“Apparition et scène de Myrtha” composed by Adolphe Adam, performed by Wiener Philharmoniker (with Herbert von Karajan conducting) which clocks in at 11:42.

I don’t understand many things. And if you don’t mind, I’ll skip the witty culturally referential starter course list of some of them and get right to the matter at hand: I don’t get people who situate themselves as “music lovers” but yet won’t venture within 100 yards of anything classical, jazz, or generally made outside of North America and Europe - the so called “world music”. If anything, this music of the world is what gets a passing listen from most of these music lovers as they gobble up offerings from artists such as Vieux Farka Toure, Konono No. 1, Dengue Fever, Youssou N’Dour, Os Mutantes, and the like based solely upon critical hype that’s resulted from the records being reviewed in publications that cover pop, rock, country, R&B, and hip-hop.

One might attribute this world music phenomenon to the massive influence of the cross-continental experimentation of George Harrison, David Byrne, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, et al., or perhaps something more simple such as white guilt or cultural ignorance. Whatever the case, the fact remains: there is a chasm separating today’s most well-opinionated rock, pop, R&B, and hip-hop music lovers from jazz and classical music that is as massive as the critical gap between Brian Wilson’s Smile and Kevin Federline’s Playing With Fire. And yet, more than one person reading this post has unquestionably spent hundreds of seconds of their life listening to K-Fed without knowing the difference between a concerto and a symphony. I’m not knocking the lack of knowledge, I’m simply curious about the lack of desire to learn. Perhaps just to sample small bits of the sea of sounds that are waiting to be discovered just outside the boundaries of current popular music??

I think about it in much the same way I do food, and much in opposition to the way I approach cinema. With movies I tend to not want to waste my life away seeing a film I might not like. Hey, two hours and twelve dollars is a lot to ask for a potential stinker and I’m just not that into the movie going experience to want to waste my time or money like that. However, I’m an adventurous eater and a lover of nearly all things culinary. I will, literally, try anything once. Just to taste it, experience it, and find out if it’s something I might enjoy. And when there’s something I don’t take to immediately, I’ll dig in deeper and try other things and learn more about the food, perhaps even to compensate for my weakness in that cuisine. It doesn’t always end up a perfect match between my tastebuds and the food I try, but in the name of all things gastronomic I move forward. And though I may not like, say, Indian food, I’ll still go out to Indian restaurants regularly for the experience because it all means something to me. And that’s much the same way I view and approach music.

So I wonder to myself, why don’t any of my peers, or the majority of my music loving friends, seek out, listen to, or talk about music that’s outside of their comfort zone? Insecurity? Again, mostly I’m speaking about jazz and classical music because I find those to be the most heavily neglected by the pop, rock, country, R&B, and hip-hop set. What is it that makes these folks so willing to see two or three bands in one week rip off Interpol ripping off Joy Division ripping off The Stooges, but so unable to ever check out a ballet or concert pianist or opera?? I’d like to imagine that there’s sound reasoning behind all of this; I’m afraid there isn’t.

Anyway, long story short (too late) I went to the Metropolitan Opera this past Tuesday night to see the American Ballet Theatre perform Giselle and I absolutely adored it. While I’m in no position to give a proper review of the performance (I’ll leave that up to the NY Times: read the NY Times review of ABT’s current production of Giselle HERE… view a slideshow of photos HERE), I can say that I enjoyed the ballet itself more than any of the previous ballets I’ve seen. And though the music wasn’t as much to my taste as, say, ballets by Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Ravel, or Prokofiev, it blended more seamlessly with the movement of the dancers than anything I’ve seen before. Perhaps I’m simply adjusting to everything that is ballet… or not. The exposition-heavy Act I dragged towards naptime in parts, but the entirety of Act II had me mesmerized by both sight and sound. Julie Kent (pictured above) is a goddess.

What you’ll find posted here is the first song of Act II and it should give you a nice flavor of the ballet as a whole. In addition, you’ve got the added bonus of it being performed by The Vienna Philharmonic under the guidance of Herbert von Karajan - which is, after his work with the Berlin Philharmonic, one of the great combinations in orchestral history. Or, so I’ve been told. In fact, Herbert von Karajan is the top-selling classical music recording artist of all time with an estimated 200 million records sold AND many of his recordings have reached millions of ears thanks to Stanley Kubrick’s use of them in his films 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and A Clockwork Orange. Not too shabby for a dude working in a genre nobody listens to, right?

For the definitive version of so many classical classics, discerning listeners turn to Karajan. Not that I’m “discerning” just yet in regards to my classical music listening, but I’m getting there. And, if you’ve made it this far, so are you.

Buy Karajan: The Legendary Decca Recordings on Amazon.

EAR FARM’s 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. Click HERE to see the songs recently featured in EF’s 8+.