What to do with children? It came so naturally. I remembered Aunt Marion’s example. Give them a place to run — to breathe fresh air first — and lead them to a place to swim. Feed them fruit. Show them how it is peeled and sweetened. Love all children as if they were your own. Then, just before they go to sleep, Give them music by the silvery moon.
In the concert hall, each motionless listener is part of the performance. The concentration of the player charges the electric tension in the auditorium and returns to the playLIer magnified. I like the fact that "LISTEN" is an anagram of "SILENT". Silence is not something that is there before the music begins and after it stops. It is the essence of the music itself, the vital ingredient that makes it possible for the music to exist at all. It's wonderful when the audience is part of this productive silence.
~ Alfred Brendel in "The New Yorker" 4/1/96 thanks to B. Stockard
