I return to Rotterdam, and it’s as if no time has passed. Four years ago, I left very early in the morning, down a street with wood planks instead of a sidewalk. The construction is long finished, but I return to the thrill of that morning.
It was October then too. I did a 2-day seminar in Rotterdam, at Codarts. Following that, something slightly crazy was on my schedule. I’d agreed to play, with several other pianists (Robert Levin, John Harbison, Sergey Schepkin, Judith Gordon, many more), in a complete performance of J. S. Bach’s Art of Fugue in Boston. My part of it was one Contrapunctus and the Canon in Hypodiapason. The complication — the Boston concert was later in the evening of the same day I was leaving Rotterdam.
I wouldn’t have planned it that way. The Boston performance was scheduled far in advance, and Rotterdam (which paid well) was added to my calendar rather late. As long as the train and plane involved were on time, it would work.
I checked out of Hotel Breitner around 4 a.m. I took the earliest train from Rotterdam to Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. Everything went well — I arrived in Boston early enough to make it to a short afternoon rehearsal, my chance to try the piano. I believe I went to the conservatory and taught one lesson. At the concert, all the players sat on stage through the entire performance. For me, the experience of playing was emotionally charged — heightened I imagine by my travel plans. I remember Bob Levin saying to me later: “Your performance was an indictment of one hundred years of modern piano playing!”
Back in Rotterdam now, I love the modest hotel. I adore Wester Paviljoen, a really good café-restaurant just around the corner. Being here must remind me of daring the devil, and I like it. It’s a comfortable town — but my feelings are about that trip.
It crosses my mind that Paderewski spent the last months of his life (1940-41) living at the Buckingham Hotel on 57th Street and Sixth Avenue — across the street from Carnegie Hall where the great triumphs of his early career happened in 1891.