It's interesting how dramatic music makes an everyday activity seem more intense. One morning last week, I was feeding Sammy the cat as a particularly serious passage of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Russian Easter Overture" played on SiriusXM's Symphony Hall station. I wondered, "Will Sammy eat a sufficient amount of food in one sitting? If not, will I have to prod him to eat more in a little while?" Hearing Gerard Schwarz conduct the Seattle Symphony's performance of this overture, however, made Sammy's need to eat seem all the more urgent. I thought, "What if Sammy reads or hears about the evil in the world, becomes disgusted, loses his appetite, and decides to fast until cooler heads right the world's wrongs?"
Fortunately, Sammy ate most of his food that morning, so I didn't have to cross that bridge.
