... piano concerti, farewells, and new songs ...

    I’ve always loved lists. Not the aggressive, careerist kind that parade accomplishments like medals pinned to a jacket and displayed in social media like a pissing contest. I mean the quiet, private, almost childlike kind. The ones scribbled in notebooks, half-finished, forgotten in drawers. Lists of books I’d never finish. Of composers I hoped to understand one day. Of improbable journeys, impossible projects, obscure words I wanted to remember.

    This is one of those lists...

    For no real reason, and certainly no important one, I started keeping track of the times I’ve been lucky (and sometimes terrified) to walk on stage as a concerto soloist with an orchestra. It wasn’t some grand, calculated chronicle. It started years ago, from my first concerto performance in 2000 at age 18 (Beethoven's 3rd), the way kids count train cars passing by, or the way we quietly note the shapes of clouds, knowing they’ll be gone in a moment. A way of saying "this happened", without insisting that it matters beyond that...

    Over the past 26 years (from ages 18 to 45, which I will be at the end of 2026 - as of writing this I'm still 43), those moments have accumulated in their quiet, unremarkable way. Forty-seven different concerti, fifty-four different orchestras, thirteen countries, and a total of a hundred and eighty-four performances. That sounds suspiciously like an achievement if you say it too quickly, but let me assure you, it’s much more mundane than that. Very mundane. It’s mostly airports and practice rooms, and long solitary hours (part obsession, part passion, part elation, part desperation, part procrastination), missed meals, financial debt, exhaustion, broken strings, occasional triumphs, very frequent mistakes and failures (that mostly, but who cares, it was fun and joyous), and countless reminders that music, like life, always resists being tallied...

    But then why make this list public? Partly because I stumbled upon the old notebook recently, and partly because, after all these years, it’s a small pleasure to see the thread woven together. Not as proof of anything. Not as evidence of any kind of progress (if it only were that easy...). No. None of that. Just as a collection of fleeting moments, like pebbles gathered absentmindedly along the shoreline during a summer day, just like today...

    If you’re a musician, maybe you’ll recognize the quiet absurdity of trying to count the uncountable. If you’re not, perhaps you’ll indulge me in the harmless pastime of putting order to a life that, like music itself, is mostly made of things that disappear as soon as they arrive...

    So, this is not a résumé. It’s not a monument. It’s certainly not a competition. It’s just a list, born from the same instinct that makes us look back over our shoulder once in a while and quietly say: Ah yes… that happened too.

    And yet, maybe more importantly, there’s also another reason why I find myself writing this list now, and why, in some quiet way, it feels like closing a life chapter. After nearly twenty-six years of living primarily as what the industry politely calls a "virtuoso performer" (yuck!), that is, a specialized "interpreter", a "soloist", someone whose life orbited almost entirely around concerts (especially concerti) and recordings, I’ve decided (a long, organically meditated and slow but necessary decision) to return to a more generalist conception of being a musician. And, with a bit of luck, and a bit of humility, maybe even an artist...

    The truth is, I never entirely stopped writing my own music, or improvising, or singing, or conducting, whether choirs, small ensembles, or the occasional orchestra. I never stopped teaching, writing essays on music and philosophy, composing poetry, or scribbling music criticism. But I did it very discreetly, almost hiding, quietly, on the margins of a life otherwise defined by concert halls, concerti, recordings, managers, contracts, competitions, and the treadmill of performance...

    The big irony is, I actually never set out to be a soloist, or a virtuoso, or even a performer. Not at all. It was absolutely never part of my dreams. Never. At no point in my life. I always loved music passionately, but never loved the stage per se, nor a life on the stage. As a child, I dreamed mostly of being a composer, of writing my own music, music that might outlive me. Perhaps also of conducting, of shaping sound collectively. That too I always dreamed of. But the path that led to such a "pianistic" life, the life of competitions, concerti, recitals, awards, recordings, management contracts… I mostly encountered it. I didn’t seek it. Never. Which is partly why, when young musicians or students I mentor ask me how to follow this path, I never quite know what to tell them. I didn’t choose it. It arrived, uninvited, and stayed, and I never really loved it completely. 

