This is a jewel

If you´re not already saturated with Christmas, you´ve at least spent lots of attention on it by now.

So, today being a calm day, if you want to get a bit away from 100% focus on Christmas, I have something for you. A bit of the back story:

Decades ago, I had a pen pal.

An illustrious pen pal.

I was just beginning to seriously study music, and he was a great master with an amazing career as a performer and teacher at Indiana University in the United States.

His name was Michel Block, a true legend of the piano. He belonged to that elite group of musicians who transformed and elevated music into a plane of transcendence.

He was kind enough to listen to some of my recordings (homemade cassette tapes that I sent by ordinary mail, they were different technologies at the time) and give me some feedback and advice that I cherish to this day.

He also sent me some tapes of his own live recordings which at the time were not available anywhere. Even if nowadays you can listen to them anywhere on the internet, I keep those cassette tapes as my treasures.

Today I want to share one of his performances, one that is especially close to my heart and that is very fitting for a peaceful resting day such as today.

If you click here to go to this playlist, you´ll see it as the first track: Andante (Aria) in C by Johann Sebastian Bach.

I hope it inspires you.

Have a great day.

Claudio.