Where am I today?

This morning was no different than any other.

I woke up early, still dark outside. No sounds.

I swiftly got up from bed, brushed my teeth, put my jogging pants on, and in less than five minutes I was outside exercising. Some days I go to the gym, others I go jogging.

Today was a jogging day.

Only that, instead of jogging around Madrid, my home city, I´m in another one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Probably right up there in my top three.

Amsterdam.

I used to live in The Netherlands years ago, and Amsterdam was a regular visit. I performed many concerts in this amazing city.

Its beauty is so unique that it´s hard to put into words. It has a very specific feel to it. It´s much more than canals, bikes, art and culture. It´s an organism that breathes on its own and gives life to a myriad of brilliant and obscure parallel universes that somehow live in balance with each other.

And so it happens that the apartment I´ve rented for the next few days is right beside the most important building in Amsterdam. Well, the most important to me:

The Concertgebouw.

I only performed once at the Concertgebouw. I hope to perform there again, but if I don´t, I still consider myself among the 0.0001 % luckiest people on earth.

This place is so important to music.

It also houses one of the top orchestras in the world, and I´m here to record a project with a couple of musicians from this orchestra. More on that later.

For now, I´m going to share one of those legendary recordings that is close to my heart, and that happened exactly 50 years ago. An older Artur Rubinstein performing Brahms´s first piano concerto with this amazing orchestra, led under the great baton of Bernard Haitink.

This is a monumental performance. If you´re up for it, give it a listen. It´s as intense as it gets. Click here.

Have a great day,

Claudio.