Last year, during one of my trips taking my grandfather to one of his appointments, the topic of music came up. (I know – I ended a sentence with a preposition, sue me…). He always appreciated classical music, while I like it, but only in spurts, depending on my general auditory-mood. I mostly just like Mozart, Chopin, and a few others, while his favorite was Chopin.
He mentioned that he clearly remembered the first album he ever bought, when he was 10 or 12 (This must have been mid-1930′s then I suppose). It was a performance of Poet and Peasant. His brother let him play it on his record player. He remembered playing it over and over, but having been so long since he listened to it, he couldn’t remember much of the score.
Later that evening I found a copy on iTunes and made him a CD that included Poet and Peasant, as well as several of his favorite Chopin pieces. I listened to it several times and really enjoyed it – I even put it on my phone and nano for when I worked out.
So, a couple days later, on my next trip over, I suprised him with the CD and said it had Poet and Peasant on it. I put it in his CD player and pressed play. We both sat and listened to it. I was quite proud of myself for bringing him this reminder of his early days, as well as enjoying it myself. After a few minutes he said “AH! I remember this song clearly now! But, I don’t remember why I liked it so much…”
He enjoyed the Chopin more than the Poet and Peasant. There’s a very nice version of P&P on YouTube here.