The Pope's Piano

Eric walked into the theater and asked where to find his dressing room. His father was always a late arriver and will come in about a half hour. Tonight the orchestra will play Beethoven’s Second Symphony, and then Johan is set to perform the Violin Concerto in E Minor by Mendelssohn. After intermission, the orchestra will open with Mozart’s Overture to “The Impresario”, and then Eric and his father would play the violin duet, Vivaldi’s Concerto For Two Violins In C Minor. This has always been a popular piece and orchestra crowds love it.
Eric thought back to the first public concert he played with the Pittsburg Symphony. It was also the Vivaldi duet. They played the fast movements, but at a slower than normal speed. The middle slow movement was played at the intended tempo. At that time Eric was only ten years old and not really ready to be playing on a big public stage, but Johan wanted to expose him to the world and let the public see what talent was developing. He remembers wearing this little tuxedo with a tight collar and being scared to death. However, once they walked onto the stage little Eric just stared at his father. He pretended they were just in his bedroom practicing. He remembered noticing how animated and excited his father was when performing and how he really got into the music. By the third movement, Eric was able to look at the audience and was playing with more emotion and exhilaration and that movement really got the crowd going. He assumed that was why his father had introduced him to public performance so young. In that way Eric could get the thrill of performing and add more feeling to his playing. They had played the duet perfectly and Eric remembered bowing to the audience and then running off the stage. Johan had to go backstage to get him to take another bow during the standing ovation.
Back at Carnegie Hall, Eric completed his warm up and went over the tricky parts of the duet by the time his father arrived. Eric thought, “Dad never seems to warm up much. He just takes enough to tune up his Stradivarius. My Guarnerius and I need more time to get ready”. “Late again”, Eric joked as his father darted into his dressing room.
“On time as usual. Just hook on the bow tie and tune up the Strad and I’m good to go”, replied his father.
The orchestra started promptly at 7:30PM this Friday as was typical of the punctual Julio Rossini the conductor. Eric sat just off the stage to hear his father play the Concerto in E Minor again, even though he had heard it a thousand times. With the very first bow stroke, it was like a lightening strike. The sound sent a chill up Eric’s back as the Master let go. The sound, the tone, the music, the expression, the magic was always there. It didn’t matter if it was a collection of ultra fast notes or the slow lyrical section. He wondered how his father got that much sound and feeling out of two pounds of hollow wood and some strings. Eric and the whole audience knew they were witnessing something very special.