I think our culture has always been steeped in classical music. Beethoven still sells millions of records. Minimalist music lurks in the background of dance tracks. Go see a sci-fi, horror or action movie at the cineplex — there’s no way film composers could turn the screws of suspense without using dissonant devices pioneered by early 20th-century composers.

The trouble is, we’re not acknowledging this music as part of the mainstream; it’s been labeled a niche culture, a relic of the past.

Yet in a very gradual, word-of-mouth way, people are discovering the very rare experience that classical concerts offer: this phenomenon of sound emerging from silence, echoing in a natural space, and accumulating into grand architectural forms. In the end, the appeal is not just intellectual and not just emotional: it’s spiritual.

-Alex Ross (read here)