My 13-year-old son and I have been listening to Brahms Violin Concerto on repeat for weeks. We had a trip planned with his violin studio to see it performed live with the Boston Symphony and wanted to know the piece well before listening live.
This has been a new practice to us: listening so closely to classical music.
I remember as a teenager, buying a new cd, usually by bands like a-ha, Depeche Mode or the Smiths. Then listening to it over and over until I knew each lyric, each inhale of the singer, and the small idiosyncrasies that made a song or performer special.
I am no where near that close careful listening with classical music but after hearing my son practice the same concerto every day for the past 6 months, I am indeed “leveling up.”
But even listening to Brahms Violin Concerto, his only violin concerto, did not prepare me for the power of hearing it performed live by violinist Hillary Hahn. Her level of expertise, skill and simply excellence makes me wonder what have I been doing with my life?
To be honest, I am not excellent at anything.
Yet, instead of turning my gaze inward, like some narcissistic existentialist, I want to turn outward and celebrate, behold excellence. How does a person like this exist in the world? How do they move and breathe? Make decisions and structures throughout their day to ensure excellence reigns in their life?
The first movement of the concerto is a conversation between the orchestra and soloist. The effect is dreamy, nearly a romantic dance between the two as they call and answer, speak over each other, until the orchestra is silent and only the soloist plays. I don’t think I have been in a room with that many people so focused on one person. Listening so intensely that I understood the idiom, you could have heard a pin drop. I realized I had been holding my breath.
I got a glimpse into the focus that produces this kind of excellence that evening at dinner with several professional violinists. One mentioned he knows that many find moderation is the key to life. He disagreed. He has an all or nothing approach. If something is a distraction, he doesn’t allow it near him. Alcohol? Video Games? King size bags of Doritos? Not allowed in his house.
I am not a musician. I’m not particularly close to excellent at anything in my life but napping and wearing red lipstick. Yet I do appreciate how I can improve and move closer to something perhaps mimicking a lower form of excellence by ridding my life of silly distractions.---and filling it with good things that move me closer to the life I want to live.
This includes being around people like this. People who have organized their life in such a way that beauty and goodness in the form of art and music and literature hold the largest spaces in their lives.
Perhaps excellence is contagious.
I sure hope so.
I created a list of books which informed me as I wrote the manuscript for Undaunted Joy, the book, coming out with Zondervan next Spring. Check it out. If you use my Amazon links, it will help pay for my website.
Nice essay, particularly the bit about a conversation between the orchestra and soloist. Such a lovely way to describe that musical give and take. Hillary Hahn is, indeed, excellent. I do wonder, though, if the musicians we regard as excellent think of themselves that way. Surely they are always striving to improve as well.
So glad you had this opportunity! Off to listen to that concerto!