Don Satz:

>For many weeks now I've been listening almost exclusively to Bach's music.
>I don't know how much longer this will last, but I was curious if any other
>list members have spent weeks on end listening to just one composer's
>music.  What factors brought you to this regimen, and how did it end?

Oh, yes indeed.  My binges included Weelkes, Byrd, Bach, Handel, Mahler,
Mussorgsky, Vaughan Williams, Stravinsky, Wagner, Ravel, Poulenc, Richard
Strauss, Martinu, Copland, Bernstein, Weill, Hindemith, Bloch, and Nono
(particularly, Nono's Nonette).  I tried bingeing on Carter, but Carter
wore me out.

I've done this sort of thing for several reasons.  The first was, I wanted
to.  In the case of Strauss, I was preparing a book chapter.  Sometimes,
I had bought a study of the composer and decided to follow along with
recording and score.  For example, I read Wilfrid Mellers's Poulenc study
this way and Taruskin's mammoth Stravinsky.  As to how these things ended:
I don't consider them ended.  All these composers still hold for me the
attractive possibility of yet another bender.

>I'm not worried about listening to Bach; in fact, I'm enjoying it greatly
>- just solo keyboard works.  However, trying to be more well-rounded is
>a goal some people have favored for me - screw them.

Speaking of binges, I'm currently bingeing on the recordings of Rosalyn
Tureck, who for decades has devoted herself, I believe exclusively, to
the music of Bach.  VAI Audio has also released some very early recordings
in which she does other repertoire, and she's fantastic there as well.  I
recommend the album titled "The Young Firebrand," which has a killer Brahms
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel and other delights, and one
called "Premieres," in which she does modern music, including the Diamond
Sonata No. 1 and the Piston Concertino. Tureck's Bach I consider one of
the glories of my listening, but it has deprived me of her Beethoven,
Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, Chopin, and Brahms.

Steve Schwartz