From halfway down that slippery slope
I think I might be developing an addiction to classical music.
Stop laughing! It’s not funny, damnit! Okay, fine – maybe just a little.
Let me be more specific – I think I’m growing just a bit too fond of live classical music. See, the TSO has this program called TSoundCheck through which those classical fans between the ages of 18 and 29 can get cheap tickets to certain TSO programs. I don’t think it’s too often that a venerable institution like the TSO shares a selling strategy with your average drug dealer – but it’s the same principle, pretty much: first given them a taste for cheap ($12 a pop!), then – once they’re hooked – jack up the prices (anywhere from $35-$140!) and they’ll pay through the nose to get their nose ear candy.
And what can I say? I’ve always wanted to pretend to be an aesthete.
Thursday, they did Beethoven’s 2nd and 6th symphony, along with Mahler’s Rückert Lieder; and oh, how I loved it. It’s especially odd, as I have something of a tin ear for classical music: especially on CD, it all starts to meld into an aural blob of crazed violin bowing to me. Live, though, it comes alive, with people playing in unison, in opposition to synthesize sounds that you can almost feel on your skin. I had no idea music could actually be tactile before; the first time, I couldn’t stop smiling goofily because I had no idea music could feel like that.
I console myself with the thought that there are worse things to be addicted to.
It helps too that the performances aren’t note-perfect. On Thursday, Marie-Nicole Lemieux’s vocals on the Lieder were overshadowed by a too-exuberant orchestra, and perhaps the less sophisticated among us would be better able to appreciate Ruckert’s poetry if the text and a translation were provided with the programme, as was done for the Mozart@250 festival. Nevertheless, if you’re in the GTA area, and you’re between 18 and 29, TSoundCheck is very well worth a try.
Great. Now I’m a pusher.
8 comments:
Are they still at Roy Thompson Hall? I love that shiny thing! ANd I love the walkway from the King station that goes by the pond and you can see the ducks. (I worked for a summer in Metro Hall there, or whatever they're calling it these days.) I went to the symphony quite a few times one of my years in TO. My excuse is that I was in love with a violist. Good times indeed!
Mahler?!?
Have you turned into Maris Crane? Damn it, I knew if I left you to your own devices you'd have to be re-indoctrinated, ahem, I mean educated again!
*fretfully calling Dr. Niles Crane*
Pastoral Symphony for the extreme win.
Beth: Yup, they're still at RTH, though I'm not familiar with the walkway (though at this time of year, would there even be ducks?) How'd it turn out with the violinist, though? :D
Kermit: Yeah, I was hit on the head the other day and the indocrination just came loose. :D
Steve: The 6th symphony was actually my favourite part. :-)
Loved your post but I'l pass on the actual listening of classical music.. :)
Depends on whom you go with, I'd say. Music grows through sharing.
PI: it's really not half bad (must stop with the pushing!) The first thing I went for was a tribute to Mozart (250th anniversary of his death) and it's pretty accessible, even to someone like me who has the most glancing acquaintance w/ classical music.
AQC: It's funny, but I found more takers for Shostakovich than for Interpol, when they were in town last year, despite my best efforts.
Violist was gay, as it turns out. But we're still very close, and oddly it was him I turned to for support during the most recent boy trouble.
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