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Alisa Kennedy Jones's avatar

Gosh, when it comes to music... I still miss Chet Baker and Bill Evans like they were old neighbors on the block. Sigh.

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Anna Schott's avatar

For real. I listen to Bill Evans almost every day!

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Larisa Rimerman's avatar

I love your description of listening to music. (Though I never used drugs.) This immersion into music is such bliss. Never heard, unfortunately, Brendel. Trust you, I would love him too. But Richter! He was great. And Shostakovich! Love them both. We have the same taste in music. Do you love Kisin? Or Trofimov?

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Anna Schott's avatar

It is certainly bliss. I'm grateful most days that I can put my fingers to an instrument and produce music, even if it's a kind of torture sometimes. I enjoyed hearing Trifinov play Schubert and Brahms at a concert a few years ago, but don't listen to his recordings. I played in an orchestra accompanying Kissin a long time ago! He played Sibelius, I remember. But I prefer Richter for sure.

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Jeffrey Streeter's avatar

Brendel (or rather his recordings) introduced me to Beethoven's sonatas. A magnificent pianist.

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Rob Tourtelot's avatar

Extraordinary, Anna. I love this: "maybe more like the way you took things in as an infant—except with self-awareness and a kind of regret that your normal un-drug-addled brain has become so flat". I hadn't heard of Brendel before, but I'm so glad to know of him and to be listening to him right now, thanks to you.

I also need to make the pickled eggplant dish—I've been obsessed with the idea since your amazing piece last week!

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Anna Schott's avatar

Awesome! Hope you like it. Let me know?

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Rob Tourtelot's avatar

For sure. By the way, my daughter heard me listening to the Brendel Bach performance and asked me to turn it up and we sat listening to it together for a long while. It's just unbelievably moving.

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Anna Schott's avatar

That rules. It is.

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Tim Burns's avatar

I completely get it. I miss several authors almost viscerally. I still mourn the loss of poet Hayden Carruth for instance. It hurts to think of such beauty leaving this earth.

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