An interlude

How to deal with problems that you cannot solve, but which never the less troubles you? I usually answer questions like these with the word Beethoven. But of course if I had to give a more detailed answer, I’d have to include several of his friends and colleagues.

Here are a few pieces played by one of those colleagues, Dinu Lipatti, a wonderfully gifted Romanian pianist whose Chopin-interpretations were some of the first classical pieces I ever heard, and who died much too young, at the age of only 33. The second piece was recorded before either of my parents were even born – I’m pretty sure it’s no good trying to talk to the dead, but the dead can sometimes talk to you: