On the performance“The performance revolves around one question; how is the mind capable of creating the abomination of the Warsaw ghetto but also of letting Mikhail play the Chopin prelude? “Sometimes, it makes you feel that, after you’ve heard a first person account of what’s it’s like to hear the noise your mother makes when she is being put on a train to be put to her death, it is not possible then listen to something as beautiful as Chopin. “But then it makes you feel that where words end, only music can express the depths of sorrow, courage, resolve and anger that Szpilman’s life makes you feel.
 | | Pianist Mikhail Rudy (Pic: Joel Fildes) |
“It is a conversation between what can be spoken and what cannot be spoken about. In real terms, what Mikhail’s done is to choose which piece of music goes against which passage of the text. “We’ve chosen a few key points in the story to let the text and the music resonate against each other. “The music does not illustrate the text; it’s not like a movie. It is a very delicate, emotional collage where we are operating on a deep instinct. “One of the most extraordinary things Mikhail has done is that the thing begins and ends with the same Chopin prelude. But because of the story that you’ve heard you experience it differently, which is what this process is all about.” | 
