I recently ventured into a realm seldom visited any more thanks to now wretched hearing... large scale full orchestra works. Listened to / watched two of favorite Sibelius works, his violin concerto and second symphony. As is so much of his music, they tend toward dark, moody and oft intense.
For the concerto I chose
a long-time favorite filmed interpretation, that of the Chicago Symphony under Daniel Barenboim, Maxim Vengerov soloist. I own this performance on DVD, it being one of my very first DVD purchases back when few classical music DVDs existed, not that all that many exist even now.
The second symphony is heard in another filmed concert performance, Leonard Bernstein leading the Vienna Philharmonic. I link only
its final two movements.
I listened to the concerto yesterday morning, when my hearing seemed about as "good" as it ever get these days. This allowed me a reasonable amount of pleasure from what I heard. I did listen to the symphony until this morning, with my hearing about as wretched as it ever gets. Not much joy there. I was tempted to throw in the towel numerous times.
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