May 2024
The room grew quiet for a moment when the lights dimmed, but applause quickly broke out as soon as he stepped onto the stage.
This was the ninth and final concert in a year-long journey through the Beethoven Piano Sonatas (all 32 of them) performed by Eastman faculty member Alexander Kobrin.
Since September, he's presented a program of 4-5 sonatas in consecutive order on the 1st of each month, all from memory.
We were about to hear his first attempted public performance of Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106 (known as the Hammerklavier).
If you're not familiar with it, this piece is infamously difficult.
Though written in 1818, the Hammerklavier sonata wasn't performed publicly until 1836 (by Franz Liszt, the only pianist brave enough to attempt it), 18 years after it was composed and 9 years after Beethoven's death.
I flipped to the program note and reread the first line:
“The passage that opens the Hammerklavier perfectly embodies the elements on which the entire work is based: risk, the courage to respond to that risk, and the triumph of urgency.”
He played the two opening chords before the applause died down. Risk, courage, urgency. I perched on the edge of my seat, peering over the balcony rail, mesmerized.
When was the last time you experienced risk? I've been talking about this with my students lately as they prepare for auditions, festivals, and recitals.
“That moment that makes you feel nervous? Lean into that,” I said in a lesson last week. I hear the words echo back to me:
Take the risk. Do the thing that makes you uncomfortable. This is what courage looks like.
Courage, from the Latin word cor (heart) is defined as: “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty” (source: Merriam-Webster).
Willpower = The will to start. The power to keep going.
I watched a video about this on YouTube the other day. The key is to start with something you don't want to do. Here's why:
We met Alexander Kobrin at a reception a few days after his concert and expressed our sheer awe and amazement at what he had accomplished and our gratitude for inviting us along for the journey.
“I don't know how you did it,” Steve said. “Me neither!” he replied with a laugh.
The point is: Courage is contagious.
If you see someone doing something brave—taking a risk, or persevering no matter how daunting the task—it motivates you to do the same.
Whether it's a musical performance, public speaking (me this week!), pressing send/submit/publish, speaking up, showing up live on camera (also me this week!), or something else that makes you nervous and uncomfortable, what would it look like for you to embrace risk, to lean into something that challenges you, to feel the fear and do it anyway?
How much courage would it take? I'm over here cheering you on.
