Track 1: Berceuse from ‘The Exterminating Angel’
Before we begin, you should know that I know almost nothing about classical music. I couldn’t even define what makes something classical music without taking a break from writing and pulling up Google for backup.
What I know is that Verdi’s Four Seasons is an incredible listen while driving through Olympic National Park. That anything played by Yo-Yo Ma makes me forget that my time here is finite, mainly because I forget I have a finite body and the world becomes something ethereal and whispy. And that sometimes, as with any genre of entertainment, Spotify will play something that makes me want to jump out of my skin and run as far away from it as possible. It being the music, not my skin. Necessarily.
I have enough of an affinity, however, that when I saw the headline from The New York Times app “The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020” I clicked on it. And then added “Listen to the 25 best classical music tracks as selected by the NYT” to my list of things to accomplish in 2021.
Today, I started the process.