Peter Goldstein compares his listening habits to mine:

>>Even worse is when you actually buy chunky boxed sets and then take them
>>home. I assure you the very sight of the huge thing will put you off even
>>contemplating the chore of playing the whole monstrosity through from
>>the first CD to last. It is a sure formula for a Mozartian to come to
>>hate Mozart.
>
>To each his own! I learned to love Beethoven through the DGG  vinyl
>Beethoven Edition, and Mozart through the Philips Mozart Edition. I'm a
>sort of plunge-into-it guy, and for me the complete immersion in a single
>composer's output brings rewards that I can't get by listening bit-by-bit
>over many years.

I must confess that even though the idea of having it seemed good, once I
brought the complete Webern I struggled to make myself listen to it, and
his output is tiny compared to Mozart. I also bought the new five CD Boulez
Webern set, and even that was an effort to get through: never mind that I
like Webern even more than I like Mozart! If I were to buy the complete
Beethoven I would probably only use it as a doorstop, even though I love
Beethoven.

I listen in intensely concentrated bursts, often listening repeatedly and
obsessively to things over and over again. If I buy a performance of a
Beethoven String Quartet which I like I can find myself listening to it
like crazy, pulling out the score, and savouring every note. Then I find
myself unable to even stand the music for months if not years.  It's a
somewhat manic way of listening, but I find I struggle to make myself
listen starting at Opus 1 and then progress in a neat, orderly fashion to
opus 132. I think once you develop a particular kind of obsession for a
piece then it is a good thing to use that 'energy' for all its worth, to
intensely saviour that work, and absorb everything you can from the work at
that point in time, until you think you have exhausted it. Having said that
I can make myself listen in a more disciplined fashion (that's how I came
to 'crack' dodecaphony), but there is the danger of making yourself
paradoxically hate a work instead of loving it this way. I am always
struggling to balance this irrational, whimsical listening with
concentrated, disciplined listening.

Next I find that once I have absorbed the way a composer thinks within
a single composition, presents sound and ideas - the sort of 'musical
language' they 'speak' - I find I have developed a similar affinity to
other works by the same composer. Reading about the composer often gives
me ideas about what I am likely to want to hear next. In this way I find I
will naturally find an affinity to some other opus which in turn leads me
to other works until to my surprise, often after a couple of years I find
that I have listened to a large portion of a composers output.

Next comes the task of really getting to know the composer.  Apparently
minor works turn out to have a significance frequently neglected, or shed
light on major works. Early works start to take on a significance they
previously lacked. By this time, a process that takes years, it can almost
feel as though you know the composer personally. You feel an incredible
closeness, and intimacy. Then you know it's love. Before you know it you
can have listened to the majority of a composer's output in this way.

The other process which I find simultaneously takes place is the discovery
of composers who influenced the composer or the composer influenced. If it
were Mozart I would probably end up listening to J.C. Bach, and Haydn for
example or perhaps even Dittersdorf and Salieri. No composer exists in
complete isolation and it is essential to grasp the artistic Zeitgeist
which gave birth to them.

Along the way you gradually accumulate the best recordings of that
composer. You end up ordering obscure recordings which you often come
to treasure. With some works you end up with a large number of different
interpretations. Every time you accumulate a new recording you are excited
when you get it and you listen to it immediately. You don't get that rush
when you move on from CD number 43 to 44 in the complete set. With time
I can end up sometimes buying sets of works, but the best ones are the
smallest ones. Actually I am listening as I write now to part of the 6
CD set of Trevor Pinnock's Haydn Sturm und Drang symphonies (highly
recommended!), which I brought only after becoming familiar with a
reasonable number of them - though as usual this set has sat in a
corner for months since I brought them.

Somehow just buying everything in one big chunk just takes away from this
process of adventure and discovery. It's just not the same. And even if you
did manage to get there, you probably would wish you had come to certain
works through different performances than the ones conveniently packaged
in the set. I hate that feeling of having others make my choices for me.

Then again, quite right: to each his own!

Satoshi Akima
Sydney, Australia
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