The only name. Winslow Townsend photograph
Critics can be deaf too.
This file has been on my desktop for quite a while now. Not because of what I was writing about, but what I was going through.
Over the span of a couple years, I gradually lost all hearing in my right ear, and much of it on the left. I bored many people with the details while I was going through the progressive symptoms, mainly because of the strong dizziness that came along with it. I was anxious and uncertain at what was happening then, and I regret being so needy.
That’s over now. The hearing went away, and when it did, the dizziness went with it. Even with only one diminished ear, you can hear quite well in a concert hall. There’s no pity to extend. I’ve adjusted.
The transition broadened my experiences, especially around what is called hearing loss. Sound is everywhere, and at our “best” we only participate partially. Nothing is lost, simply not experienced. That outlook helps. And it helps me that I can hear the music I love and devote much thought to, with only diminished volume.
I appreciate the insights of composer Gabriela Lena Frank on the subject, along with many other new perspectives. And apart from the persistent tinnitus, I almost appreciate what I’ve learned in the transition.
So you can see easily why the upcoming Beethoven cycle—the BSO performs all nine symphonies in four programs this month, beginning this evening—feels like something opportune. Chopin competition winner Yulianna Avdeeva (Celeb Series) plays Hammerklavier during the cycle (15th at Jordan Hall, 16th in Groton), and in early February, after the symphony cycle, Veronika Eberle plays the violin concerto at the BSO. Time for a deep dive.
And not because I have achieved any valuable insights into Beethoven with my own auditory experiences—certainly not. But altering your participation in the sound world makes for new listening approaches—and certainly makes you treat concert-going with enhanced attention, and appreciation.
Red Tree, Yellow Sky. Georgia O’Keeffe, 1952. Oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts photograph
I’ll devote the month to Beethoven, but I’m also seeing the O’Keeffe/Moore exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts again before it goes away, and I hope I can devote some thoughts to that as well. It’s a memorable, striking display, enhanced by the BSO’s own fall presentation of Kevin Puts’s The Brightness of Light—a work centered on the correspondence between O’Keeffe and longtime partner Alfred Stieglitz. Cheers.