    And to be honest, and this is hard to say publicly, but I will today (please do forgive me for it), I’ve come to believe that seeking it, chasing the shiny, precarious status of “soloist”, is mostly a vain, superficial pursuit. I rarely believe in, anymore, nor am I particularly moved or inspired, by performers who don’t write their own music. Of course there are exceptions, but this is my general feeling about it at this point in my life. The cult of the interpreter, the performer as god, feels very much empty to me now. If there are gods in music, surely they are the creators, the composers. Just being a performer, especially one detached from composition, improvisation, or creation, feels to me, at this point in my life, like a diminished, impoverished version of what a musical, artistic life could be, or even should be. 

    This list, then, is not just a map of concerts past. It is, in a quiet way, the last nail in the coffin of that narrow, inherited version of myself. I won’t stop playing concerts, of course. Far from it. I couldn't stop. But - and this is important - they will just be a small part of my full musical life, my life in the arts. From now on, I’ll be little by little, slowly, living a more multifaceted, deliberately disobedient musical life. Fewer concerts, almost no recordings anymore. More real teaching, one of my true passions. And not just teaching piano, but composition, harmony, counterpoint, conducting, general musicianship, a philosophy of music and the arts. And also a return to more of playing with singers (one of my earliest and deepest passions too), to more of chamber music, to more of conducting, to more of improvising, composing and performing much more of my own music without complexes, to writing, poetry, music criticism, philosophy, pedagogical books. A life where the concert is just a very small part of the whole, but never again whole itself. And where the concerto, even if I still occasionally play one, no longer defines me. This doesn't mean I won't do it with the utmost love, joy, passion, commitment, dedication, devotion, and care, every time it happens. But I no longer will be defined nor will I let a life on the stage (how many performances, where, etc) define me nor my life pursuits. 

    So, here is the list, as much a quiet farewell to one chapter as it is a gentle welcome to whatever comes next... Thank you for reading, even if it is just out of curiosity. 

PERFORMANCES AS CONCERTO SOLOIST WITH ORCHESTRA 

from 

2000 - 2026

[Even though I’m writing and publishing this in July of 2025, I’m perfectly aware that 2026 hasn’t even arrived yet. Still, I’ve included in this list a handful of concerto performances that are already scheduled for 2026, four or five, to be precise. I did so deliberately, not out of impatience or vanity, but because for me, 2026 marks the symbolic end of a chapter, the closing of an era in which I lived mostly as a specialized musician, the so-called “virtuoso performer.”

After 2026, I intend to return, or perhaps finally return, to the more generalist, multifaceted musical life I always dreamed of and practiced as a youngster. The life I began with, before competitions, awards, contracts, and recordings steered me down another path. So, those last concerts in 2026, even if they’re still technically in the future, feel to me like part of the same story, the final pages of this particular chapter.

And, while I’m being meticulous, here’s one more small caveat for the curious: when I counted the orchestras I’ve performed with, I deliberately left out a couple of youth orchestras. Not because those performances didn’t matter, they did, and I’ve listed them among the concerts, but simply because, for the sake of clarity, I only included professional orchestras in that particular count. So, if you find that the number of orchestras and the number of performances don’t line up perfectly, now you know why. After all, as with most things in music and life, the numbers are only part of the story,]

184 performances with Orchestra from 2000 to 2026

47 different piano concerti 

13 different countries

54 different orchestras

Performances [185]

Mozart Piano Concerto Nr. 14 in A Major K. 414 (2 performances)

New Jersey (USA)

Covarrubias (SPAIN)

Mozart Rondo for piano and orchestra K. 382 (1 performance)

New York (USA)

Mozart Piano Concerto Nr. 21 in C Major K. 467 (7 performances)

Bucharest x 4 (ROMANIA)

Pitești (ROMANIA)

Salobreña (SPAIN)

Requena (SPAIN)

Beethoven Piano Concerto Nr. 1 Op. 15 (1 performance)

New York (USA)

Beethoven Piano Concerto Nr. 3 Op. 37 (17 performances)

Miami (USA)

Valencia x 2 (SPAIN)

Târgu Mureș (ROMANIA)

Brașov (ROMANIA)

Málaga x 2 (SPAIN)

Bucharest (ROMANIA)

Satu Mare (ROMANIA)

Picassent (SPAIN)

Requena (SPAIN)

Klaipėda (LITHUANIA)

Valladolid (SPAIN)

Salobreña (SPAIN)

Sioux City (USA)

Cheney (USA)

Elche (SPAIN)

Port Angeles (USA)

Beethoven Piano Concerto Nr. 5 Op. 73 (4 performances)

Vitoria (SPAIN)

Madrid (SPAIN)

Pamplona (SPAIN)

