...and I'm not
that good of a pianist!
Neither am I. And I sort-of gave up a while back, really. But just having the experience of even attempting it at all at a performing level makes you appreciate rather more the people that
can do it. You can have one more anecdote, and this time with a name attached:
A few years ago I attended an organ recital on an instrument that has seen better days, given by a certain Dame Gillian Weir - in the list of internationally famous organists, she's firmly in the top ten. I was chatting to her afterwards (I won't bore you with all the details of that - it's complicated) and with all artistes at this level, you have to be a
little careful about what you say... It's no secret amongst the people that listen to her regularly that she has some days that are, shall we say, 'better than others', but fortunately for me she was having a good one that day. And without thinking about it, I just said what was on my mind - which was basically that there were times during the recital that I'd quite forgotten that I was listening to an organ, and boy did
that change things! Turns out that this was (quite inadvertently on my part) one of the best compliments she'd been given for a while. Opened the chat up somewhat, I must say. But hey, it was what I felt - and that's the difference between the merely competent performer and the great one; they can transcend an instrument completely.
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