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Dispatches from my year of classical music - by Ben

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I discovered plenty of amazing music this year, though much of it was classical music and thus quite old. From ages 13-22 I devoured an unfathomable amount of rap music and I remember talking with an older family friend at a Christmas Party about it. He didn’t care much for rap music, but said “you know, different music resonates in different seasons of your life.” It’s a somewhat simple point, but I hear him saying that quite frequently in my head. I did Apple Music’s equivalent of Spotify Wrapped and my most-played artists were Daniel Barenboim (various Beethoven works, mostly as conductor), Artur Schnabel (his seminal Beethoven piano sonata cycle, the first in recorded music), and Quartetto Italiano (early Beethoven string quartets, Op. 18) If anything, this under-counts my classical listening, as a ton of it came this year on YouTube watching both live performances and videos synced to the scores. I can only half-read music (a proud former percussionist), but it still helps me trac

Dispatches from my year of classical music Including why Shostakovich reminds me of jazz fusion Ben Feb 03, 2025 49 11 8 Share I discovered plenty of amazing music this year, though much of it was classical music and thus quite old. From ages 13-22 I devoured an unfathomable amount of rap music and I remember talking with an older family friend at a Christmas Party about it. He didn’t care much for rap music, but said “you know, different music resonates in different seasons of your life.” It’s a somewhat simple point, but I hear him saying that quite frequently in my head. I did Apple Music’s

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