It's 2019! Take a breath and start the new year on the right foot -- by which we mean, get caught up on all the best classical music stories of the week, of course!
1. Writer Jennifer Weiner reflects on how playing piano -- badly -- is the most meditative way to spend her time.
2. This arrangement of Liszt's "Un Sospiro" for vibraphone is simply mesmerizing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVCjIehEuOU
3. The Cleveland Orchestra is in the process of digitizing their entire archive collection, and you can view it online -- for free. Check it out here.
4. For the past 20 years, violinist Rachel Barton Pine has been on a mission: to catalog and make accessible classical music by black composers.
5. Here's a fascinating long read (and listen) for your weekend: the 200-year-long history of Scottish fiddle and classical violin.
6. Reddit user augmented6th asks: since it's 2019, what are your favorite Opus 19s?
7. One more from Reddit, because it's so wild:
![](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/bbf9698/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1658x582+0+0/resize/880x309!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fwcrb%2Ffiles%2F201901%2Fscreen_shot_2019-01-03_at_11.28.36_am.png)
8. And finally, clocking in right under the wire at the end of December, our favorite collab of 2018: TwoSet Violin and Hilary Hahn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwsnIoFXrt0