Classical Music Appreciation with my Stoner Neighbor.

So, my one stoner neighbor downstairs has been listening to classical music on and off this past eight months or so, as I can tell from his occasionally playing Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto or "Pictures at an Exhibition" and me being able to hear that music through the floorboards.

Which, I couldn't quite figure out why he was doing that, since he plays jazz, and is always rehearsing with his band on electric guitar and drums and whatnot.

Then one day, I can't remember why, he said that he was getting more and more into the music because there was nothing like it "for the layering", and that he really really liked Mahler a lot, and had been listening to his Second and Fourth Symphonies over and over.

So, I told him about this one Sunday night radio program that I listen to that has really cool classical recordings around different topics, since that program was at that point in time playing a series of Mahler symphonies by this one mid-20th c. conductor who was known for specializing in them.

"If you ever hear me listening, just come up, you're more than welcome to join me," I was like.

He didn't during that series, but then I ran into him another Sunday at the coffee shop near us, and he started talking about Mahler again, and I mentioned the program again, and he was giving a lesson that night during most of the program, but he said he'd come up after, and he then showed up around 9:30pm, for the last part of this program with an odd hodgepodge of pieces.

One of them had been this supposedly eccentric recording of Mahler's Fourth Symphony with weird tempos and delayed downbeats and stuff, but the conductor had actually heard Mahler rehearse and play it and took extensive notes from which he later conducted, so it might actually be closer to how Mahler intended the symphony to sound.

Sadly, my one stoner neighbor wasn't there yet when they played a bit from that recording, but I told him a little about it and he was mega interested, so then we went downstairs to share some wine as he cued up that recording from YouTube and I was telling him more about the supposed style.

As soon as we got to a delayed downbeat, he was like, "Whoa, listen to that, man.  Mahler swings."

Currently, he's trying to crowdfund a surfing trip to Mexico, to inspire music.