Invitation to a Conversation

The first of my summer series of Conversations at the Piano took place last night and, sure enough, it was exactly that.  It began with an exchange about black keys and white keys, the announced subject of the evening, and quickly included Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Milhaud among the conversants.

How refreshing to engage the listener and the repertoire in a sense of ongoing open-ended curiosity and conversation rather than to approach a piece of music as a thing cast in stone rendered once and for all definitive.

This should not be the goal of performers nor should it be the expectation of that most critical of all participants, you, the listener.