I had the opportunity to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall a few days ago doing Mahler's 2nd. OMG. As you may know, the Orchestra's music director is a 39 year old French Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin who was chosen in 2012 after a international search. There is no tougher audience than classical music lovers who attend Carnegie regularly, and he received 5 standing ovations from the audience. It was a masterpiece performance. I was impressed he worked without a score and went without a baton in the last movement, preferring to use both hands instead. It was a Mahler 2 for the ages. I think even Bernstein looked down and said to himself "the kid really is pretty damned good". Then of course, I came home, turned on the big rig, and almost threw up when I realized pretty quickly that no new power cable, interconnect or amplifier is ever going to get me from here to there, so to speak. Live music. There really is nothing like it.
