Schubert in the living room

Eight chairs, one piano, no applause until it's over

I will play Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 21 — the last one he wrote, finished weeks before he died. It is forty minutes long and goes places most concert programmes avoid. You sit close enough to hear the pedal mechanism and see my hands. I play the whole piece without stopping, then we open wine and talk about what just happened. Then I play the final movement again. No musical knowledge is required or useful. What helps is a willingness to sit quietly for forty minutes, which is harder than it sounds and more rewarding than most things.

How the evening goes

2 hours, 8 guests, in Outremont.

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