2004-06-01
Paderewski, the Polish pianist who was arguably one of the 20th Century's greatest, played Royal Albert Hall in the early 20's.There was this woman whose 5 year old son had just started taking piano lessons, and she figured that taking him to see Paderewski would, you know, fill him with the spirit. Well, they go to the packed Royal Albert Hall, and the woman is surprised to see that her seats are actually in the 3rd row. She and her son sit down, and a friend of the woman sitting in the 5th row notices her. The two of them start to bullshit while the little boy is messing around.
Suddenly, the woman turns around and lo and behold, no little boy. Royal Albert Hall is no tiny little recital room, so naturally she starts to panic and gets up to look for him. As she's searching, the lights go down for the show to begin. The woman is nearly hysterical as the massive red curtain starts to rise. On the stage is a humongous grand piano. Seated at said piano is the little boy, and he starts to play "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star."
The woman's literally about to go up on stage to grab her son, when suddenly Paterewski comes out. The boy looks up, thinking he's in trouble, but Paterewski tells him to keep going. He sits down next to him and starts to fill in a rich harmony with his left hand. Then he reaches his right hand around the boy and adds a running obligato. The two of them go on like that for almost two minutes before they finish to a thundering, house-shaking applause.
I'd be willing to bet that nobody who was at that concert remembers what was in the evening's actual program, but they all remember "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star."
MORAL: Give me what little you can, and I'll make a masterpiece out of it.
Thanks, Monsignor Rholfs. Best homily ever. I knew there was a reason that I started going back to church.
Started going back to church, started going back to the gym, stopped drinking as much, startING to get my shit together.
-Andy