Friday, December 5, 2014

Eight minutes in Paradise



I lack the time to write somewhat thoughtful texts. But I try to find short moments of spiritual "breath" through music.
Here is one, found in Schubert (which will not surprise those who know me).
It is a fragment of an unfinished piano sonata (in F sharp minor, No. 8, D 571). Schubert would have written it in 1817 (he was then 20 years).
All the art and the genius of Schubert are there. This is the "wanderer" dreamily walking in the countryside. It is nostalgic without being sad, full of energy and restraint at the same time, with an extraordinary thematic richness...
I find particularly beautiful a passage that starts at 3’20 and lasts about a minute. It’s like thoughts that rise and come back, then leave in another direction, unfinished and as unsettled…
Such music can reconcile you with yourself and with the world.
I have said enough: now just listen



Fiodor