By courtesy of Indiana University
I got to know about György Sebök thanks to the wise comments that the pianist and coach Eliane Lust makes on her Facebook wall, which I recommend you to follow. Around one year ago, Eliane posted a comment and a video about her old master. I watched it and I got captivated by György Sebök’s words and by his performance of Ferruccio Busoni’s transcription of the Adagio BWV 564 by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Born in Hungary, György Sebök was a pianist, great pedagogue and distiguished professor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music from 1962 until his dead on November 14, 1999.
Here you are my transcription of Professor Sebök’s words in this interesting video from TV channel Arte:
“It’s a kind of personal confession. After the war there was a time that I was suffering from not suffering. I had the feeling that I inhibited all my feelings and my reactions to any thing, not just music. One had to overcome all kind of feelings, primitive ones like fear or being in danger of life at many times. The aim was not to really feel deeply, even it was the opposite. It was to survive and the price of surviving is not to feel. And that not to feel, sooner or later, includes music itself. And then after the war, life started again and I had the feeling that music is obviously something wonderful, but the connection to the essence of it was lost. I knew, it’s obviously wonderful, it’s beautiful [he plays piano]. Yes it was acknowledging of beauty or greatness, but playing that transcription [he plays piano again] And after the long toccata comes… [he plays again] And I felt something very strange: my throat, some strings that were not functioning started to vibrate.”
I would like to dedicate this beautiful music to the the relatives and friends of Steve Jobs, who recently passed away. Likewise, I dedicate this beautiful music to all those people who have lost a beloved one recently. May your throat strings vibrate!
Michael Thallium
Global & Greatness Coach
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