My first and oldest affection is for music, particularly classical, although I like at least some examples of all genres. Classical music is soulful, wrenchingly emotional at times, beautiful beyond description, and is simply an example of humamity at its best. I happen to believe that most of the greatest music on this earth was written before 1850, but that does not dismiss some of the great masterworks that have been created since 1850. Keep in mind that I am fully aware that musical preferences are highly subjective, so don’t think my tastes are seen by me to be absolutely correct.

There is nothing like a live concert in a good hall. For me, what comes closest to this are the hundreds of live concerts that are available by subscribing to the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall. The sound quality and the camera work are first rate. I highly recommend it. It appears that they offer a pretty good discount on an annual subscription every fall at the start of the new concert season. Kirill Petrenko, a Russian born in Siberia whose family moved to Vienna when he was 18, became the chief conducter around 2019, and his conducting is powerful, inspiring, and clearly driven by a deep love for music and musicians. I just watched his performancee of the Beethoven Symphony No. 8 with the Berliners, and it is by far the best I have ever heard. I thought his tempos were right on, and there is an obviously positive, good humored, and mutually respectful relationship between him and one of the finest groups of musicians gathered in one place on this planet. A performance like this also shows the one great advantage that a video of a concert has over attending a live performance — to be able to observe the conductor’s expressions and his interactions with the orchestra. At the level of the Berlin Philharmonic, the truly collaborative nature of music recreation is a wonderful thing to see. I will be discussing many of the hundreds of beautiful performances presented on the Digital Concert Hall.

Streaming music is wonderful for a non-gearhead like me. I’m long past the days of reading hifi equipment mags. The sound quality is more than adequate for my old ears. My two favorite streaming services are Spotify and Apple Music. As someone who began listening the classical in the mid 1950’s I can say that lossless or high qualty streaming music is nirvana for a guy who used to wait 3 weeks for the arrival of a mail order LP. (By the way, I still own all of the LPs that I bought 30 to 60 years ago. I don’t have a working turntable right now, and its a medium to low priority to get one.) I will provide links to the music I discuss here.