# fans



## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

I live in a small town. I'm having lunch at the local diner and happened to overhear the group of macho flannel-clad WWII veterans at the next table discussing how much they love Mendelssohn's Octet. <3


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

The WWII generation was, in general, much more knowledgeable about classical music than more recent ones. They were radio fans, at a time when classical music owned a lot of air time. 

Furthermore, a lot of the soldiers got superb free entertainment when they were stationed in Europe. My dad remembered the concerts and recitals that he attended featuring soloists like Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, and Artur Schnabel. When I took him to a concert in Toronto in the 1970's featuring a young Itzhak Perlman he commented that Perlman was the best violinist that he had heard since Heifetz...


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

hreichgott said:


> I live in a small town. I'm having lunch at the local diner and happened to overhear the group of macho flannel-clad WWII veterans at the next table discussing how much they love Mendelssohn's Octet. <3


It is easy to love. The Berkshires are in general a college-influenced area - that has spilled over into the southern Greens. A little farther north of Brattleboro. Marlboro and Bennington... more hillbillies, and the immigrants are mostly 'materialists'.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

In Britain the WWII generation knows a lot about classical music because they heard it on their 'wireless' (BBC radio) when they were young. The BBC was headed by Lord Reith who was ferociously determined to educate the people.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I envy old people...........


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I envy old people...........


I evny their experience but not their declining health and proximity to death.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I envy old people...........


What for? Their wit, beauty, brains, oratorical skils?

The only way to get old is by not dying and that is great trick if you can keep on doing it.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

EricABQ said:


> I evny their experience but not their declining health and proximity to death.


If life has been long, and death is not the end, its 'proximity' is not a fearsome thing. It's the _transition_ that can be unnerving.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I envy old people...........


Yes, I too can't help admiring that generation of people, who put up with so much hardship & then set about rebuilding the world. I don't want to get old but when I do - if I do, I'd like some of their grace...


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Ingenue said:


> I'd like some of their grace...


I envy them for being able to retire...


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I envy old people...........


Well don't ,there is no pleasure or dignity in age.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Taggart said:


> What for? Their wit, beauty, brains, oratorical skils?
> 
> The only way to get old is by not dying and that is great trick if you can keep on doing it.


Do you mean their spelling skills----- not to mention a thing known as experience.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Taggart said:


> What for? Their wit, beauty, brains, oratorical skils?
> 
> The only way to get old is by not dying and that is great trick if you can keep on doing it.


One can think of old people with all these qualities:
wit - George Bernard Shaw; beauty - Queen Alexandra; brains - Bertrand Russell; oratorical skilLs(!) - Winston Churchill.

Two points: firstly I admire anyone of any age with these qualities
but secondly, I admire anyone even more if they exhibit the traits in old age.
And quite often, considerable skill is expended in 'not dying' too!


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

moody said:


> Do you mean their spelling skills----- not to mention a thing known as experience.


Experience is a revelation in the light of which we renounce our errors of youth for those of age.

In my dotage, mine are spelling mistakes.


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