Pantelis loves walks but does not like to go out at sunsets because they slide into something indeterminate that makes him feel insecure. Sunsets may lead to bliss or annihilation, or both.
In lieder, sunsets come at the end of wanderings and represent a moment of synaesthetic rapture that unfolds in the piano. Time comes to a standstill, becoming is suspended. What kind of dreams might night bring? The voice yearns, the instrument reflects. As it gets darker, I always hear the sun sink into Pantelis’s piano playing.
When a great friend comes into our life, they change many of the ways in which we comprehend the world. Our understanding begins to take them into account. Pianist Pantelis Polychronidis is my other self whose playing has made our friendship an exercise in collaborative music making. No longer pure and self-sustained, my listening has been transformed into harkening to his listening with me.
They may demur but the sunsets we spend together glow.
23 August 2021
Piano Poetry Pantelis Politics 