# "The light just came on" moments . . .



## drnlaw (Jan 27, 2016)

Has there ever been a work that you thought you ought to like, because it's a recognized masterpiece, but you just couldn't get into it no matter how many times you heard it? And then, you heard just the performance that turned the light on for you?

I'm 66 years old, first heard the Schumann a minor Piano Concerto some time in my late teens to early 20s, couldn't get into it, tried probably 30 or 40 times to get into it, always without success, and then back a few years ago, heard a live performance of it with my beloved Toledo Symphony Orchestra, with Hélène Grimaud at the piano, and once I got beyond her histrionics, found that her archly romantic performance of it made it come alive as it had never come alive to me before, and now it's a favorite of mine.

Any similar experiences out there?


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Not quite the same, but when I was younger, the slow movement of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata never made any sense to me (in fact seemed endless -- like some Bruckner symphonies  ) Then I came home from work one day, put it on and lay on the couch reading. And started falling asleep. And in my half asleep stage, the slow movement developed into a thing of astonishing beauty -- and I've never had trouble with it since. (Charles Rosen's Columbia performance, by the way.)


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## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

Mozart meant nothing to me until I heard Hilary Hahn's recording of the 5th Violin Concerto. As for why that piece, why that performance, I have no idea.


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## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

The Rite of Spring never did much for me, until I listened to it one day and it all clicked. It's one of my favourite pieces now, every second of it.


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## drnlaw (Jan 27, 2016)

MarkW said:


> Not quite the same, but when I was younger, the slow movement of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata never made any sense to me (in fact seemed endless -- like some Bruckner symphonies  ) Then I came home from work one day, put it on and lay on the couch reading. And started falling asleep. And in my half asleep stage, the slow movement developed into a thing of astonishing beauty -- and I've never had trouble with it since. (Charles Rosen's Columbia performance, by the way.)


Ah, brings back old memories. I bought a boxed set of the Rosen Beethoven Sonatas for my Dad some thirty or forty years ago.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

MarkW said:


> ... Then I came home from work one day, put it on and lay on the couch reading. And started falling asleep...


Same thing happened to me with Poulenc's Concert Champetre. I've loved it since that day.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

After about 6 months for both the Schoenberg Violin and Piano Concertos. A lot of concentrated listening.

These are amazing compositions. What a genius!


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## jailhouse (Sep 2, 2016)

i used to always try and get into Mahler but i just couldn't. I listened to the first symphony and the 4th symphony and hoped for something to move me but it just wasn't really happening.

And then i heard the second symphony and liked it, and basically cried uncontrollably at the end of the final movement the second time i heard it. Went back to the 1st and 4th and started liking them more. Now I pretty much love all his music


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## Jerry (Oct 17, 2016)

The Berg Violin Concerto.
After the wonderful opening it was all just weird noises. Until last night. When I tried Mutter's recording - suddenly it all made beautiful sense!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

MarkW said:


> And started falling asleep. . .


There must be something about this state. I was in a semi-alert state at work with the Schoenberg Wind Quintet, Op. 29 going on in headphones. It and other serial works were complete nonsense to me, but suddenly the instruments seemed to be having a conversation I could almost grasp. I found it amazing and riveting.

I started making a Spotify playlist of serial and other modern-ish works to play at low levels while drifting off to sleep at night. (Sounds like sacrilege, I know.) Now I can enjoy Boulez, and Messiaen (who isn't really serial, or at least not always) and Berg, etc. I haven't cracked Webern yet. I don't pretend to understand the works much intellectually. I just enjoy the textures, rhythms and whatever repeated phrases I can recognize.


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## Friendlyneighbourhood (Oct 8, 2016)

Jerry said:


> The Berg Violin Concerto.
> After the wonderful opening it was all just weird noises. Until last night. When I tried Mutter's recording - suddenly it all made beautiful sense!


I loved that one straight away, it's a really emotional work. :tiphat:


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## Clairvoyance Enough (Jul 25, 2014)

I put on Ligeti's string quartets after some repeat listens to Schoenberg's wind quintet and 4th string quartet, and it turns out "spooky" ain't so disorientating when you don't have to digest 134 layers of counterpoint every five seconds. Ligeti sounded pretty straightforward by comparison.

Also Gesang der Jungling. I've hit a saturation point with the timbres of traditional instruments and the beauty of their pure sound rarely strikes me anymore, so when I gave Gesang another try it felt like my ears were just gorging themselves on all these wonderful new textures. As a composition I still find it unlistenable start to finish, but that's what fast forward is for. To be fair, my favorite parts sound as if they could be pretty easily transcribed to traditional instruments, the first couple of minutes for instance.


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## Friendlyneighbourhood (Oct 8, 2016)

I used to never like Pierre Boulez, but I heard his piano sonata's 2 and 3 at a concert a year ago here in New York and was taken back by it!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Dvorak piano concerto , stunning work.


