# Goals for 2022



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Anyone have any musically inclined goals for the New Year? I have three:

1. Get through that large BIS set of the complete Sibelius works.
2. Listen at least one opera I've never heard each week. That includes a lot of Verdi and Mozart.
3. Get my out of control cd library organized!


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Spinning my Christmas present 
Ans I nicked your 3 Get my out of control cd library organized!


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

Rogerx said:


> Spinning my Christmas present
> Ans I nicked your 3 Get my out of control cd library organized!


Where did you get the present from...


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

KevinW said:


> Where did you get the present from...


From my family .:angel:


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

My listening time is now drastically reduced compared to what it has been, so I won't set as many ambitious goals as I did last year (plus, I prefer to spend a good chunk of my leisure time on reading), but here's a few I have in mind:

1. Complete my journey through the "basic" operatic repertoire, listening to all the works by Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, and Mozart with which I am unfamiliar as well as all of the other popular works in the canon.
2. Spend more of my listening time on "obscure" and unfamiliar composers. I am rather biased toward "canonical" works and composers, and although for the most part my ventures into neglected territory have proved my suspicions correct, every once in a while I discover an unknown gem, and that's enough motivation.
3. Complete my year-and-a-half-plus-and-ongoing project of listening through the entire oeuvre of J.S. Bach and keeping a journal of notes and observations along the way.
4. Devote more time to historical recordings of familiar repertoire.
5. Choose one composer who is currently not among my favorites to study in-depth throughout the year. Last year I chose Berlioz, and it reaped great rewards. Don't know who it would be this year.


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## KevinJS (Sep 24, 2021)

mbhaub said:


> Anyone have any musically inclined goals for the New Year? I have three:
> 
> 1. Get through that large BIS set of the complete Sibelius works.
> 2. Listen at least one opera I've never heard each week. That includes a lot of Verdi and Mozart.
> 3. *Get my out of control cd library organized!*


Good luck with that. When you've done it, let me know how? Stop buying more music is the wrong answer.

Oops! Forgot some goals:

1) Get my out of control cd library organized.
2) Get my out of control vinyl library organized.
3) Listen to at least one "new-to-me" piece of music a week
4) Stop buying music. (Not happening. Might slow down a bit though, until I've cleared some space.)


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

KevinJS said:


> Good luck with that. When you've done it, let me know how? Stop buying more music is the wrong answer.
> 
> Oops! Forgot some goals:
> 
> ...


Perhaps you get some presents from people you love.


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## KevinJS (Sep 24, 2021)

Rogerx said:


> Perhaps you get some presents from people you love.


True, that. Might as well go with the flow. I'll find room as I'm forced to. Haven't failed yet.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

1. I have hardly listened to any Bach cantatas. I should purchase a cycle and listen to more of them.

2. Of Wagner, I have only listened to Parsifal. Fortunately, I got a box set of Carlos Kleiber's recordings which include Tristan und Isolede.

3. Lately, I have been familiarizing myself with Mahler's symphonies. I will be continuing that over the next few weeks.

4. Get a Brahms symphony cycle. I am familiar with the symphonies through Youtube; I should get them on CD.


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## KevinJS (Sep 24, 2021)

ORigel said:


> 1. I have hardly listened to any Bach cantatas. I should purchase a cycle and listen to more of them.
> 
> 2. Of Wagner, I have only listened to Parsifal. Fortunately, I got a box set of Carlos Kleiber's recordings which include Tristan und Isolede.
> 
> ...


Some honourable goals.

I bought my Bach cantatas from the widow of a gentleman who obviously thought he would enjoy them. When he died and I bought them, only one box, of 12, was open. I really need to dig into them before they join MY estate sale unopened.

Wagner. No comment. Maybe he's a goal for another year. I have plenty of his stuff in the collection, but don't find time to get into it.

Mahler. Wow. What a hell of a ride that one has been, and I only just started. 1, 3, 4 and 8 are making sense. I'll be working on the others. I can see Mahler occupying much of my listening time in 2022.

