Bernard Chasan wrote:

>Music primarily is perceived via sound - no getting around that fact.

Of course this is true, but I have been listening to(and watching)DVDs
of classical performances lately.  Most of the ones I have been watching
were either solo piano or piano concertos.

One of my most enlightening purchases is the DVD of the 2 Brahms concertos
with Zimerman/Bernstein and the VPO.  The sound is very good (probably
analog), but only the first movements of each work are watchable since
the other 5 movements have the picture out of sync with the music.  The
Brahms first has been one of my 2 favorites for years, but watching the
2nd has given me an entirely new perspective on that work.

Another not unrelated purchase was the 2 CD set on Naxos of the Brahms
2nd with Jeremy Siepmann explaining the entire work.  Jando plays, and
plays well.  While I don't exactly agree with everything that Siepmann
says, his analysis has made me more aware of various parts of the concerto
and their relationships.  I don't really believe that Brahms actually
did all that stuff consciously, in part, based on my experience as an
architect.  I just make many design decisions intuitively and I think
that most composers do this too.

Back to my original point, from which I digressed, watching music being
played is about the only time that I actually get to just sit and pay
attention to the music - bar by bar.  All my other listening experiences
are either listening while I do other things at home or listening on
headphones at the office.  This is one reason that I am not too interested
in the new SACDs and others of that ilk.

FYI - the Jando CD is set up so that you can't just program the tracks
to hear the whole concerto.  I had to copy it to my hard drive and delete
some of the spoken dialog from some of the tracks and then burn it to
blank CD. I essentially did the same thing to the Zimerman using my
spare DVD player, editing out the tune-ups and stuff between tracks.
Zimerman is fantastic in the 2nd, but his d minor concerto first mvt is
a bit metronomic is some places.  A minor problem considering how well
he plays everything else.

Whoever it was that didn't particularly like Brahms should listen to the
Naxos CD.

And BTW - where does the quote "twas ever thus" used in this thread come
from?  Shakespeare?  I tried the internet and couldn't find the answer.

Joel Hill
Tallahassee, FL - USA
ALKAN Web Page: http://www.nettally.com/joelhill/alkan