February 22, 2004 at 7:16 AM

I can't believe it! I missed Hilary Hahn's one and only live performance in town (Washington DC) today! I found out about it too late to attend. She played Bach's Partita #2, one of the "ultimate" pieces for solo violin. How long must I wait to hear her again? Life must be really difficult for people who live in a city where they can't hear live performances by such stars.

By coincidence, I just got the latest monthly offer from BMG in the mail, and they're selling this year's classical CD grammy winners. Hilary Hahn's CD of the Bach concerti is there, along with her other CDs. I guess I'll just have to go ahead and spend the money on CDs.

Speaking of spending money, I went to a used bookstore on Saturday and bought a large fraction of their books by or about musicians and composers, including books with their letters. I love reading these letters. I get a feeling of immediacy, almost as if I know the letter writer personally. Now I can read some of the correspondence between Wolfgang and Costanze and between Pyotr Ilyich and Mme von Meck. I'm so glad that there are always new things to learn about music.