George Enescu, Rumanian Rhapsody, nr 1
I sat this piece live last year. I did not know it. At the start, I thought, ‘Well, this is nice, quite lovely’. I looked around for a sec. Grey old people in the concert hall.
Then at 5.57 I straightened my back, ‘Oooh, interesting…, mmm’. Automatically, a foot and and a hand started to tap. My head nodded, just slightly, from left to right.
I held my body still. I mean, being surrounded by this motionless mass that seemed to have gotten a day off at the old people’s home you can’t show energy, they’d die of envy.
Then at 7.33 things changed. In me. The foot stopped, because it had to support my moving leg. Tension inside of me building up, waiting to get out. From 7.48 on my eyebrows began to squeeze together, gradually.
At 7.59 my lower jaw dropped. My respiratory rate accelerated. ‘What the f…’.
My heart skipped a beat. I felt een burning sensation in my body. I am sure my face expressed pain. But it did not feel like pain. ‘Gawd!’.
I was aroused. ‘My, to hell with my surroundings!’ I could not restrain my body any longer. I felt like riding a horse. Up, down, up, down, up, down I went in my chair. Faster, faster!
I had my harms in an angle, 45 degrees. Fists tight. Up down, up down. Riding the horse.
It got less tense, I let go of the grip in my fingers, and my chest started to sway. My shoulders having a different movement. It was as if I was running with the top of my body in my chair.
Then at 10.18. Again the sudden expression of pain. A skipped heartbeat. Burning sensation all over. My fists tightened again. Riding, riding. ‘Com’on, you violists, you can go faster, faster. Faster!’ Up down, up down, up down. ‘Aah, aah, ay’. Riding, riding towards a mental orgasm.
Mariss Jansons, Berliner Symhoniker, 1994.