San Sebastián (SPAIN)

Beethoven Triple Concerto for violin, piano, cello and orchestra, Op. 56 (2 performances)

Venice (ITALY)

New York (USA)

Mendelssohn Double Concerto for piano, violin and orchestra MWV 04 (1 performance)

Bucharest (ROMANIA)

Ravel Piano Concerto in G (3 performances)

Las Palmas (SPAIN)

Ploiești (ROMANIA)

Iași (ROMANIA)

De Solaun Concertino Breve for piano and string orchestra (1 performance)

Klaipėda (LITHUANIA)

Schubert/Liszt Wanderer-Fantasy for piano and orchestra (1 performance)

Bilbao (SPAIN)

Brahms Piano Concerto Nr. 1 Op. 15 (2 performances)

Malaga (SPAIN)

Brahms Piano Concerto Nr. 2 Op. 83 (2 performances)

Port Angeles (USA)

Bacǎu (ROMANIA)

Liszt Piano Concerto Nr. 1 (4 performances)

Torrente (SPAIN)

Port Angeles (USA)

León (SPAIN)

Olomouc (CZECH REPUBLIC)

Liszt Piano Concerto Nr. 2 (8 performances)

Murcia (SPAIN)

Ploiești (ROMANIA)

Port Angeles (USA)

Bucharest x 2 (ROMANIA)

Olomouc (CZECH REPUBLIC)

Mexico City x 2 (MEXICO)

Liszt Totentanz for piano and orchestra (4 performances)

Port Angeles (USA)

Râmnicu Vâlcea (ROMANIA)

Ploiești (ROMANIA)

Sibiu (ROMANIA)

Olomouc (CZECH REPULIC)

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto Nr. 2 Op. 18 (10 performances)

Godella (SPAIN)

León (SPAIN)

Valencia (SPAIN)

Ploiești (ROMANIA)

Extremadura (SPAIN)

Râmnicu Vâlcea (ROMANIA)

Requena (SPAIN)

Málaga x 2 (SPAIN)

Elche (SPAIN)

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto Nr. 3 Op. 30 (21 performances)

Sagunto (SPAIN)

Valencia x 2 (SPAIN)

León (SPAIN)

Ostrava (CZECH REPUBLIC)

New York (USA)

Monterrey x 3 (USA)

Ploiești (ROMANIA)

Târgu Mureș (ROMANIA)

Timișoara (ROMANIA)

Port Angeles (USA)

Iași (ROMANIA)

Bucharest x 2 (ROMANIA)

Extremadura x 2 (SPAIN)

Lviv (UKRAINE)

Valladolid (SPAIN)

Kyoto (JAPAN)

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto Nr. 1 Op. 23 (18 performances)

Baracaldo (SPAIN)

Castellón (SPAIN)

Valencia x 2 (SPAIN)

New York (USA)

Bucharest (ROMANIA)

Málaga x2 (SPAIN)

Ploiești (ROMANIA)

Córdoba (SPAIN)

Cádiz (SPAIN)

Jaén (SPAIN)

Târgu Mureș (ROMANIA)

Madrid x 2 (SPAIN)

Dublin (REPUBLIC OF IRELAND)

Huntsville (USA)

Rome (ITALY)

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto Nr. 2 Op. 44 (4 performances)

Madrid (SPAIN)

Ploiești x 2 (ROMANIA)

Málaga (SPAIN)

Prokofiev Piano Concerto Nr. 2 Op. 16 (8 performances)

Valencia (SPAIN)

Bacău (ROMANIA)

Ploiești (ROMANIA)

Santiago de Compostela (SPAIN)

Vigo (SPAIN)

Madrid (SPAIN)

Cluj (ROMANIA)

Valladolid (SPAIN)

Khachaturian Piano Concerto (4 performances)

Iași (ROMANIA)

Satu Mare (ROMANIA)

Bacău (ROMANIA)

Timișoara (ROMANIA)

Saint-Saens Piano Concerto Nr. 5 (5 performances)

Oradea (ROMANIA)

Huntsville (USA)

Monterrey x 2 (USA)

Târgu Mureș (ROMANIA)

Falla Nights in the Gardens of Spain for piano and orchestra (5 performances)

Madrid (SPAIN)

Soria (SPAIN)

New York (USA)

Saint-Petersburg (RUSSIA)

Alicante (SPAIN)

Finzi Eclogue (1 performance)

