COMING BACK - Manny Ax and returning to live performance

Here we are in the second Spring of the pandemic, and things are gradually coming back. Whilst it is still cool outside, there are all sorts of signs of new life around us.

As nature is coming back to life, so are the concert series!

I recently had the distinct pleasure of sharing the stage with Emanuel Ax. I was asked to do the concert introduction for the artist. In preparation, we had a number of phone conversations.

‘Manny’ as everyone calls him asked me if I would be willing to share the stage with him on his first concert in over a year, a recital of late Chopin works he had learned during the lockdown.

He did express how nervous he was about his return to concertizing after such a long time, and how he did not want to be alone on stage. So we decided on a format of short conversations between the pieces to makes things more relaxed and personal.

It was magic. We all got to experience what might be a once in a lifetime event:

An audience of 240 patrons socially distanced in a 3000 seat space, many of us hunkered down until this concert for at least a year without live music, and all of us gathered to experience a recital of the most beautiful pieces by Frederic Chopin performed by Emanuel Ax.

It was moving and exhilarating at the same time. What an experience!

For me, the most astounding revelation of the evening happened just when Manny got ready to enter the stage.

Manny was nervous, and he talked a lot backstage. The last thing he said before we went out struck a nerve for me:

“You know what? It sure was nice not to have to be nervous for a year”.

He played brilliantly!

As things are starting to pick up for us concert artists, I do ask myself how I actually feel about returning to the super-fast pace of traveling and playing, and I am with Manny in that it sure was nice not to have to be nervous for a whole year.

At the same time, there is a huge void when the live audience is replaced with online viewers.

There is nothing more exciting - even though nerve-racking - than a performance, the shared experience of music being created right then and there.

I know that Emanuel Ax feels the same way. He is such a performer, and by now he is on the way back to working his usual full touring schedule with engagements all over the globe.

So I guess it is time again to embrace being nervous (or being excited as I like to think) and I know I will think of Manny’s comment backstage many more times as we return to the concert life and beyond.