It is a huge loss to contemporary classical to for a star player to resign such as Piotr Anderszewski. The Polish-Hungarian pianist is an artist, he falls into the spaces of compositions and thrives in what could be--not what is. So it's with a heavy heart that we bid the pianist a fond farewell.
The decision was announced through a serendipitous photo-op with the online photo-blog Humans of New York. Beginning this week, the world of classical will lose its beloved Eastern European performer.
Commenting on his decision to go solo--or to exist in his own world of performance--Ms. Anderszewski said to the good people at Humans of New York:
"I'm a pianist. I'm playing my last concert Thursday night. Then I'm taking a sabbatical. Some of my friends think I'm crazy to step away now, but I don't want to become a two-hundred-concert-per-year performing machine. It requires too much efficiency. And the efficiency burns you out. There is a lot of pressure when you perform at Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall. People pay for those tickets and you must respect your audience.
"If you're piloting a Boeing 777 with four hundred people on board, you aren't going to try new maneuvers. You aren't going to have fun or experiment. You don't have time to stay in your dreams or ideas. You need to step back from the public eye so you have space to grow. I won't say that taking time off makes you a 'better' musician, because I don't like the word 'better.' It sounds competitive. But it does make you less of an automaton and more human. It's like exploring a new continent. Time off is a space where you allow things to happen other than the known."
A subsequent post from Humans also had Piotr using surly language to describe how one should, er, "disregard" the notes.
Mr. Anderszewski is particularly hard on himself, too, being known for walking out on competitions and restarting recitals if he isn't particular pleased with himself or his fellow musicians.
Perhaps, then, it is this kind of self-sustained inner conflict that has driven him to take a break from the performance world indefinitely.
Regardless, we wish the pianist well on his future endeavors and hope to see him take the stage once more soon.
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