Monday Morning

Upaya‘s newsletter kindly mentions Under the Rose today.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned John Cage’s book A Year from Monday. The title stems from a dinner with friends, at which it was decided to meet in Mexico a year from Monday. Cage wrote:

In order to realize this rendezvous, all of us (knowing how to say Yes) will have to learn to say No – No, that is, to anything that may come between us and the realization of our plan.

Reading the title and remembering the story – Cage doesn’t mention whether they did meet after all that – I thought of April and speaking to my brother and dad about meeting in Vienna in October. Dad had lived in Vienna at one time and was quite familiar with the history and layout of the city. We had in mind to see the city through his eyes, to listen to him reminisce about his life there, and, of course, to sit together at a Heurige – the name of taverns in the city that serve wine of the same name. Heuriger means wine from the last harvest, a white wine, probably similar to Verdicchio, a fresh Italian wine that is made to be drunk soon, within a couple of years of harvest.

I remember dad arguing with me on the phone, saying that he would not need the wheel chair my brother and I were suggesting to rent. The three of us did agree to meet in Vienna in October and started making plans.

Then my mind jumped to the upcoming solo-tour and the fact that I will be the only one actually going to Vienna in October… Wow! How strange! I must drink a glass of Heuriger and toast my dad.

It was only a day or two later that I realized that my father did not die this year and that the plans were for October of last year.

From the liner notes of the triple CD A State of Wonder: The Complete Goldberg Variations (1955 & 1981)

The purpose of art is not the release of a mementary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.
– Glenn Gould

Rock & Rollers and quite a few Jazzers would beg to differ. But, to witness the deepening of music in great musicians like Glenn Gould and the cellist Janos Starker over a lifetime is a marvelous gift.

The second disc, recorded analogue in 1981, is a beauty. The piano stands there, right in front of you, and sometimes the eyes open to make sure there isn’t actually one in the room…

I cut my left ringfinger while chopping onions for risotto yesterday evening. Shouldn’t have talked while handling a big knife! I was explaining how the Ottomans made rice by sauteing onions and then adding rice and later water or broth, probably before the Italians did. And that I feel that the Italian cuisine, which is my favorite, is really a hybrid. Rice and spaghetti both have their origins in the East, and one must not forget how many ideas were exchanged between Istantbul and Venice!

I expect the wound will heal by the end of the week and I’ll have plenty of time to practice what I want to play in Europe in October.

Monday Morning Butterflies

Here is a recording I made on Friday afternoon in my studio.

[flv:090703-Butterflies.flv 475 267]

You can download the full-size HD (720p) video here. The video file is a little under 400MB in size. The sound in the download-video is 320kbps mp3, and the above streamer is 160kbps.

You can also download the full 24/88.2 sound recording (((without the visual, of course))) here – about 180MB.

Monday Morning

Here and now
Had an interesting lapse of concentration last night. Could not remember which songs I had played already and what I might have talked about… I don’t use a setlist for these solo performances because I prefer to select and switch on the fly, sometimes creating new medleys on the spot, but during the eighth show in four days in the same venue it all started to blend together a bit.

Went for my daily morning visit to Gimme Coffee.