2005
One of the most precious objects in the château, according to the man who talked to us that day, is a piano that the composer Chopin played and composed music on back in the 1800s in Paris. The Montrésor château has been owned by a Polish family since those days, and the man we talked to — possibly the current owner of the place — noticed that Laurie was especially interested in the beautiful old piano, which his family had brought to Montrésor from Paris at some point. He asked Laurie if she'd like to play something on it, and she eagerly sat down and treated us to a demonstration of her skill at the keyboard. It was a special moment, I thought. [Look at this blog post about the piano.]
A very special moment indeed!i
ReplyDeleteThe Re family, who currently own the chateau, are very musical. The son has a beautiful bass voice and sings in the church choir. The father loves American crooners like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. He put some on the record player with all the windows open for us earlier this year. Offering your friend the chance to play is exactly the sort of thing the current owner would do.
ReplyDeleteThat is a special photo of a rather wonderful moment in time...
ReplyDeleteI'll bet you can hear the music in your head as you look at it.
And for your friend Laurie must treasure that moment...
to have played on a piano with such provenance... fabulous!!
I don't suppose she played something by Chopin??
She didn't play a Chopin piece. I think she was befuddled by the excitement of it all and had to think fast and come up with something to play.
DeleteThe post by your friend who you too there was very interesting. Fancy playing a piano Chopin had played on!
ReplyDeleteWhat a story! What a treat for your friend :)
ReplyDeleteNow there's something I would have paid to have attended!
ReplyDeleteSympa. We also have another Laurie moment when she played the big organ at St Michael's here in Anniston. She is so talented and we love her music.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting that this piano got made it to the chateau and your friend got to play it. What a special day!
ReplyDeleteWonderful! Thank you for telling us about it.
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