Pianist and poet Alfred Brendel from "Cursing Bagels"

Alfred Brendel

Pianist Alfred Brendel's poetry has graced this blog before. I can tell myself that the distinctive dry wit of his poems may offer some insight into his piano performances, but the truth is I just like his poetry. I think they would be funny, irreverent, etc. witty even if they were written by my dry cleaner (actually more so in that case). But then I would have a hard time justifying singing their praises in a blog more or less representing my employer. Because Mr. Brendel has often performed here under the auspices of the Celebrity Series of Boston - and will again, and for the final time, on February 22 - I have had the excuse I need:

That pianos
should not merely be cooked
but also smoked
has recently been discovered
by pure chance
A fire in the local piano store
surprisingly revealed
that smoked pianos
sound nobler than cooked ones
In huge fireplaces
they now hang
those dispensers of musical delight
like blackened hams
before
smokey-grey and spicy
they satisfy the cognoscenti
Henceforth
the famous house of Bösenstein
will refrain
from boiling pianos hard or soft
according to taste

-by Alfred Brendel with Richard Stokes (translator) from Cursing Bagels, Faber and Faber, 2004