Cluj (ROMANIA)

Martucci Piano Concerto Nr. 2 in B-flat Minor (1 performance)

León (SPAIN)

Grieg Piano Concerto (3 performances)

Chișinău (MOLDAVIA)

Torrente (SPAIN)

Iași (ROMANIA)

Franck Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra (3 performances)

León (SPAIN)

Valencia (SPAIN)

Sibiu (ROMANIA)

Chopin Piano Concerto Nr. 2 Op. 21 (4 performances)

Mexico City x 2 (MEXICO)

New York (USA)

León (SPAIN)

Britten Diversions for piano and orchestra (4 performances)

New York x 4 (USA) [at the Metropolitan Opera]

Britten Piano Concerto (3 performances)

Madrid (SPAIN)

Hummel Piano Concerto in A-Minor Op. 85 (1 performance)

Santiago de Compostela (SPAIN)

Aaron Copland Piano Concerto (1 performance)

Saint-Petersburg (RUSSIA)

Bartók Piano Concerto Nr. 3 (3 performances)

Satu Mare (ROMANIA)

Bogotá (COLOMBIA)

Alicante (SPAIN)

Bartók Piano Concerto Nr. 2 (2 performances)

Valencia (SPAIN)

Alicante (SPAIN)

Bartók Concerto for two pianos, percussion and orchestra (1 performances)

Timișoara (ROMANIA)

Constantinescu Triple Concerto for piano, violin, cello and orchestra (2 performances)

Ploiești (ROMANIA)

Bucharest (ROMANIA)

Enescu Nocturne for piano and orchestra (1 performance)

Ploiești (ROMANIA)

Shostakovich Piano Concerto Nr. 1 Op. 35 for piano, trumpet and orchestra (1 performance)

Ploiești (ROMANIA)

Gershwin Piano Concerto (1 performance)

Bilbao (SPAIN)

Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue (1 performance)

Orcera (SPAIN)

Richard Strauss Burleske (5 performances)

Port Angeles (USA)

Sibiu (ROMANIA)

Bilbao x 2 (SPAIN)

Olomouc (CZECH REPUBLIC)

Leonard Bernstein Age of Anxiety (3 performances)

Bucharest x 2 (ROMANIA)

Alicante (SPAIN)

Beethoven Choral Fantasy Op. 80 for piano, choir and orchestra (1 performance)

Granada (SPAIN)

Dvořák Piano Concerto (2 performances)

Port Angeles (USA)

Valencia (SPAIN)

Lorenzo Palomo Andalusian Nocturnes for piano and orchestra (4 performances)

Cádiz (SPAIN)

Jaén (SPAIN)

Córdoba (SPAIN)

Arad (ROMANIA)

Turina Rapsodia Sinfónica for piano and orchestra (1 performance)

Wrocław (POLAND)

Countries [13]

[where played with orchestra; does not include countries where I played recitals]

(USA)

(COLOMBIA)

(REPUBLIC OF MOLDAVIA)

(RUSSIA)

(POLAND)

(ROMANIA)

(SPAIN)

(MEXICO)

(REPUBLIC OF IRELAND)

(LITHUANIA)

(ITALY)

(CZECH REPUBLIC)

(UKRAINE)

Orchestras [53]

USA (8 orchestras) (24 performances)

Monterey Symphony Orchestra [5 times]

Virginia Symphony Orchestra [1 time]

Sioux-City Symphony Orchestra [1 time]

American Ballet Theater Orchestra of New York [4 times]

North Shore Symphony Orchestra of New York [5 times]

Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra [5 times]

New York Sinfonietta [1 time]

SHSU Symphony Orchestra [2 times]

COLOMBIA (1 orchestra) (1 performance)

Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional [1 time]

REPUBLIC OF MOLDAVIA (1 orchestra) (1 performance)

Orchestra Națională de Camera [1 time]

RUSSIA (2 orchestras) (2 performances)

Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra of Saint-Petersburg [1 time]

Moscow Chamber Orchestra (formerly called Rudolf Barshai Orchestra) [1 time]

UKRAINE (1 orchestra) (1 performance)

“INSO-Lviv” Symphony Orchestra of Lviv National Philharmonic [1 time]

POLAND (1 orchestra) (1 performance)

NFM Wrocław Philharmonic [1 time]

ROMANIA (16 orchestras) (53 peformances)

Ploiești Philharmonic [11 times]

Bucharest Philharmonic (George Enescu Philharmonic) [10 times]