Brahms. I have the symphonies several times, but the only "cycle" I have is Karajan on vinyl. Good stuff though.


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## vincula (Jun 23, 2020)

1. From a listener's perspective, I'd like to deepen myself into the 2nd Viennese School (Berg, Schoenberg, Webern, Krenek, Wellesz, Ullman...) and into Pierre Boulez's legacy both as conductor and composer.

2. From a player's perspective, my goal's to learn more jazz standards and blues heads, and get a solid grasp on jazz blues improvisation in all 12 keys.

Regards,

Vincula


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

mbhaub said:


> 3. Get my out of control cd library organized!


For me that is a project that started something like 3-4 years ago. Play every single CD I have again, catalogue them and file them in the many CD cabinets per composer in alphabetical order. I'm at the S now (hopping to and fro from Schmidt to Sibelius to avoid overdosing on a single composer), and my minimum target is to have the S done at the end of the year (100+ each for Schubert, Shostakovich and Sibelius alone). A more ambitious target would be to finish the T as well, but I don't think that will happen.

I have been minimizing buying more CDs for a few years already, unless I come across bargains that are irresistible.


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

I`ve failed my primary goal for 2021 which was to go through Handel`s Operas & Oratorios. I think I haven`t even started doing that. So I`ll choose an easier primary goal for 2022. I`m still relatively unfamiliar with Stockhausen so going through his major works and things like _Klang_ and _Klavierstücke_ seems like a viable goal. And if I succeed, perhaps check some of the _Licht_.


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

Rogerx said:


> Spinning my Christmas present
> Ans I nicked your 3 Get my out of control cd library organized!


Oh my, Rogerx! What a LOVELY Christmas present. I feel a need to congratulate you, even!


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Highwayman said:


> I`ve failed my primary goal for 2021 which was to go through Handel`s Operas & Oratorios. I think I haven`t even started doing that. So I`ll choose an easier primary goal for 2022. I`m still relatively unfamiliar with Stockhausen so going through his major works and things like _Klang_ and _Klavierstücke_ seems like a viable goal. And if I succeed, perhaps check some of the _Licht_.


I have casually listened to most of Handel's oratorios. After Messiah, listen to:
Israel in Egypt
Solomon
Theodora
Saul


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Take another journey from medieval to contemporary. I've identified what I think is the most recommended music in each period, and over the past eighteen months have listened to around 900 pieces. For 2022, I plan to re-listen to those and add the next layer down in recommended listening, about 500 new pieces.

Jan-Mar: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque
Apr-Jun: Classical
Jul-Sep: Early-Late Romantic
Oct-Dec: Post Romantic, Modern, Contemporary

I may share the journey in a thread.


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## composingmusic (Dec 16, 2021)

vincula said:


> 1. From a listener's perspective, I'd like to deepen myself into the 2nd Viennese School (Berg, Schoenberg, Webern, Krenek, Wellesz, Ullman...) and into Pierre Boulez's legacy both as conductor and composer.
> 
> 2. From a player's perspective, my goal's to learn more jazz standards and blues heads, and get a solid grasp on jazz blues improvisation in all 12 keys.
> 
> ...


These are great goals - Boulez and SVS are really quite fascinating, imo. Historical context is particularly important for this group, I think. Also, Boulez' evolution as both composer and conductor is particularly interesting, as he was such a polemic figure when he was younger, but became more mellow as he grew older. We studied some of his works and looked at how he evolved in one of my professor's lectures on contemporary music.


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## composingmusic (Dec 16, 2021)

Some personal goals:
To take and refine the compositional goals I’ve been working towards during my degree so far. I also want to work on the more general music related things that have gone into this, like certain aspects of my listening habits (working on paying more attention to instrumental function, discourse, etc)

I also have a few specific pieces that I’ve been asked to write, and my goal is to make these as good as possible.


