Die Klavier-Kleopatra

A praise of side thoughts during concerts of serious music

Don't force your attention if it is not ready!

It is a hard piece of work to follow a complex music composition over its entire length of 20, 40 or more minutes. This holds true especially for classical music. You will need to train your abilities in concentration, if you want to consciously experience all the musical ideas brought to you, while you listen to a piano sonata. Since I did not manage to listen to a lot of classical or other long form music recently, I had a difficult time following, when I visited the Pianosalon Christophori last friday. Especially since the sounds resonating in the rooms of the music school of Friedrichshain were capricious sonatas of Robert Schumann. Now the question is, whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer while clenching on to the musical happenings, or to let loose and even encourage your mind to drift away to other realms... Would that be OK?

Short side thought:

Why music school of Friedrichshain? Neurologist Christoph Schreiber runs a Piano Repair Shop in his spare time, where he holds weekly concerts with extraordinary musisicians performing on restored historic pianos (covered already on broia and in Der Tagesspiegel) Since the repair shop had to move out for the second time within just a few months, the concerts now temporarily take place in the state run music school of Friedrichshain, Zellestrasse 12.

 

Alas! Of course it is OK! It is up to you, what you think about during a concert, as long as you remain quiet. And the Pianosalon Christophori concerts really invite you to drift away. Of course you will have  to listen to long forms, to train your concentration. Anyway, it is fine let your thoughts drift once in a while.

Maria Myscheva, performer of the night, stages herself as something like the Kleopatra of Piano (Klavier-Kleopatra) - an aesthetic experience which is a bit distracting even if you are focussed on the music. So my first side thought that evening had been: is that one of the reasons why she won prizes? She played stunningly well, especially the sonata No.2. Still if you take a look at today's classical record releases, you might think piano or violin competitions must somehow include erotic parameters in their judgement.

The second half of the concert I was thinking over the gentleman of around 60 who was impressed by me opening his bottle of beer with another one. He never had seen that before. You may take this as a sign, that the audience was not the crowd you usually spend your evenings with. But you may also think about the fact, that at the Pianosalon Christophori you can drink beer while listening to classical music, even if you have to open the bottles yourself. Instead of boring you with my other side thoughts that night I conclude:

Dear Reader,

in summary please keep in mind, that for around 15 € you have the opportunity to join this delicate Piano Salon Concert almost every week. Even in the soulless surroundings of a state music school, you can not only witness but be part of an intimate musical experience as well as – if you are not too much taken away by the music - the small stories to the side

tataratam