Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

I could be dead soon. What should I listen to?

Damian Thompson wonders whether he has time to appreciate Suk's Asrael Symphony or Hindemith's Mathis der Maler

British pianist Clifford Curzon [Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images] 
issue 24 May 2014

If I live as long as my father, I’ll be checking out on 9 December 2017. Since every man in my family drops dead of a heart attack at a ridiculously young age, it’s not inconceivable. I mean, obviously the chances of me dying on precisely that day are tiny, but it’s my ballpark figure.

This faces me with big questions. Given that I’m probably croaking soon anyway, should I try smack? (I mean, try it properly: the only time I was handed a heroin pipe, by a professor, I was far too scared to inhale.) Do I need to worry about my miserably empty pension pot? Is there a God? And if there is, should I stop being so monstrously selfish? Big questions, as I say, but I still shunt them to the back of my mind.

What I can’t ignore is the memento mori of my 3,000 classical CDs.

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