Timișoara Philharmonic [4 times]

Târgu Mureș Philharmonic [4 times]

Iași Philharmonic [4 times]

Satu Mare Philharmonic [3 times]

Bacău Philharmonic [3 times]

Râmnicu Vâlcea Philharmonic [2 times]

Sibiu Philharmonic [2 times] 

National Radio Orchestra [2 times]

Cluj Philharmonic [2 times]

Oradea Philharmonic [1 time]

Brașov Philharmonic [1 time]

Arad Philharmonic [1 time]

Piteşti Philharmonic [1 time]

National Radio Chamber Orchestra [1 time]

SPAIN (17 orchestras) (55 performances)

Valencia Philharmonic (Valencia) [10 times]

Málaga Philharmonic (Málaga) [8 times]

Spanish National Radio and TV Orchestra (ORTVE) (Madrid) [5 times]

Bilbao Philharmonic (Bilbao) [5 times]

Spanish National Orchestra (Madrid) [4 times]

Basque Country Philharmonic (San Sebastián) [4 times]

Córdoba Philharmonic (Córdoba) [3 times]

Santiago Philharmonic (Real Filharmonía de Galicia) [3 times]

Alicante Philharmonic (ADDA Simfònica) [3 times]

Extremadura Philharmonic (Badajoz) [3 times]

Orquesta Filarmónica Ciudad de Elche (Elche) [2 times]

Murcia Philharmonic (Murcia) [1 time]

Granada Philharmonic (Granada) [1 time]

La Coruña Philharmonic (Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia) [1 time]

Canary Islands Philharmonic (Las Palmas) [1 time]

Castille and Leon Philharmonic (Valladolid) [1 time]

Banda Artesana de Catarroja (Valencia) [1 time]

MEXICO (2 orchestras) (4 performances)

Mexico City Philharmonic [2 times]

National Symphony Orchestra [2 times]

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (1 orchestra) (1 performance)

RTÉ Concert Orchestra [1 time]

LITHUANIA (1 orchestra) (3 performances)

Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra [3 times]

ITALY (2 orchestras) (2 performances)

Orchestra Sinfonica della Provincia di Bari [1 time]

Orchestra Sinfonica della Fenice di Venezia [1 time]

CZECH REPUBLIC (2 orchestras) (3 performances)

Olomuc Philharmonic (Moravian Philharmonic) [2 times]

Ostrava Philharmonic (Janáček Philharmonic) [1 time]

Concerti [46]

Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto Nr. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 (1909) — 21 performances

Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto Nr. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 (1875) — 18 performances

Beethoven – Piano Concerto Nr. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 (1800) — 17 performances

Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto Nr. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 (1901) — 10 performances

Liszt – Piano Concerto Nr. 2 in A Major (1861) — 8 performances

Prokofiev – Piano Concerto Nr. 2 in G minor, Op. 16 (1913) — 8 performances

Mozart – Piano Concerto Nr. 21 in C Major, K. 467 (1785) — 7 performances

Saint-Saëns – Piano Concerto Nr. 5 in F Major, Op. 103 (1896) — 5 performances

Falla – Nights in the Gardens of Spain for Piano and Orchestra (1915) — 5 performances

Richard Strauss – Burleske for Piano and Orchestra (1886) — 5 performances

Beethoven – Piano Concerto Nr. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73 (1809) — 4 performances

Chopin – Piano Concerto Nr. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 (1830) — 4 performances

Liszt – Totentanz for Piano and Orchestra (1849) — 4 performances

Liszt – Piano Concerto Nr. 1 in E-flat Major (1855) — 4 performances

Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto Nr. 2 in G Major, Op. 44 (1880) — 4 performances

Khachaturian – Piano Concerto in D-flat Major (1936) — 4 performances

Britten – Diversions for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 21 (1940) — 4 performances

Lorenzo Palomo – Andalusian Nocturnes  (1995) — 4 performances

Bartók – Piano Concerto Nr. 3 in E Major, Sz. 119 (1945) — 3 performances

Bernstein – The Age of Anxiety (1949) — 3 performances

Grieg – Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 (1868) — 3 performances

