Back to the concert hall.

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Over the years I've learned to prefer CDs to live concerts. They have, I must admit, certain advantages. Recorded music permits me greater control over the listening environment. I can listen when I choose to listen. Recordings are more often than not successful, whereas a live orchestra, not to mention a coughing audience, can mess up a piece of music quite easily. And of course in the long run, they're much cheaper. It's not only that I can listen to a CD over and over again for the price of less than one concert. It's also that going to a concert demands a couple of hours on the road, usually eating something before or after the concert, and paying a babysitter. Staying home and listening to a CD is, in comparison, a worthwhile bargain.

But lately I've discovered that going to a concert has at least one very major advantage. When I sit in a concert hall I don't pick up the paper, the kids don't call out to me that they want me to play, the phone (or at least my phone) doesn't ring. I can honestly devote myself to listening. Doing that at home has become more and more difficult, and very rare. Going to a concert permits me to cut myself off from all those other stimuli, and to concentrate fully on the music. Cost efficient or not, it becomes a very satisfying venture.

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Go to: Hearing, perhaps, but listening?, or
Go to: The Complete Works.