Postcard from Tucson

My life has been filled with great music. From my earliest days of Rock n’ Roll (for which I was royally chastised by the nuns at school), to my discovery of modern jazz and later classical music. Of course, we all enjoy music of one sort or another, but my life’s journey with music has been very special…a personal odyssey, if you will.

Last week, I sat captivated by the Arizona Symphony’s performance of the powerful Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony. The power of that music had me pinned to my seat as if held by a giant magnet. I recall the same thing happened in London when the Philharmonia Orchestra played the “Mars” Section of Holst’s “Planets.”

After last week’s symphony, I thought about some of the great venues where I heard some of the finest music composed on this planet. Besides classical, I listened to some of the great legends of jazz play their music in small jazz nightclubs…but I will leave those memories for another day. Today, it is about classical music.

I’ve been privileged to hear some great symphonic music in the concert halls of London, Paris, Oxford and other European cities…not to mention here in the US. Another piece of music that pinned me to my seat was the remarkable Beethoven 9th Symphony. The first time I heard it live, I could hardly walk after the performance. And to think he wrote it while totally deaf.

I’ve heard Mozart played in St. Martins In-The-Field Church in Trafalgar Square in London; the haunting Vaughn Williams’ “Fantasy on a Theme of Thomas Tallis” at the Southbank Center, also in London; Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” in Sainte Chappelle in Paris; and more Vivaldi in Venice. I could go on, but suffice it to say I’ve been fortunate to hear great music performed all over the world.

I began my journey with classical music while in my 20’s. As I listened and enjoyed, I wanted to learn more about it. What I learned early was: in order to really appreciate the music, one must know more about the composer, where and when he lived, what his life was like, and how long he lived.

Then I learned the basic eras of each composer and how church music later morphed into secular music…how the Classical era of Mozart and Haydn followed the Baroque Era of Bach and Vivaldi; and how Classical was followed by the Romantic Era…and on an on. I learned where each composer fit into the scheme of things and how his music differed from others in each epoch. By doing that, classical music appreciation fell into place.

It’s been a wonderful journey…and it continues to this day. Living in a university town affords me plenty of great classical concerts. Besides Tchaikovsky, in the past couple of months I’ve heard Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”, a piano concert by one of the world’s great pianists who played the music of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin…all in one glorious evening. I am a very fortunate man and I hope to hear more great music before this journey comes to an end.