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

Goals for 2022

To survive 2022 so that I can set goals for 2023


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## haydnguy (Oct 13, 2008)

Rogerx said:


> Spinning my Christmas present
> Ans I nicked your 3 Get my out of control cd library organized!


I want that! I searched on Amazon and it looks like the boxed set they have is not the one you show. The one they show is out of stock and it says they don't know if they will have it in stock again.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

haydnguy said:


> I want that! I searched on Amazon and it looks like the boxed set they have is not the one you show. The one they show is out of stock and it says they don't know if they will have it in stock again.


It was bought a while back, so I had to wait. :angel:


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Art Rock said:


> For me that is a project that started something like 3-4 years ago. Play every single CD I have again, catalogue them and file them in the many CD cabinets per composer in alphabetical order. I'm at the S now (hopping to and fro from Schmidt to Sibelius to avoid overdosing on a single composer), and my minimum target is to have the S done at the end of the year (100+ each for Schubert, Shostakovich and Sibelius alone). A more ambitious target would be to finish the T as well, but I don't think that will happen.
> 
> I have been minimizing buying more CDs for a few years already, unless I come across bargains that are irresistible.


Thats a very dangerous comment Art - a great excuse, which I guess, we all use.

Edit: three goals.

1. Listen to as much of the music I love as I can.
2. Explore anything new that piques my interest.
3. Try extremely hard not to succumb to Art's get out clause above.

I know which one will be a failure - no prizes for guessing :lol:


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I started going through my collection for weeding out, re-packing, sorting etc. about 2 years ago and while I had some success and even managed to sell/trade around 80 discs or so since autumn 2020, it's a very slow process. I need to go through the shelves of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and also some Mozart and Handel (again) but this will be arduous and I'll probably skip over some areas that would need weeding.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

1.) Write my next novel. My first novel has been utterly ignored by agents (completed on Jan 1st of last year). I think it's a fine novel, about a girl in Vermont who deals with the aftermath of her father's attempt to murder her and her mother, and a near death experience that changes the course of her recovery. My next novel is going to be a shameless attempt to *Sell Out*: A Romance that takes place in Vermont in the same time town and with some of the same characters.
2.) Write more poetry, dramatic and narrative now. I've written well over 2ooo haiku, including four years worth at one haiku a day. About once or twice a month I'd write a really beautiful haiku. I'm done with those now. Need to organize them and see if there's any interest in publishing them. Prob'ly not.
3.) Memorize Shakespeare's Sonnets. (Prob'ly not.)
4.) Find that last CD purchase where I'm going to be like: Yeah. This is the one. I don't need anymore. I'm done now. (Really, really, super-duper unlikely.)
5.) Play through Bach's BWV 1053 and 1055 without making any mistakes. (When pig's fly.)
6.) Replace my aging stereo components but ya'll are useless. Ya'll are arguing over streaming vs. CDs and not being helpful at all. Ya'll can't say *D minor* without disagreeing on it.
7.) Maybe listen to one or two more pieces by Chopin and see if I like him yet. (Prob'ly not.)
8.) Find every thread that Hammerklavier is in and type: "*Joseph Haydn*" for ***** & giggles.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Listen to what I feel like whenever I feel like it without any need to accomplish specific goals 

OK, that's self-contradictory but still within the spirit of it all :lol:


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Won't be setting listening goals - that would feel too much like homework for my liking. My goals for playing the piano (I went back to lessons a little over three years ago) will be set for me by my self-confessed slavedriver of a teacher!


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## composingmusic (Dec 16, 2021)

Becca said:


> Listen to what I feel like whenever I feel like it without any need to accomplish specific goals
> 
> OK, that's self-contradictory but still within the spirit of it all :lol:


Fair enough! Makes sense, and enjoyment is good!


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

My wish for 2022 is for my wife's health to continue improving.

