John Dalmas responds to Bernard Chasan:

>>it is a simple matter where you get into a situation where you can't
>>possibly listen to your entire collection in the time alotted to you.
>
>Bernard Chasan suggests that a passionate collector is a dispassionate
>listener, and that if music is too accessible, the great works become
>wallpaper.  In my case, the rule is never to play the music unless I
>have the time to listen.  Accessibility was never the problem.  Time
>increasingly is.

That's just one man's opinion.  I am a passionate collector and listener.
There are some pieces I listen to score in hand, and others I listen to
while driving in the car, or while chopping vegetables for dinner, or while
gardening and doing other household chores, or while drawing or knitting.
We often listen to music at dinner.  It doesn't take away anything at all
from my enjoyment of music to have music around me all the time.  If it
isn't playing on the cd or tape player, it's playing inside my head.  I
have been this way all my life.  I take music very seriously, and don't
feel that frequent listening detracts in any way from the music I love.
If I get temporarily tired of a particular piece, I just put it in
semi-retirement and listen to something else.

Mimi Ezust