A Bit Intense

19 Ramadhan, 1444

I'm not quite sure why but the early days of the fasting month saw me (if that's the appropriate verb) listening with an unwonted intensity to all sorts of music. I think this was partly to do with the fact that there wasn't much actual time to listen, so I was determined to make best use of whatever time there was, and partly because a key feature of the month is that it enhances one's gratitude for not simply food & drink but just about every good thing and I was particularly struck by just what a good thing music is.

Now it's not that the inherent goodness of music came as a sudden revelation - of course, I've always known that and, more importantly, felt that since being a little kid. But I just seemed to feel it more deeply than usual somehow.

The feeling applied to just about everything I managed to listen to, but most of all to various pieces from the Finnish master Jean Sibelius, especially the symphonies, and, most especially, the fourth. My go-to version is the one conducted by the (then) young Simon Rattle - with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - which I've got on CD. But listening around I've come to the conclusion I prefer Esa Pekka Salonen doing his stuff with it, though it's a close run thing. (The version I link to, by the way, features an obviously very young Salonen. I saw him conducting when I was in Sheffield in the 80's and, my goodness me, the young ladies in attendance, of whom there were more than a few, went absolutely gaga. And I'm not sure it was over the music, to be honest.)