As for musical goals, I just intend to continue doing what I've done in previous years.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

For this year 2021, I think the most memorable change is Rebecca Saunders. I found her music infuriating before, but I think she is now my favourite living composer.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

KevinJS said:


> Good luck with that. When you've done it, let me know how? Stop buying more music is the wrong answer.


Probably by dying. Then I won't have to worry about it! Hate the idea of it all winding up in the landfill.

But I do have a plan: take a lot of the duplication that I never listen to anymore and put in the attic or eBay or give away. Such as the Bernstein/Vienna and Karajan Brahms. Mahler sets by Abravanel, Ozawa, Zinman. I really don't need 24 sets of Elgar symphonies, 10 of Sibelius, 8 of Tchaikovsky. I don't need eight Ring cycles. Just decide which are the favorites and keep them. Sopt buying? Won't ever happen; but I have been getting much, much more selective and despite sometimes rave reviews I don't buy anything that I have so many versions of already. 30 Scheherazades now. Number 31 would have to be pretty spectacular for me to buy it.

I do have the entire collection on a database and that will have to be updates also. Dying is looking better and better!


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Bulldog said:


> As for musical goals...


I know you don't have in mind any goals. Only games.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

To continue exploring Classical Music.

To continue composing.


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## KevinW (Nov 21, 2021)

Captainnumber36 said:


> To continue exploring Classical Music.
> 
> To continue composing.


Do you compose in the Mozart's style?


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

KevinW said:


> Do you compose in the Mozart's style?


It's more new age/pop classical. Head over to the today's composers section to find my stuff!


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

hammeredklavier said:


> I know you don't have in mind any goals. Only games.


Hey, Mr. know-it-all. Completing games is a musical goal.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

KevinW said:


> Do you compose in the Mozart's style?


I used to when I was younger; and always wished I had to talent to write completions like Robert Levin & others. That's as close as we come to a modern day classical composer.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

mbhaub said:


> Anyone have any musically inclined goals for the New Year? I have three:
> 
> 1. Get through that large BIS set of the complete Sibelius works.
> 2. Listen at least one opera I've never heard each week. That includes a lot of Verdi and Mozart.
> 3. Get my out of control cd library organized!


My classical music library is more-or-less complete, and it is well organized (a project I took on during the COVID lock-down). Like a lot of classical music enthusiasts I've struggled with opera; and sometimes I think that true opera lovers are a sub-set of true classical music lovers that are even more obsessive and a bit strange that we classical music fanatics. Even so, I've built a modest collection of opera recordings on CD and would do well to at least figure out why I love the excerpts from Wagner but am bored by the rest of it. In this sense learning to love Wagner could be a goal but maybe not one that is realistic. On the other hand, there are composers such as Schoenberg, Boulez, Cage, and others, who for me went from unbearable to almost listenable with a little time and patience.

All-in-all, my goal is to continue to enjoy great classical music where ever I find it; to keep enjoying to the music that has caused me to find some beauty in this weary world; and to keep listening to the composers that I still do not completely understand so that I may continue the joy of discovery in taking something that is mystifying at first, and finding the soul and the musical vision that lies beneath.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Coach G said:


> I've struggled with opera; and sometimes I think that true opera lovers are a sub-set of true classical music lovers that are even more obsessive and a bit strange that we classical music fanatics.


You're not the only one who thinks that. There's something fetishistic about opera lovers.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

vtpoet said:


> You're not the only one who thinks that. There's something fetishistic about opera lovers.


I think that are true classical music lovers, not your average person who likes classical music whenever they chance to hear it, but people like me who have an obsession with it, and that is strange enough. Then there is the sub-set of true opera lovers who are even MORE obsessive and stranger; and then there is the innermost realm of true WAGNER lovers...

The late, great Stephan Hawking was a Wagner lover, and as many times as I tried to understand and finish his book, _A Brief History of Time_; I had just as much difficulty trying to understand and make way through Wagner's _Ring_ cycle.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I don't normally have goals for the year ahead, etc, but I do want to finish blogging all the Beethoven quartets in 2022 (I'm almost halfway through the lot now and I'm partway through finishing one quartet as I write).