    Franck – Symphonic Variations  (1885) — 3 performances

Britten – Piano Concerto, Op. 13 (1938) — 3 performances

Ravel – Piano Concerto in G Major (1931) — 3 performances

Bartók – Piano Concerto Nr. 2 in G Major, Sz. 95 (1931) — 2 performances

Mozart – Piano Concerto Nr. 14 in A Major, K. 414 (1782) — 2 performances

Beethoven – Triple Concerto, Op. 56 (1804) — 2 performances

Brahms – Piano Concerto Nr. 1 in D minor, Op. 15 (1858) — 2 performances

Brahms – Piano Concerto Nr. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 83 (1881) — 2 performances

Dvořák – Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33 (1876) — 2 performances

Paul Constantinescu – Triple Concerto (1949) — 2 performances

Finzi - Eclogue (1927) - 1 performance

Mozart – Rondo for Piano and Orchestra, K. 382 (1782) — 1 performance

Beethoven – Piano Concerto Nr. 1 in C Major, Op. 15 (1795) — 1 performance

Mendelssohn – Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra (1823) — 1 performance

Hummel – Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 85 (1816) — 1 performance

Schubert/Liszt – Wanderer Fantasy (Liszt version c. 1851) — 1 performance

Martucci – Piano Concerto Nr. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 66 (1885) — 1 performance

Gershwin – Piano Concerto in F (1925) — 1 performance

Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue (1924) — 1 performance

Copland – Piano Concerto (1926) — 1 performance

Shostakovich – Piano Concerto Nr. 1 in C minor, Op. 35 (1933) — 1 performance

Bartók – Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra (1937) — 1 performance

Enescu – Nocturne for Piano and Orchestra (c. 1907, arr. S. Petrescu) — 1 performance

Beethoven – Choral Fantasy, Op. 80 (1808) — 1 performance

Turina – Rapsodia Sinfónica for Piano and Orchestra (1931) — 1 performance

De Solaun – Concertino Breve for Piano and String Orchestra (2023) — 1 performance

CODETTA

    Now that I’ve laid this list of concerti bare for all to see, neatly sorted by frequency, like books on a shelf or coffee cups in a cupboard, a few quiet patterns reveal themselves. I didn’t plan them. They’re not the product of some grand artistic strategy. They simply emerged, like the natural drift of a river over time.    

   First, it seems that Rachmaninoff has followed me more faithfully than most. His concerti, especially the fearsome, intoxicating Third, have accompanied me onto the stage 31 times. It doesn’t surprise me. His music is one of those irresistible treasures for pianists: sprawling, lyrical, heroic, and quietly impossible. Apparently, I keep falling for it.

     Then there’s Beethoven, inevitable as gravity, with 25 performances of his concerti. His music, for better or worse, is where pianists are asked to wrestle with questions that go beyond mere technique, questions of dramatic construction, of character, of presence. I’ve come to find the challenge endlessly renewing. There’s something bracing in his refusal to flatter either the soloist or the audience.

    Tchaikovsky, ever the dramatist, comes next with 22 performances, his First Concerto looming large, like a mountain you end up climbing whether or not you meant to.

    Liszt, with his glittering, dangerous virtuosity, appears 16 times, proof that I, like so many others, have never entirely escaped the magnetic pull of his daredevil brilliance.

    Beyond that, the list drifts into other familiar territories: Mozart with his poised, deceptive simplicity; Prokofiev, sharp and sardonic; Britten, with his sly, modern English melancholy; Bartók, whose music feels like listening to the soil breathe.

    And scattered through the lower reaches of the list are the outliers, the curiosities: Martucci, Hummel, Copland, Enescu, Bernstein, Dvořák, Constantinescu, Finzi, Palomo, Turina… reminders that life as a musician, no matter how many times you play the so-called “big” works, still leaves room for the unexpected detour, the rare gem, the obscure surprise...

    What this pattern reveals, I think, is not so much my taste, but the slow, organic shape of a soloist life, which is only a small part of a life in music. The works you return to again and again aren’t always chosen. They find you, through invitations, opportunities, accidents of circumstance, and over time, they become companions, even if you never meant to call them that.

    And maybe that’s how most of life, and music, really goes...

And now, finally, a quiet little farewell:

I fold the list like old sheet music,

creases worn where fingers paused.

The notes remain, but not the measure,

the rhythm drifts, the counting’s lost...

I walked the stage, I bore the number,

I played the part they asked of me, 

but backstage waits a different language,

a song unwritten, running free...

So let the last applause be quiet,

the ledger closed, the curtain drawn.

What’s left is not the sum, but silence, 

and the unfinished, singing dawn...

Madrid, July 2025, 

a beautiful, sunny day...