Last Friday afternoon his wife and this old guy attended the opening concert of our Israeli Philharmonic 90th Season series. We heard three pieces, each wonderfully performed. It was one of the most memorable IPO concerts in our decades-long attendance, which, given the quality of the music we have heard over the years, is saying a lot.

The second piece was the Sibelius Violin Concerto, a favorite of this old guy, going back to his early classical music experiences. When we came home from the concert, internet research disclosed that critics thought that the best performance of the concerto was captured in a 1935 recording with Jascha Heifetz as soloist and Thomas Beecham conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Old guys being what they are, this old guy recalled that the first time he heard Jascha Heifetz play was listening to the radio in 1943, when he was five years old and allowed to stay up late to greet his uncle who was returning to Detroit on furlough from World War II service in the Aleutian Islands. The piece Heifetz played that night was the Hora Staccato.

Here is a link to the 1935 recording, which is 28 minutes long. If that is too much music for you, listening only to the third movement will convince you that you need to listen to all three movements. Note that many of the YouTube comments by music aficionados are quite interesting.

If Sibelius played by Heifetz has wet your whistle for more classical music, here is a fantastic playlist from the Substack of Rebecca Lowe, a philosopher, that arrived Sunday evening. She says that she “… made a playlist for some friends who wanted to gain some sense of the span of classical music, in terms of the chronological development of ‘Western classical art music’.” Happy listening!

the ends don't justify the means | Rebecca Lowe | Substack

philosophical writing on freedom and all the other cool things. Click to read the ends don't justify the means, by Rebecca Lowe, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.