# Pressing the button.



## beetzart (Dec 30, 2009)

If you could have the one off chance to reset your classical knowledge and catalogue to zero but have the same fervor to start all over again, would you press the hypothetical button to do such a thing? To me the thought of discovering Beethoven et al from scratch is quite appealing. When I think back to listening to pieces like Brahms' 1sy sym for the first time and being overpowered by its magnificence is something I'd love to feel again.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Would my age decrease as well? Because I wouldn't want to lose time on discovering new music for the first time...


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I don't think I would. Those initial tidal waves of wonder, enthusiasm and excitement I felt when first delving in to classical was a sufficient one-off reward in itself - it's a time-in-a-bottle feeling and one to think back on fondly rather than to re-experience, I think.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Never. I'm an old man now and look back with huge pleasure at my discovery of more and more music, guided at first by my father ("what can I listen to next?"; "try this one") and then through exploring the collection of our local library. I was a child and heard the music with a child's ear. And as I progressed my deepening appreciation, my discovery of new things in music I thought I "knew", is also precious to me, as is my discovery of the wonder that some many different performances of the same piece could be so different and yet all so right. And, now, my ear hears things that enable me to like new music, even totally new and different, with some understanding as well as a sense of wonder. If I started again, I would never hear any music with a child's or young man's ear, and I would have to work hard to digest even major masterpieces.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

beetzart said:


> If you could have the one off chance to reset your classical knowledge and catalogue to zero but have the same fervor to start all over again, would you press the hypothetical button to do such a thing? To me the thought of discovering Beethoven et al from scratch is quite appealing. When I think back to listening to pieces like Brahms' 1sy sym for the first time and being overpowered by its magnificence is something I'd love to feel again.


I think this is the phenomenon of using music as a drug as i read by a couple composers, of listening to music mainly for an emotional journey. I used to do it, and get thrilled, but over time, it loses its potency like certain antibiotics and drugs. Stravinsky said we could enjoy music much more if we listen for the music itself, which I believe opens up a lot more possibilities and ways of enjoyment, which I definitely couldn't find before. So no way I would press the reset button.


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## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

No, I wouldn’t go back. I’m still making discoveries (not always new music) with the same excitement. That’ll do me fine!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

No, I am fine as I am now, and all the what ifs brings us nowhere.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Not a chance. There's still so much music to discover and get to know. I rarely buy anything that is "standard repertoire" anymore. I do buy (on CD!!!!!!) a great deal of old music newly rediscovered by composers who have long been forgotten. There are some real treasures, and admittedly some disappointments. Sometimes having listened I ask, "why isn't this played more often?". Thankfully, there are some labels that always deliver: CPO for one. But Chandos, Hyperion, Bis, Ondine and some others do a good job of bringing out lost music. Marco Polo used to. Hearing a "lost" work by Pancho Vladigerov is just as rewarding as discovering the Brahms 1st was 50 years ago! And then there's still a vast amount of music by known composers I still, at this late age, have never heard - and it bugs the heck out of me. I still know only a few of the Verdi operas, almost no solo piano music of Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, or Debussy. Lieder is a foreign land, except those by Mahler. So much music...so little time.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Phil loves classical said:


> I think this is the phenomenon of using music as a drug as i read by a couple composers, of listening to music mainly for an emotional journey. I used to do it, and get thrilled, but over time, it loses its potency like certain antibiotics and drugs. Stravinsky said we could enjoy music much more if we listen for the music itself, which I believe opens up a lot more possibilities and ways of enjoyment, which I definitely couldn't find before. So no way I would press the reset button.


I would agree (purely hypothetically) with this, were I not a perpetual adolescent. The emotional component of music is central to my enjoyment of it, and I have never grown out of it--never "grew up", so to speak. With very few exceptions, if I liked it then--whatever music we're talking about--I like it now. And I still get very excited with new music/composers that seem to speak to me in primarily emotional language, whatever the date of the music's composition.


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

When I was a young teenager and my access to music was still in the hands of my father I was directed in a local department store to a Decca Eclipse LP.....as it had on one side both Finlandia and the Karelia Suite.....however after a number of listens I turned it over to the (as then, and more importantly by my father) unheralded 5th Symphony-this was one of my first independent gestures, and I feel like I have never looked back...however I would so enjoy returning to that moment when music seemed to open up !!!!.....a number of years later something similar happened when I first heard the eponymous Clash album on its release...would I like to go back and have that experience....not sure!


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## Genoveva (Nov 9, 2010)

The first two pieces of classical music that really gripped me were Mozart's PC 20 and his Clarinet Concerto. I thought then, and still do, that they are among the finest pieces of classical music ever written. This sparked off an almost insatiable interest in Mozart, and it wasn't long before I had become an adoring fan. Almost in tandem, I became interested in Beethoven, and the same story unfolded there too.

All that was some 13-15 years ago. In the intervening period, I've kept up a pace exploring many other composers from all ages. I have tried never to say I don't like any of the best-known composers because I realised that it was probably my fault due to lack of experience. Now after some 15 years of quite intensive listening to works by hundreds of composers, I still don't like to admit defeat with any of those who typically get into top 30 lists. The only two I have had persistent difficulty with, following an initial wave of interest, are Mahler and Bruckner, but I would never say anything like they're over-rated, as I fully realise that it's my problem.

The main problem as one gains additional knowledge and experience of different composers is to find time to listen to them. Another problem that I have found is that I've become a "completist" (i.e. must have everything they wrote) with regard to quite a few composers. Fortunately, I didn't have to start from scratch in getting my collection together as I was given a very sizeable one (or rather a copy of the files) several years ago. I have filled it out here and there with my special interests, and don't believe there's currently much that's missing that I would like to explore further. The only exception is that I'm very keen on hip/period instruments, so am tending to update older performances with better ones that suit my tastes. That apart, right now I'm trying to listen to material that I acquired a while ago that I hadn't fully absorbed at the time.


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

I suppose this is like the old proverb "familiarity breeds contempt", which I have found to be quite false, especially when it comes to music. I am still finding nuances to discover even in the most familiar music. And I am still discovering new music all the time that captures me and fills me with joy. Music, like most things in life, can only bring momentary satisfaction because we are creatures of time. Hopefully as we mature and grow though, that satisfaction becomes richer and more meaningful. I woudn't go back because I love where I am in this journey.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Not sure why anyone would want to restart anything in life, especially after spending decades at it. Everyone has things they'd do differently, I suppose, but few are so dissatisfied with things now they'd want to start over again. To me it would mean my life and efforts were wasted. I don't think that.


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