Encore!

I can cross "laugh until you cry" off of my "Bucket List". Unfortunately, this occurred during a piano recital Tuesday night. Not exactly a good setting for having the giggles and for having tears streaming down your face, unless you were moved to tears by emotion, which we were not.

The mistake I made was in sitting next to Anna, who accompanied Lauren and I because lacking electricity at home, she thought it might give her something to do. By intermission, she had decided that sitting in the dark wasn't such a bad thing.

The first snort came when the pianist, a emeritus professor of the school of music, ended a piece with what appeared to be a sudden seizure. His hands flew up in the air, his rear left his bench and he shook his head violently. I glanced at Anna and our eyes met. I had to think dire thoughts as my laughter began shaking the entire row of seats. I avoided looking at her until intermission.

He began playing Shostakovitch after intermission, twenty-four preludes. I began counting them off on my fingers like I was saying the rosary. Hail Mary! He was finished. We joined the audience in giving him a rousing standing ovation, reluctantly. I whispered to Anna that if they continued clapping, he would play again. And indeed, he returned to the Steinway on stage. Anna rolled her eyes and sighed heavily, dropping into her seat. Again, I had to fill my head with dark thoughts to stop the laughter that started to bubble up in me. At least, he now played Chopin and it didn't sound as if a cat was wandering across the keyboard.

It was getting later, but the audience again begged for more as Anna begged to leave. The pianist nearly ran the to the piano, showing eagerness to continue to play rather than a humble reluctance to continue to bask in the audience's admiration. After playing the second encore, he again returned to the piano and I gave in. We sneaked to the door, and entering the hallway, let our our breath, laughing that we'd escaped captivity.

Lauren, our pianist and reason for being there, gave us her opinion that he was technically very good, but like us, she did not find that she enjoyed the musicality of the performance. His continued violent body movements were distracting and disturbing to us, who were trained differently. I was vindicated in my opinion. Still, I will take care to sit next to Lauren from now on.