I haven’t undertaken one of my year-long projects in awhile. Been a few years. So getting back into the groove may require a few days. But into the groove I shall venture!
And by “groove,” I mean waking up at 5:41 and driving to a local restaurant so that I’m seated, coffee and bagel beside me, as soon after the restaurant opens at 6:00 as possible.
There’s something to be said for routine, not to mention discipline – both of which are required for any project, but especially one like this. If this was all I did in life, then it might not matter when I started each day. But I’m a morning person (or, at least, I used to be; let’s see if I still am), and I like to finish with the extra-curricular activity before my actual work day starts around 9:00 or so.
This project – the first leg of my year-long Legendary Conductors Project – begins the day after my birthday this year (2021), and will end just before, or just on, my birthday next year (2022). The end result will be that I will have explored the some of the greatest recordings from Fritz Reiner (1888-1963), Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), Eugen Jochum (1902-1987), and Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954).
Four more iconic conductors I probably couldn’t name. (Well, I probably could name four more, a couple of whom may have achieved “iconic” status. But these aforementioned four are probably my all-time favorites.)
I did something similar in 2009-2010 when I spent a year accomplishing Wondrous Things before my 50th birthday: The complete works of Mozart (180 Days), every Oscar-winning movie from Wings to Slumdog Millionaire (81 Days), every Hemingway novel (70 Days), and Aristotle’s Poetics (30 Days).
For a list of more recent projects, visit Previous Projects.
This project, 63 Days With Fritz Reiner And Me, will start on Thursday, June 10, 2021, and finish on Wednesday, August 11, 2021. After a day to set up my next web site/blog, I’ll begin again on Friday, August 13, 2021, with Leonard Bernstein’s massive 158-disc box set Complete Recordings On Deutsche Grammophon.
While I’m listening to the 63 delicious albums in the Fritz Reiner Chicago Symphony Orchestra box set, I’ll read Kenneth Morgan’s book Maestro & Martinet, the 2010 biography of the famed conductor.
What can I say? I like to immerse.