<\/p>\n
He knows what\u2019s important\u2014 the purity, the essence of the music. There\u2019s nothing like not being able to play the piano for forty years to make one appreciate each sound. Each opportunity to create beauty. There\u2019s no excuse, no need for artifice. Each moment has purpose.<\/p>\n
Years of absence and silence have refined the desire to create sound. Decades of trying and failing to regain health, prestige, career have bruised and beaten the ego to a pulp. Only the heart of the music remains, as only the soul of man survives.<\/p>\n
Now he wants to play Bach, Chopin, Schubert. Why play music that is purely virtuosic? He learned long ago that maximum notes per second are not where it\u2019s at.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore, I was just a two-handed piano player,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat happened to me has expanded my life, my awareness, my humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n