Getting Through the Workday

First, I love my job. Well, OK, most of it. But I am prone to distraction ("Look, something shiny!"), so to maintain any kind of productivity, I try to minimize the possibility of distraction.

I have known for a long time that I'm hypersensitive to background noise. I've been asked over and over, "Can't you just 'tune it out'?" Honestly, no, I cannot. I seem unable to ignore the conversation 3 cubes away, or the candy being unwrapped next to me, or the sounds of the copiers and fax machines, or people typing. So pretty much any noise one might expect in an office setting.

One generally effective approach to muting the aural distraction is through music. So anytime I'm not on the phone, walking around, or entertaining guests at my desk, I'm listening to an ancient Sony CAR Discman (really, it's 13 or 14 years old). The musical range is pretty wide, spanning from Léonin to Linkin Park, though there is a preponderance of piano from Bach to Bartók.

This morning's selection is Evegeny Kissin playing Scriabin, Medtner, and Stravinsky. I found his recording of pieces by Brahms and Schuman cold and sterile, and I questioned whether he'd gone down the path of technical brillance at the cost of beautiful music. However, I am amazed again with Kissin: the Scriabin Sonata No. 3 and the Stravinsky Pétrouchka are both are just explosive without ever losing control, which is exactly what the composers intended.

I've also been enjoying Boris Berezovsky's Chopin, Godowsky: Études. His live performance of the Chopin Études lacks a certain final polish found in, say, Murray Perahia's studio recording of the same works, but they're still very impressive. And the Godowsky, as many others have noted, is just over the top. I particularly enjoyed the Godowsky version of the "Revolutionary" (Chopin Op. 10 No. 12) rearranged for the LEFT HAND ALONE. Even though I've listened to it many times, it still raises the short hairs on the back of my neck. And come on, these pieces are meant to be show-offs: Godowsky was not trying to improve Chopin, that was never his goal, he was really trying to out-Liszt all the pupils of Liszt who were then running around showing off and diverting attention from him. I think he succeeded admirably.