I take Lee's point that the choices are my own. What I was wondering was whether other listeners have had a similar experience in recent years.

Actually, one might note that in a way one is almost forced to buy some of the film music releases. This may be because of short print runs -- some of these things don't stay around very long -- or simply because we want to support the "good guys" who are taking chances on these seemingly obscure releases. No rush to get to those Bartok quartets. They will always be there waiting to be heard.

"Difficulty" is another matter. I don't think it's snobbish to acknowledge that most film music makes for easier listening than most concert fare. Think of all those people who write "now playing" as they type messages. Obviously they are not listening will full attention, and they don't feel that they need to. I often join their ranks, especially where a film is familiar and I can mentally "fill in" the dramatic situation with little effort. Indeed, much film music (though certainly not all) belongs in the background, where it is intended to work on only a portion of our psyche while dialogue and action occupy the eye and the mind. It's easy to find time for that type of listening.

But concert music of a modernist bent, fugues or quartets that favor line over sonority, operatic and vocal music where you need to follow a text in a foreign language, and nowadays in a microscopic font size -- these things demand full attention. And the larger works demand stretches of uninterrupted time that I don't always have. And, yes, William, Orfeo actually goes down very well when I lend it half an ear. But I'd like to make time to do better than that.