# How unexpected!



## Lord Lance (Nov 4, 2013)

I was listening to Bernstein's recording of Bruckner's Ninth with NYPH and even though I was not a great fan of the first movement, I suddenly felt into love with it. I discovered majestic beauty, hidden until now. What's more absurd is that I have heard the first movement perhaps a dozen times but never did I have such a strong reaction up until now.

I was wondering what the cause of it is: Bernstein or finally understanding it [13th time is lucky?]

Also, have you ever had such experience?


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## csacks (Dec 5, 2013)

Sounds like "to be in the right place, at the right moment", but al the right mood as well. It happened to me with Stravinsky many year ago. I used to listen the Rite so many times, when kids were watching Fantasia and by my own, but never felt any special connection. Traveling in my car, and listening it, it came to my mind as a spot of light. Since that. I have had a strong connection with it. I do not know if is necessary to get used to the composition, and to anticipate the movement, or if is it something else. 
In the other hand, there are some pieces which are not connected to me. Beethoven´s last quartets, his last sonatas as well. I have done a big effort, but nothing yet.

And certainly, the 13th must have something with it


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Ludwig van Beethoven said:


> Also, have you ever had such experience?


That happens to me all the time. I always hated Tchaikovsky until I heard the 6th by Rozhdesvsky; then the whole oeuve opened up. The same with Shostakovich's symphonies with Kirill Kondrashin and Bruckner with Georg Tintner.

My feeling is, if you strongly dislike something which is a major piece in the repertoire, maybe it's the interpretation that's lacking.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Ludwig van Beethoven said:


> I was listening to Bernstein's recording of Bruckner's Ninth with NYPH and even though I was not a great fan of the first movement, I suddenly felt into love with it. I discovered majestic beauty, hidden until now. What's more absurd is that I have heard the first movement perhaps a dozen times but never did I have such a strong reaction up until now.
> 
> I was wondering what the cause of it is: Bernstein or finally understanding it [13th time is lucky?]
> 
> Also, have you ever had such experience?


Congratulations, and now that you're over the Bruckner 9 hump, give Dresden/Jochum (EMI, rec. 1978) a whirl. Blistering performance. Scintillating, even.

As Manx said, often a nut can be cracked with an interpretation closer to your liking. Or a recording. I'm a firm believer that recording engineers can be artists, too.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Yeah. It happens. Happened to me when I first heard the beginning of Mahler's 4th symphony with Bernstein, NY Philharmonic; his first and best performance of this music.


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## Guest (Apr 11, 2014)

Vaneyes said:


> [...] I'm a firm believer that recording engineers can be artists, too.


That's as sure as mustard is hot! [_Another tired and uninspired cliché. Can't you do better? Ed_.]


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

TalkingHead said:


> [_Another tired and uninspired cliché. Can't you do better? Ed_.]


Don't be so hard on yourself, TH--those are my favorite kind of cliches.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ludwig van Beethoven said:


> I was listening to Bernstein's recording of Bruckner's Ninth with NYPH and even though I was not a great fan of the first movement, I suddenly felt into love with it. I discovered majestic beauty, hidden until now. What's more absurd is that I have heard the first movement perhaps a dozen times but never did I have such a strong reaction up until now.
> 
> I was wondering what the cause of it is: Bernstein or finally understanding it [13th time is lucky?]
> 
> Also, have you ever had such experience?


It can happen with anything 

I picked up Pushkin's _Dead Souls_ and was literally turned off within a few pages. Some time later (months, I think it was) I picked it up again... and could not put it down.

With music, the performance can have something about it which catches your ear where the same music, before, did not. Making 'very much the same sound,' there are still so many slight variables of tempi, balance of the parts as well as the harmonic, that a specific recording can be the key to the magic kingdom.

With music, another try after multiple listens can have you at last "familiar enough with the lay of the land," that getting into it beyond the surface then opens up, i.e. your mind is now more receptive than any time previous.... too, as csacks said, "right place, right moment." Sometimes whatever it is which makes up our overall 'mood' is in alignment with being more receptive... and you are in!


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