"What is your favorite music?"

     I spent a few moments today pondering the ridicules question "What is your favorite music?".  My usual response sounds rather flip, "what ever I am working on right now". With very few exceptions I can honestly say I have spent most of my life surrounded by music I love. Practicing, performing, teaching, attending a live performance, banging around in my head while I walk with Bella on the beach. It is more unusual for me to listen to recorded music, although I have a rather large collection. Perhaps I am too disorganized to have the proper hardware around me at the proper time to make this happen. And it is also true that if music is to live, there must be silence surrounding it, to give it buoyancy or a staging ground from which to take flight.

Now for the real answer: 

     I love the Rückert-Lieder of Gustav Mahler.  If you have a moment to listen to them as performed by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson or in this performance by Angelika Kirchschlager, I am sure you will understand why.