How often do you listen to live music?

A brief follow-up on the BSO. I have only lived here for about 2 1/2 years. I have not been to a "Zinman" concert, but everyone here in Baltimore that attends the symphony regularly (including a neighbor who is in the symphony) agrees that Temirkanov has stepped it up a notch. I think sometimes it's just getting a new director that puts everyone on their toes to perform their best--at any rate the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has really impressed me. The Lang Lang performance of Grieg's Piano Concerto is probably the best concert I've ever seen.

Abstract7, yes, I remembered your prior posts about Temirkanov; I thought they were terrific when I heard them with Zinman, so I'd love to hear an orchestra that sounds better than that! Here in NJ we're looking for a successor to Zdenek Macaal, hope we're as successful as the BSO.

I am a Baltimore Symphony subscriber also. I drive up from Southern Maryland (70 miles). Well worth the trip. I have a friend who also comes down from Rhode Island six time a year to hear Temirkanov conduct.

I also sing with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society. We will be performing with Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach) in March. Last March we performed with Dave Brubeck.

I sit in awed silence!
Cheers!

Well not so silent on second thoughts, as to voice complete agreement with Frogman's words, that audiophiles who orient themselves entirely on the sound of systems, can have ears equally well trained and honed as avid concertgoers. But all the same, and hence my starting of this thread, there is so much talk here on Audiogon of what is "better" and what is not. The question however of better in REGARD TO WHAT is often left open and I am curious to know where my fellow audiophiles take their benchmarks from. Is it the most impressive systems they have heard, which have grafted themselves in their aural memories, or is it rather the mnestic impact of a myriad of exposures to all sorts of live music which they try to emulate in their homes? I suppose, for the most of us, it is an amalgam of both, actually difficult to differentiate apart in dayly practice.