It Seems Surreal

Lviv, Ukraine Friday 11/11/16 9:30PM

I went to a concert at the Lviv, Philharmonic and I was sitting in my chair in the best place in the balcony overlooking the stage waiting for the concert to start.

My very favorite seat is #36 the one at the very edge of the balcony up front on the right side overlooking the stage and closest to the performers. The concert hall is small and intimate and I’ve been here before when I found myself unnerved to be making eye contact more than a few times with the pianist as she performs only a few feet below me on stage.

Tonight I had seat 35 the next best seat. But no one was sitting in seat 36. And then just before the soloist came out on the stage a young woman sat down there next to me.

After three presenters talked for what seemed like forever, introducing the concert and perhaps future ones, (my Ukrainian is not that good yet so I was lost) I began to the think the piano was just a prop for these lecturers when finally they finished talking and out came the soloist

He was wearing really long hair. But that wasn’t the most notable thing. The shoes he wore were as unusual as the conductor in Uzhhorod described in my last Blog Post in her high heel stilletos.  Only more so.

Like he wore no shoes at all. No socks either. Just bear feet. Well I’ve never seen that before at a formal concert in a grand concert hall. And its quite chilly in the concert hall this time of year.

It seemed surreal.

During his performance he put various items on top of the strings in the grand piano (a Steinway of course). I  observed strings of beads, a book, some kind of metal thing. All of which did some weird things to the sound. 

Now you could think this is all just gimmickry to make up for a lack of talent and create an interesting performance and impress us.

Not so.

My take on this?  This guy is so good he could do whatever he wanted to. He is a real gifted natural talent.

He was totally absorbed in his work and  paid little attention to the enthusiastic response of the audience. Until it was all over. Really doing his thing.

Here’s a Very brief (1 1/3 minute) video to give you a bit of an idea. Do click it and watch his foot work.

When it was all over I asked the young woman sitting in my “usual” seat “who is this guy??”.

Well it turned out she indeed knew. He’s a Polish star pianist, an extraordinary talent. And as it turned out she and her friend sitting in back of us with a slightly older woman are violinists from Poland who will be playing here Monday night with the Lviv, Philharmonic.

Needless to say I told them I will be here too watching them (in seat 36) or as close as I can get when I go first thing tomorrow to get my ticket.

What followed was the chance nice discussion you can have here. They were interested to know where I was from. Mercifully there was no discussion of what just occurred in the United States with our election. We didn’t get to that but I’m sure we would have if there had been more time.

The big news here like throughout the world is about the U.S. election and what it all means. But especially here where Ukraine’s future is so dependent on the U.S. to balance Russia. And of course the concern here is that Trump will trade Ukraine because of his ties to Russsia of which we know so little and have reason to fear so much. 

One of the benefits to traveling in the world is to realize what an important responsibility and place the U.S. has in it. I feel that especially when I am here. It has made me very proud to be an American.

And now like a lot of Americans I am processing what has just occurred and what it means. More than once I’ve thought maybe this is just a bad dream from which I’ll be relieved to wake up.

In my last Blog Post I said that there was a real risk that what happened could happen. But, it’s still a shock.

We are in uncharted waters and anyone who tells you they know what is going to happen is lying or deluding themselves.

It all seems so surreal.