Recital

Piano recital. It went well. Apparently I almost made someone cry. (if i were a cat I would allow you to congradulate me...). There were a few interesting performances. I think one person was in tears, another looked smug, another cute... there were many little human enotions all over the place. As I sat there, shaking with nerves, I began to understand that performance is not about perfection and mastery, but about humaness. If I wanted perfection I could easily listen to a CD. Of course it is amazing in a recital if someone does not mess up plays a piece perfectly. This can also be very dull. Rather something amazing is when a performer manages to capture both self, music and audience into the same dialogue of listening.
It was also beautiful to watch how people interact and respond to themselves and to others. One person, when almost finnishing the song lost completley her thought. Rather than ignoreing the people watching she engaged them and called out to her teacher for help. There was a little dialogue from the stage to the audience and then the song was completed. Perhaps it is less formal, and certainly this would be frustrating in a concert. But in this case it was beautiful.