By Michéle Halberstadt
A stirring novel of affection and tune encouraged via the lifetime of pianist Maria-Theresa von Paradis, a blind virtuoso who was once a modern of Mozart and Salieri.
Maria-Theresa von Paradis, the single daughter of the secretary of the empress of Austria, was once a really talented baby. via the age of seventeen, she was once a full-fledged virtuoso, taking part in for the royal kin, acclaimed for her good looks and skill . . . and since she was once blind. Her father, not able to simply accept her situation regardless of her hovering musical presents, enlists assistance from Franz Anton Mesmer, the forerunner of the fashionable perform of hypnotism, the place Maria-Theresa discovers the passions and feelings from which her blindness had formerly safe her.
within the culture of Sleeping with Schubert and The Cellist of Sarajevo, the radical is relocating portrait of braveness, loss, the elation of first love―and the soreness of misplaced innocence.
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Extra resources for The Pianist in the Dark
Example text
She discerns sounds to which no one lends an ear: the greenhouse pane shuddering in its frame when the west wind blows; the cat’s tongue scraping its coat as it licks itself clean. She has never mistaken a sharp for a flat, a wood pigeon for a turtledove. What stirs her blood are the nuances—the spectrum of sounds, the scale of emotions. She can differentiate between alarm and fear, between a gust and a breeze, between courtesy and sincerity, between allegro and allegretto. She feels, she quivers.
No burning? Turn toward me. ” The shadows were back. Less dim, less opaque. She reached out her arms toward him. “I see ... a shape ... It is moving ... ” She clasped her eyes in her hands. “It itches! ” Mesmer leaped up, triumphant. ” He was overtaken by excitement and pride. The fatigue seemed to disappear from his body. “This is the sign I’ve been waiting for. You will no longer wear a blindfold at night. Your eyes will start to breathe again and begin to be able to bear the light. ” He moved about the room and she tried not to lose sight of him.
Then, seven steps forward and three to the left brought her to the piano. She immediately loved how the sound enveloped her, how it contrasted with the stiffness of the keys. She was moved to learn from Anna that Mesmer himself had chosen the piano in anticipation of her stay. After a long nap to make up for her restless night, she sat at the piano and took pleasure in lazily playing pieces from her repertoire in whatever order whim moved her. She started a concerto, then segued mid-adagio into an operatic aria, then began singing a lied.