tchaikovsky and themed youtube playlists
Once, in high school, an acquaintance of mine said to me (not verbatim), "It's like you're on Spotify 24/7. Every time I open the app, you're already playing something."
It was hilarious, because 1) why would you point that out? and 2) he was absolutely right. I was on Spotify every single time I opened my laptop to do schoolwork, which was every night. Looking back, I was a bit insane for doing so: I didn't even have Premium back then. I just dealt with the constant interruptions, somehow.
Fast forward to now: I still stream music for slightly concerning amounts of time. I still use Spotify, but these past few weeks I've been streaming more on YouTube instead. For some reason, I gravitate to YouTube whenever I want classical or instrumental music. My recommendations are filled with themed playlists: light academia, Jane Austen romance, funky jazz. I didn't even know I liked jazz until a few months ago. I've found so many great pieces and musicians. These playlists used to look a bit silly to me (why are we romanticizing literally everything?), but some of them are actually great.
Right now I'm listening to a classical piece I only discovered recently, in one of those playlists: Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48. It's somehow slipped by me, even though I've been listening to Tchaikovsky and classical music in general for years. Maybe I'm a fake classical fan. Guess I need to go through his entire body of work now.
It's just so good. I don't know what it is about this piece. It's been stuck in my head for days. I love it when Tchaikovsky just straight up uses scales. (Yes, I'm talking about The Nutcracker's Grand Pas de Deux). It's the kind of piece that makes me wish I didn't stop playing piano and violin. But as that one tweet said, no love, however brief, is wasted. Maybe I'll play again soon.