Hello from New Jersey

[Mirror Image]

While listening to a Haydn String Qt. yesterday at work, one of my staff stood in my office doorway with a disgusted look and said, "It sounds like I'm in the doctor's office."

Are you in charge of this employee? If yes, then tell her that the next negative comment she makes about Haydn will put her on the street.

[NJ Joe]

That answers a question...whether you and Joan (Lisanti) are married    You're both from Jersey, you both joined the forum within a couple of hours of each other on Feb 10. I wondered if there was a relationship there. Apparently not.

No relationship there Sergeant Rock...but I admit, it was quite a coincidence!

Probably 100% of us. I'm one of the lucky ones: I grew up with classical music (my mother was a great pianist). My best friend in high school (and still my best, and now my oldest friend) and both steady girlfriends liked classical music too. In college I dated a french horn major. In Korea (1970) my girlfriend was a fan. I recall her swooning over the Mozart in the film Elvira Madigan and she got us tickets for George Szell's penultimate concert (in Seoul during the Cleveland's Asian tour). Mrs. Rock is as fanatical about classical music as I am (our first date was a Mahler 2 concert in Mannheim). But I can still empathize with you. The vast majority of people I've known have had no interest or understanding. This forum is a godsend.

Sarge

You are very fortunate, sir.  And I enjoyed reading your comments on the Mahler Mania Rebooted thread.

[NJ Joe]

In Austria.

Separately: The first day I was assistant-teaching in Charlottesville, three of my students over the course of the day must have referred to Vienna before I realized that there must be a Vienna in NoVa . . . .

Maybe they had all attended the same Viennese school?

[NJ Joe]

Colleagues at work have gotten used to the fact that I am receiving packages of CDs all the time, but they were shocked to learn I own more than 80 discs of Shostakovich alone. The fact that I own more than one recording of any particular piece was clearly beyond their comprehension.

I have yet to approach the subject of multiple recordings of the same work! Maybe I never will.

[NJ Joe]

Yes, I am really here in Vienna. I am originally from Los Angeles and I have been living in Austria now going on 20 years.

Thanks for clearing that up!

[NJ Joe]

Are you in charge of this employee? If yes, then tell her that the next negative comment she makes about Haydn will put her on the street.

Yes, I'm the office manager.  I told her to get lost!  But if I said, "the next negative comment you make about Haydn" she'd be completely clueless.  She'd think "Haydn" worked in another department.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Sure, nobody outside of my family understands my obsession with this music. Somebody actually asked me one time "Why would you listen to such boring crap?"

Possible retort: "I find your music boring!"

I can relate to some of what Jersey Joe said - finding people with an interest in classical music isn't easy - but I seem to have had a slightly easier time than others. At any time, I've had at least one schoolmate, work colleague, or friend that I can discuss music with on a serious level.

[NJ Joe]

Possible retort: "I find your music boring!"

I can relate to some of what Jersey Joe said - finding people with an interest in classical music isn't easy - but I seem to have had a slightly easier time than others. At any time, I've had at least one schoolmate, work colleague, or friend that I can discuss music with on a serious level.

Work update:  a colleague stood in my doorway, listened, and asked, "What's that?" I told her I finally decided to listen to music in my office. She replied, "Yes...but you call that music?"

[Mirror Image]

Yes, I'm the office manager.  I told her to get lost!  But if I said, "the next negative comment you make about Haydn" she'd be completely clueless.  She'd think "Haydn" worked in another department.

[Mirror Image]

Possible retort: "I find your music boring!"

Then I would just be putting myself down on her mental level and I don't have time for that!

[NJ Joe]

Yesterday after we had closed to the public, I was listening to Bruckner 7 and my assistant manager popped her head in the door, listened for a moment, looked at me as if I was a complete stranger, and said, "I didn't know you liked opera".  You really can't make this up.

[Karl Henning]

Well, in a way it's an absurd comment, because there is no singing, of course . . . but (maybe) the hearer picked up on the Wagnerian idiom of the music.

Or, it just may have been arrant foolishness, of course : )

[NJ Joe]

Well, in a way it's an absurd comment, because there is no singing, of course . . . but (maybe) the hearer picked up on the Wagnerian idiom of the music.

Or, it just may have been arrant foolishness, of course : )

You know, that's possible.  Maybe I need to give her the benefit of the doubt.