Johannes Vermeer. The Music Lesson (Lady at the Virginal with a Gentleman) — Johannes Vermeer, The Music Lesson, 1662–1665

Pablo Picasso. Three Musicians — Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians, 1921

Salvador Dalí. The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft — Salvador Dalí, The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft
Which Can Be Used as a Table, 1934

Caravaggio. The Lute Player — Caravaggio, The Lute Player, 1595

On Music

Let us try to think here together. What comes to your mind? The first thing that comes to mind. There is no particular goal or direction. What thoughts, what feelings are flowing through your head? You may give yourself a minute to reflect and then move on.

Are you thinking about what I have in mind? Or are thoughts of people, or work, or home life flashing through your head? What is the weather like today? It is surely a little different from yesterday's. What did you feel when you sensed its change? How do you feel now? What did it remind you of? Or perhaps a thought flashed through your mind about what to cook for dinner? You may take another minute…

Why do I suggest this? Because this is your music. Music is far from being only correctly played notes; music is your soul, your thoughts and feelings, your desires.

What do you want? What will you play about, and why? I want to hear you… Or perhaps you want me to play for you?

I play for you about a world dear to me; about how one can live beautifully and happily, searching for meaning in life and in the world, understanding it and oneself, how one can rejoice, and how one can grieve, how to feel proud and how to feel ashamed, about an excerpt from a poem by Pasternak…

If I was able, I would write,
I'd try to fashion
The eight of lines, the eight of rhymes
On laws of passion,

On the unlawfulness and sins,
On runs and chases,
On palms and elbows, sudden somethings,
Chances, mazes.

…about how I loved and love, about how I lost and lose people, about true valor and strength, about forgiveness and treachery, about the rustle of leaves in autumn, when I walked in the mountains as a child and saw the faces of my mother and sister, about the scent of my childhood home, of a mountain stream, about the people I have met… I warm you with this music — that is what I am striving for! I want you, like me, to come to love life and to be able to apply yourself fully within it. So that the light which pours upon me may pour upon you too. Do you hear this music?

I wrote these few lines to convey to you a little of what is so hard to convey in words — music, my view of life, and how I work with it.