concert of memory

[calimac]

SFCV's feature article this week is a bunch of us reviewers and editors listing the best concerts we attended in the last calendar year. I must say that LJ archives are really useful for making that decision, and for thinking of what to say about them.

Actually, it's not necessarily the best concerts. It's the best ones that were reviewed by SFCV, whether or not you were the individual reviewing them. (We attend a lot of concerts. I've often seen one, two, or on one occasion three of my fellow SFCV reviewers at a concert.) The actual best concert I attended last year was a free lunchtime rendition of Brahms's Op. 25 quartet at Stanford in June. Not only is this not the sort of thing we'd review, I don't even remember who the pianist was. So it goes: but the music was good.

Comments

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

...The actual best concert I attended last year was a free lunchtime rendition of Brahms's Op. 25 quartet at Stanford in June...

This is intriguing. What made it the 'best' concert you attended? Was the piece played particularly well? Was the ambiance perfectly suited to the music? Did it fit perfectly into the rest of your day? Or was it just one of those ineffable things that are hard to pin down? What?

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Context: I'm a music reviewer, so I'm rating concerts by the quality of the musical performance. My friends might be interested in knowing that I was just having a good day, but the readers of SFCV want to read about the music. If I were discussing ambiance or the pleasure of the experience irrespective of the music making, I might say, "the most enjoyable concert-going experience," but not "the best concert." That means the performance.