The Unbearable Banishment: tickling them ivories old school style

Monday, January 26, 2009

tickling them ivories old school style

I paid a visit to the one and only Carnegie Hall for a piano recital.


J.S. Bach! Maurice Ravel! Franz Schubert! Leoš Janáček!

Waitaminute. Leoš Janáček?! Who the hell is Leoš Janáček!? They always throw in a wild card. Well, three out of four is batting .750 and that’s pretty darn good.

The acoustics in that place are mind-blowing. When they come to a quiet passage, you can actually “feel” the silence on your skin. It’s a phenomenon. I can’t describe it.

Brief, one-sentence rant: People who cough during the quiet passages of Bach’s Partita No. 2 in C minor should be punched in the throat for breaking the spell.

The arc of my taste in music is pretty strange. It seems like it was just the other day I was listening to Rush’s Fountain of Lamneth off of their seminal third album Caress of Steel. Now look at me! Digging a recital by a world-class, award winning British pianist with a bunch of Upper East Side high-brows and European tourists who probably never used a copy of 2112 to clean the stems and seeds out of their weed! What a bunch of losers! I should turn in my bong and be done with it.

God, it was good. Simply beautiful. Close your eyes and drift away…

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9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"you can choose not to decide - you still have made a choice..."

a fine song... not a classic in the bach-sense, but a classic in my heart...

January 27, 2009 at 8:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like mixing in the occasional cultured moments such as an Opera at The Met with my regularly scheduled mindless entertainment.

January 27, 2009 at 3:31 PM  
Blogger Stan D. said...

Bach Shmach--it takes a genius to write "Temples of Syrinx"

January 27, 2009 at 5:02 PM  
Blogger The Unbearable Banishment said...

Daisy: That's the problem with a lot of classical music; NO LYRICS!

Pop: It pays to be eclectic. It’s the antidote to boredom.

Tim: I did not know Shmach was Bach’s last name. I like it. It’s catchy.

January 27, 2009 at 8:00 PM  
Blogger Sid said...

Wait you still have your bong? Strangely enough I was wondering if your tastes in music does mellow as we get older.

January 28, 2009 at 1:57 AM  
Blogger Jason Quinones said...

i used to mosh to the likes of bands like slipknot.

nowadays i REALLY enjoy the music of occasional broadway musical.

go figure!

January 28, 2009 at 10:26 AM  
Blogger The Unbearable Banishment said...

Sid: Studies have shown that as you grow older, you tend to embrace the music of your youth. I am an anomaly. My tastes have changed over the decades. I even went through a Luther Vandross/Teddy Pendergrass phase, for Christ’s sake! And I’m with whitest white man you’ve ever known!

Jason: Welcome! I’ve seen you hanging out in Zombie land. Go out and get the soundtrack to Avenue Q. It’ll make you laugh.

January 28, 2009 at 10:32 AM  
Blogger Jason Quinones said...

UB-

took my wife to see AVE. Q a few years back when it first opened.

bought the soundtrack that night!

January 28, 2009 at 12:07 PM  
Blogger A Free Man said...

The only time that I really enjoy classical music is live in a concert hall. I'm betting Carnegie would be amazing!

January 28, 2009 at 7:40 PM  

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