It is not every day that I boast of having received high praise. But last night, after hearing me play the "Moonlight" Sonata a listener said that it was the first time he had ever heard all three movements make sense as an integrated work.
This constituted high praise because he is a professional pianist, because he had given up on that piece, and because he put his finger on the most challenging aspect of the sonata: what to do with that second movement that seems so out of place between the radical first and third movements.
This, I told him, was the last problem I solved, having despaired of ever getting it to happen and knowing that it would not happen all by itself.
I love playing for a small audience who give me such concrete feedback. I know that the juices are flowing both ways starting with the first note. What a privilege.
