Listening To Beethoven's "Emperor'' Concerto

To Mitsuko Uchida The music is quiet now. It's the slow movement, an "adagio, " not that phoney "andante, " the real thing this, and Mitsuko Uchida places her fingers on the each key with utmost precision And we are convinced of its rightness. We are persuaded to follow her with slow thoughts, to seek a peaceful mood, like a summer day under a blue sky. An image in opposition rushes through my startled mind: Herakles's Nessus-shirt, infected with poison and jealousy. I put on the cloth of sympathy, and all is well again. It is so easy to be a god doing good: to create an expanding circle containing us, and this music is the thread that connects us. I feel I could listen forever to Mitsuko playing this music, slip into eternity on the slow motion of this adagio, sink into joy and remain there with the others around me, strangers no longer because Beethoven's music relates us each to each. The pianist slows the tempo, she will let this moment of accord stop. I pull the cloth of sympathy tightly against my body. Mitsuko's right hand is raised.