Do you like classical music?

I love several kinds of music, including classical music. It does not mean that I love any piece of classical music, as I don’t love every jazz number, although I love jazz too.

Well, I am very conservative in my music preferences. The shortlist of pieces I can listen to and enjoy any time includes anything by Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi, anything by Lois Armstrong, most of Ella Fitzgerald, anything by Beatles and the best of 60s and 70s, the latter probably because it was the time of my youth.

There are many other musical pieces and authors I like too, but this short list gives you an idea. Chopin makes me sad, so I stay away from him, but oh! how beautiful is his sadness! Just listen to this!

From this list, the first three – Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi – I listen most of the time, something like 8 out of 10 times. Their music pulls me out of any mood into a harmonious and rich world view. It makes me want to do something worthy, something I can share with others. It calms my anxiety and stimulates creativity.

And it made me thinking, why classical music is not as popular as some other music genres? Well, many classical venues are packed, but pop music is called so for the reason – it IS most popular.

I tried to listen to it.  Yes, it is appealing, short and biting, very easy to digest, like fast food.  It tempts you with the strong flavor and easily gets you addicted. And the crowd of fans makes it fun and breaks your loneliness. It helps you to get by and stick to the commitment (or not, if you don’t want to stick to it) and accomplish the task at hand (or dissolve the disappointment if you did not manage to achieve your goal).

If that is so, why I turn away from it and listen again and again to the music written more than 200 years ago by the guys in powdered wigs?

To help me to answer this question, please, do me a favor and watch this video as long as you feel engaged: Bach Double Violin Concerto with Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh. The music dynamics, its complexity, the ease and confidence Menuhin and Oistrakh play it, the outline of Menuhin’s face – like it is carved in hard rock! I played this video many times and will play again. Did you like it? 

I think the difference in popularity of classical and pop music can be explained to a big degree by the following. With a pop song, you have only one version – the best one. I doubt that the Beatles’ songs played by others are very popular. Meanwhile, there are many – very many! – performers that play the same classical number. Most of them are not very good. I would say that the vast majority of classical music I find online is performed not very well – dull and not engaging at all. But they all go under the same category of “classical music.”  

Now the disclaimer. When I said I can listen to Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi and enjoy it every time, I was not completely honest. There are performances of their works that I just cannot tolerate. And there are not the best performances I still can enjoy but only because they remind me the best performances of the same piece I know by heart, cold.

The Double Violin Concerto played by Menuhin and Oistrakh (the link above) is one of such performances. If I listen to some other performance of this concerto immediately afterward, it feels dull and flat. Try to listen just a few first seconds of Menuhin and Oistrakh and then a few seconds of the same concerto by the same David Oistrakh and his son Igor. There is a big difference, in my opinion.

But this record of Vivaldi by the same David and Igor Oistrakh is the best I heard. I listen to it often and enjoy it every time.

My point is, to start enjoying classical music is more difficult than the pop one for two reasons (maybe there are other reasons, too):

– you don’t hear the classical piece in one the best performance version; there are many butchered versions of the greatest pieces, but they are still called “classical” and are supposed to be perceived with awe (leftover of the arrogance from the time when classical music could be heard only in a concert hall where only “high” society was present);

– there are many pieces that fall into the “classical” category but which are not as appealing or just dull (yes, I said it, not every classical music piece is good enough to be loved, less even to become popular). 

So, there is a good chance that folks who try to listen to classical music without good guidance will encounter not very engaging piece and performance, even when they listen to playlists “Best of Bach” or similar. After several disappointments, they come to the conclusion that all classical music either “too complex to understand” or just “dull” and even “boring.”

I cannot blame them. Most of the classical music on youtube is that bad. It takes time and persistence to dig out the best versions of the best (for you) classical pieces and not everybody is willing to invest time and energy to do it.

Cooking at home takes time and good restaurants are expensive (and require time and reservation too), while fast food place is just around the corner open at all times.  It does the job.

Well, it also depends on what kind of job you need it to perform. But that is the topic for another time.