The end of the week, in Puerto Rico, is celebrated as viernes social: a time when coworkers and friends get together and have a drink, a beer. And what goes better than Bach with beer?
Right--I may be a bit of an outsider here. I spent years playing the six suites for unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach. Years I spent disliking them, loving them, fearing them (the sixth especially, which of course is the most beautiful...) Have I mastered them?
No.
Even Casals, who first brought these works to the public, was never satisfied with his recordings. So guess what? Why do I have to be? So after five years--in which I've lost my mother, job and mind--of not playing, I've decided it's time.
And it's time, as well, to play in public. So why not raise some money for kids around the world? So I've selected four organizations that are very efficient, and spend the money you donate wisely. And trivial sums--trivial for us--can make a real difference in the third world.
So come tomorrow, 25 October 2013, at 5PM in the Poet's Passage. Have a beer, empty your pockets, enjoy the music, and...
...help some kids!
