Là ci darem la mano …
It’s a topsy turvy time right now. Brisbane has come out of lockdown and Tasmania has opened its border to Queensland; Cath is due to fly down to the farm on Thursday; and our eldest son is due to fly out to London also on Thursday and without us being able to see him before he goes. So, not only do we have to contend with the cliff-hanger of the daily Covid briefing by the Queensland chief health officer (experience over the past year has shown just how quickly lockdowns come and how long they take to be lifted) but there is also the strain of not knowing when life will return to normal so that we can visit our three sons, all of whom will be abroad from the end of the week.
As an antidote to all this uncertainty, on Sunday an old friend from university visited and we had a great time walking around the farm, lunching at Willie Smith’s Apple Barn and generally reminiscing about old times. As I was already tuned in to a bit of historical reflection (or perhaps just introspection), it’s no surprise that while sitting in front of the fire later in the evening, I recalled going to a piano recital in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford in June of 1984 to listen to the Ukranian-American pianist Shura Cherkassky playing Chopin. Now I must confess that I don’t recall much of the music he played that night, but I remember the tumultuous applause and multiple encores before he came out and played Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” with two fingers to signal that he was done! Cherkassky was about 75 when he gave that recital, but he was really dynamite.
I couldn't find a recording of the concert on the web, but I find Cherkassky playing Chopin’s variations on Mozart’s “La ci darem la mano” for piano and orchestra (https://youtu.be/2C7xkoLAr8g if you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, just scoot along to 5:00 when the main theme is introduced on the piano and then the orchestra will play a little interlude between 4 incredible variations). It’s a very old and noisy recording but the playing is superb and the contradictions I perceived in this performance just seemed to me to mimic the complex and contrary state of the world we currently find ourselves in. On the one hand we have Mozart's piercingly beautiful music, while on stage we have the unscrupulous and devious Don Giovanni. Then consider the genius of Chopin who was only teenager when he wrote these variations, which are being performed here by a virtuoso in his mid-eighties.
These ambiguities just seemed to fit my mood. Alone on the farm for the last month or so I feel a bit isolated from my family but also humble and fortunate to be amid such incredible beauty. The glory of the sunrise is matched by the colour of the hyacinths, the daffodils, the tiny buds that are now obvious on every seemingly dead tree and even the unknown flowers that just happen to pop up here and there.
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