In the very last days of life, John, AC4CA, was in hardship. His wife was institutionalized due to progressive Alzheimer and the corona pandemic refrained him from seeing her in person. He had neuroendocrine tumor becoming uncontrollable with the previous treatment and had to attend to MD Anderson oftener for further choice.
In that situation, he has played Waltz by Chopin, which unfortunately I could not recall of the name of, as he told me. It seemed music was a real relief in his life at that time.
I told him to listen to the latest sonatas of Beethoven. I thought they would have given him conslation and even more power for life.
He answered me he would. But, listening to this Intermezzo by Brahms played by Seyour Bernstein, I realized I was wrong then. He needed a piece of music closer to his heart than encouraging Beethoven, even if Brahms stood on the same level as him without any solution to his problems. Mostly emotional and almost staggering as if ceasing telling the story halfway.
A couple of years ago, he has passed away like a puff of wind. This performance by Bernstein has reminded me of that truth in life in relation with the memory of this important friend.
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