In some parallel universe, I am a radio announcer for a classical music station. In this universe, I'm not, for several reasons: insufficient breadth of musical knowledge due to an education based primarily on the liner notes from LP's, an inability to correctly pronounce umlauts, and I would probably quit on-air rather than play Pachelbel's Canon or Ravel's Bolero are among these. But, perhaps because of that parallel-universe Appleman, I get irked when announcers screw up something that they really should get.
So, the other day the announcer queued up some music, and told us it came from Richard Strauss' opera about the question of which is more important in an opera--the words or the music. He went on about some of the details of the opera, Capriccio, and how it elides the question, and then played the music: selections from Ariadne auf Naxos, which if it is about anything, is about the difficulties of creativity in the real world and just how pelvic new love is. I had a bit of whiplash, as it was kind of like hearing somebody talking about a good friend of yours, and then pointing them out--and it's somebody else entirely.
Oh well, not really a big deal. But, since he didn't play it, here is some of the best music ever--the opening sextet from Capriccio. Enjoy.
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