Jonathan Biss » Boundless Optimism

A Wise Man Once Said, Volume 2

JonathanBiss — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:49:45 +0000

The following conversation, reproduced here verbatim, took place a few days ago, while I was being driven from my home to a rehearsal in Newark with the New Jersey Symphony.

Driver: So what are you, a conductor or an instrumentalist?
J: Instrumentalist.
Driver: What do you play?
J: The piano.
Driver: What do you know!
J: Yeah.
Driver: My least favorite instrument.
J: ___
Driver: Because, you know, everyone bangs on it.
J: Well, that is sometimes the case.
Driver: Why, why do you people always bang on it?
J: Well, I try not to, myself.
Driver: Good.

Fin.

A Wise Man Once Said

JonathanBiss — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:49:52 +0000

“There is an inanimate object which has a capacity to exasperate which no human being will ever attain: a piano.”

— Marcel Proust

An exchange

JonathanBiss — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:00:10 +0000

with a friend, during a performance of Schubert’s 9th (7th?) symphony:

J: If music this beautiful can exist, the world can’t be such a bad place. Friend of J: You know, it was written a long time ago.

But it still exists. Life is beautiful.