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## Marinera (May 13, 2016)

Mozart's Requiem conducted by J.E. Gardiner 'opened' my ears to Mozart's Requiem in particular and sacred, especially choral works in general. Curiously, I was half napping too when I heard it. Though, Lacrimosa appreciation came later only when I heard Solti's version. I think that Gardiner's Lacrimosa is a bit too swift to sink in, even if it has to be so for consistency's sake to fit in with the conductor's interpretation for this work, but it does not shine there. However, I believe I 'heard' Mozart's Requiem because of Gardiner's smaller scale choir and very clear singing as well as quicker pace he conducted this Requiem, plus I really liked Anthony Rolfe Johnson's intro in Tuba mirum his attack sounded somehow more startling than any others I've heard I think.


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## TwoPhotons (Feb 13, 2015)

Yes! The Piano Concerto No.2 by Brahms.

If you go to this post which I wrote last year, you will find me criticizing Brahms' music, including his 2nd Piano Concerto.

This summer I decided to give the 2nd Piano Concerto another chance, and it all became clear to me. By the end I was ecstatic because I finally felt like I had understood Brahms' music. All the harmonies and transitions made sense, finally.

I think what the problem was was that I was focusing too much on individual notes, and when the notes didn't fall where I was expecting them to fall, it made me frustrated. But recently I've begun to focus more on the overall shaping of phrases, as well as their direction. For example, that piano entrance is an interruption of the orchestra, but it also has a sense of yearning about it. And whereas before I felt it was all inappropriate, now I think it's perfectly appropriate.

That listening experience was probably the biggest "light bulb" moment I've ever had in music, because Brahms was always such a problematic composer for me.


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## Totenfeier (Mar 11, 2016)

About a year ago I was on this board asking for help in "getting" Bruckner. I got many good replies and tried again. Then I watched the Youtube of Celibidache conducting the 8th. Somewhere in the early part of the scherzo, it was...


...oh!


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

couple of years back Zinman and the Tonhalle Zurich opened my ears to Schumann's symphonies-I can still remember the dawning realisation that somehow I now 'got it' with Bob-forever indebted and have not looked back......

not so long ago-same thing-Brahms 3rd and the Mendelssohn symphonies. It is why I keep on listening!


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## isorhythm (Jan 2, 2015)

I actually had one of these experiences on Friday hearing the Belcea Quartet play Shostakovich's eighth quartet at Carnegie Hall - I'd always been indifferent to it (and most Shostakovich) before but this time it really clicked.

Edit to correct - it was the eighth quartet, not tenth.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

MarkW said:


> Not quite the same, but when I was younger, the slow movement of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata never made any sense to me (in fact seemed endless -- like some Bruckner symphonies  ) Then I came home from work one day, put it on and lay on the couch reading. And started falling asleep. And in my half asleep stage, the slow movement developed into a thing of astonishing beauty -- and I've never had trouble with it since. (Charles Rosen's Columbia performance, by the way.)


There is actually a technique that I discovered. If you put on a piece of music in the background while doing something else (repeat it several times) one day it might just reach out and grab you. Has happened to me many times.


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## bz3 (Oct 15, 2015)

When Bruckner's symphonies went from bloated brassy eternities to magnificent and peerless creations. When I revisited Bartok after becoming enamored with Janacek and the former clicked somehow. When I fell for Wagner.


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## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

Having bar tended for over 20 years, every late spring when the weather would start warming up, orders for Gin & Tonics would start pouring in. Gin had been the last major type of spirit I couldn't get into. So at this time every year, I would make one, take one sip and "Blech!!" "How do people like this stuff?" I would always ask. Then about 6 years ago, I took my annual sip said, "Wow, this is absolutely delicious and refreshing." I've been drinking them in the summer ever since.

Now my favorite gin is.... Oh, wait,... this is supposed to be about music. Sorry.

V


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I had a similar experience with a "sleep state" and serial music. It was an Everest LP of Henri Lazarov, through headphones. As I woke up, I realized that I understood the music on a visceral level, although at the time I understood very little about that kind of modern music.

This proves that modern art is in tune with our subconscious minds.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Varick said:


> Having bar tended for over 20 years, every late spring when the weather would start warming up, orders for Gin & Tonics would start pouring in. Gin had been the last major type of spirit I couldn't get into. So at this time every year, I would make one, take one sip and "Blech!!" "How do people like this stuff?" I would always ask. Then about 6 years ago, I took my annual sip said, "Wow, this is absolutely delicious and refreshing." I've been drinking them in the summer ever since.
> 
> Now my favorite gin is.... Oh, wait,... this is supposed to be about music. Sorry.
> 
> V


Lights the mood though. :lol:


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