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