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## Tero (Jun 2, 2012)

Listening is good. I took out one of my credit cards out of the Amazon account. So I would not buy CDs until I have played every CD I bought in 2021 and either decided to keep or dispose. There is some sort of questionable metal band stuff, albums of these youg folks playing guitars and keyboards fast. And I only like one track on it. Example:


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Coach G said:


> ...and then there is the innermost realm of true WAGNER lovers...


I remember reading about Purcell and early British opera. The proto-Wagnerians were already there, demanding that operas be "fully sung", while the more "reasonable" among the audience liked the music but also liked their spoken drama. Purcell's only fully sung opera was, I think, Dido and Aeneas.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Yes, and Dido was for a girl's boarding school or so, therefore on such a small scale. It's a great piece and it is a pity that the at least as good and more lavishly orchestrated music of Fairy Queen and King Arthur is quite hard to stage nowadays because of the "semi-opera" format with music mostly reserved for scenes at the margins of the play. King Arthur has a ridiculous plot anyway but the other one would have been a full Midsummernight's Dream opera.

But the British apparently fell for full Italian opera a few decades later with Handel, Bononcini etc. offering opera in London.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Listen to more opera. I got over my opera allergies this year with Freischutz, Peter Grimes and Un Ballo in Maschera - going to go for more Verdi, Berlioz and Puccini next year.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Captainnumber36 said:


> To continue exploring Classical Music.
> 
> To continue composing.


How good can goals be. Good on you.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

To properly get my head 'round Berg's Lulu (there's a double entendre in there, I think)


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

mbhaub said:


> Anyone have any musically inclined goals for the New Year?


I'll continue to listen to music, from my collection and on radio and youtube. I usually read a handful of books on music, including a couple of composer biographies, every year. Since the emergence of the pandemic that's been made difficult with the closure of libraries. Hopefully in 2022 the situation can get better so I have more of a chance of continuing that.

I haven't purchased a classical CD for two years. My collecting more or less wound up since I finished a big cull of my collection in 2017, which took a few years. I have continued to buy some jazz and rock, a handful every year, and I'll probably continue with that.

Like many here, I think it would be great to attend live performances again. As with collecting, my attendance at concerts is nowhere near as prolific as it used to be. At the same time, before the current situation I went to at least a couple every year. There's nothing like enjoying a good concert as part of a relaxing weekend.


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

HenryPenfold said:


> To properly get my head 'round Berg's Lulu (there's a double entendre in there, I think)












Ahem....back to the question. Northing radical - just to make some of those purchases which have been mouldering in my Amazon basket for years.


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## FrankinUsa (Aug 3, 2021)

elgars ghost said:


> Ahem....back to the question. Northing radical - just to make some of those purchases which have been mouldering in my Amazon basket for years.


The problem is that things become NLA depending on how they sell. It's become a fact. If you see anything you like you need to buy it. The "catalog" no longer exists.


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

FrankinUsa said:


> The problem is that things become NLA depending on how they sell. It's become a fact. If you see anything you like you need to buy it. The "catalog" no longer exists.


I took a quick look. I forgot that I culled my Amazon basket some time back so there are only a few items left which I obviously thought I should prioritise. Prices are still rock-bottom in terms of buying used copies but I'm still in no hurry to get any of them at all.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

HenryPenfold said:


> To properly get my head 'round Berg's Lulu (there's a double entendre in there, I think)






I help you, it's om my playlist for as long as it is on you tube.


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## HerbertNorman (Jan 9, 2020)

I will continue to check out new composers , when I have the opportunity! TC has helped me find some gems , so I will continue checking out the forum too :tiphat:

I hope I get to go to more concerts this year too! My children are getting a bit older and I am planning on taking my eldest son to the opera house and the royal Albert hall this year...


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