Keyboard conversations

I wrote up this entire post and then blogger performed its magic and it's gone...here's my attempt to recreate it. So frustrating :(

Alright, not a post about instant messaging or chat rooms. No, this time it's an inspiration from a concert of the same name I had the pleasure of attending yesterday. My very first western classical live music experience!
It was a concert by world-renowned musician Jeffrey Siegel, who played the piano, interspersed with commentary and introductions into the 'stories' behind the pieces he selected. (Hence the name "Keyboard Conversations"). He played some Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Copeland, all names I've heard of and read of obviously, but never really listened to. It was so fascinating to learn a little more about the pieces - why Rachmaninoff hated the very piece that was his ticket to high-class Viennese musical society and world-wide fame for instance. Or why a piece might have gotten a name like "Rage over a lost penny". I learned what a rondo is (it's a piece of music where a particular tune repeats at intervals, like this).
I learned that a composition needs to be 'published' and how several now-famous and dearly beloved creations almost never saw the light of day because the composer decided not to publish it. Then a starving student sells it after his death for money, and so on and so forth. It was also enlightening to realize that published music is merely a framework - the art and genius of the musician lies in interpreting this music, not merely reading it, as I used to assume. Which obviously could go either way - I tried to relate it to my terms and decided that it'd be like the difference between a Beatles cover of a Chuck Berry song and a Backstreet Boys cover of the same. They are both perfectly entitled to cover it, but who could do it better than John, Paul, Ringo and George? Or the difference between an Instant Karma remix of a Kishore Kumar hit and a Baby Doll #47 remix of the same :)
Finally, it was just so refreshing to feel how beautifully music (sans lyrics, videos, orchestra and other crutches) - just one man and his fingers making sounds - can evoke a complete range of emotions. It's true! I really could feel the joy and the despair and the naughtiness in some nuances, and the heavy finality of some endings...it's remarkable, the genius of the composer who imagined it, and the genius of the musician who renders it so well.
I felt that music really does have the power to transform...and not just the audience. I've always thought performing music gives one an immediate aura, an instant makeover, transforming even dumpy, aging, crazy haired people like Siegel into glowing, passionate, beautiful creatures.
Well, regardless of whether this turns into a serious pursuit for me, or merely serves as an interesting peek into a world I may never enter, I'm perfectly glad I engaged in these keyboard conversations yesterday...away from the more mundane keyboard conversations I have eight hours a day with my computer at work!