Blanston]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rod:
[B] Mmmm...I got lots of 'habits', ...that I listen to my collection in strict order, there are no favourites.
I presume you are not sampling the mp3s available at the Beethoven Reference Site? Free, but there with the motive of encouraging more interest (and thus more money) in Beethoven's music (and obviously cds).

Rod,
No, I DO listen to them, and you are correct, they do expand horizons, so to speak. I never saved one though, more like listening on a good radio station. And certainly appreciate your efforts there, too. When you say that you listen in strict order, what does that mean? By composer, chronological by composition? I used to take and listen to violin concertos (arguably my favorite genre, at least at that time) in order of date composed, from Albinoni through Walton, and listen for ways that the form evolved over 200+ years. Since this amounted to 200 or so works, it didn't get boring to do this once or twice a year. This same thing works very well (better?) with string quartets, my "genre du jour".
Regards, Gurn

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by Chris:
I sometimes listen to the same piece over and over for as long as a couple of weeks without listening to anything else in that time.

Chris,
Is this different renditions of the same work to hear different interpretations? OR an effort to really get to know a piece? In either case, I think I will try this too, as it sounds interesting. I have 16 versions of the Ninth Symphony, that sounds like a good place to start! ;-)))
Gurn

[Chris]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Chris,
Is this different renditions of the same work to hear different interpretations? OR an effort to really get to know a piece? In either case, I think I will try this too, as it sounds interesting. I have 16 versions of the Ninth Symphony, that sounds like a good place to start! ;-)))
Gurn

Actually, it's because I'm too lazy to get up and change the disc

Really though, it's because I just get hooked on a piece. It's running through my mind all day, and when I get home I just have to hear it. And when I've heard it, I think, "Wow, that was great - I have to hear that again!" And so on. Sometimes it's just one movement of a piece, a part of a movement, or even just a few seconds of musical brilliance that I skip to and listen to over and over again.

Usually it's not multiple recordings - I tend to settle on a favorite recording and just listen to that one. When I find a recording of a piece that I like best, I usually give away the other recordings I have of that piece, unless there's a particular reason to keep it (i.e. second movement was particularly well-played).

[Tom Kristof]

Originally posted by Chris:
I sometimes listen to the same piece over and over for as long as a couple of weeks without listening to anything else in that time.

I do this too - same recording though.

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by Joy:
Sometimes I don't have a taste for the slower movements at all and just lsiten to the 'faster' ones.

Joy[/B]

Joy,
Oddly, I have experienced the same phenomenon with many slow movements, the exception to this being Mozart's, because I think the adagios and andantes are where he really excelled. Notably though, the slow movements are nearly always the shortest, so they don't hold things up too much while waiting fo the "fireworks". ;-)
Gurn

[spaceray]

Originally posted by Chris:
[B]

Usually it's not multiple recordings - I tend to settle on a favorite recording and just listen to that one. B]

So what are your latest favorites.

[Chris]

I haven't bought anything in a while, actually. Well, I did by a complete set of the Mozart Piano concertos, but it hasn't arrived yet.

Fidelio (Klemperer) is sitting in my CD player right now, though, and has been for the last three days.

[This message has been edited by Chris (edited December 15, 2002).]

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by Chris:
I sometimes listen to the same piece over and over for as long as a couple of weeks without listening to anything else in that time.

I do this also, with the distressing result that after a month or two of being played to death, the piece loses its divine magic and never again moves me to the same degree. Even though I can still enjoy it, perhaps in a different interpretation, it is with the
sighing realization that it's no longer the key to heaven that it once was.

The only exception is certain recordings by the Louis Armstrong 1926-28 Hot Five, which have not lost their magic after over forty-five years.

[Rod]

[quote]Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:

When you say that you listen in strict order, what does that mean? By composer, chronological by composition?

Well, this question reveals another 'peculiarity' of mine - the Beethoven CDs are near enough in chronoligical order, whereas with the Handel there is no particular order in this respect. By composer they are mixed together in blocks of about 10-15 recordings of each.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[This message has been edited by Rod (edited December 16, 2002).]