Mozart above all.
Piano since 2022. Classical music not as a hobby, but as a parallel discipline — the same muscles as building, only quieter.
Practice
Piano, every morning.
An hour before the world calls. Scales, then a piece I cannot yet play. The unmastered is the point — anyone who only plays what they can isn’t practicing.
Listening
Focused, not in the background.
Music in the background isn’t listening. A symphony demands an armchair, not a car. The score, if I have it, changes everything.
Opera
Stuttgart State Opera.
Premieres, revivals, occasionally the same Don Giovanni for the third time. Red tuxedo — because form is part of the content.
Favorite pieces.
Not a complete list — the pieces I currently return to most often.
Hover a piece to hear the highlighted excerpt.
- 01
W. A. Mozart
Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545
I. Allegro — Opening theme, mm. 1–8
Clarity as statement. Every beginner plays it; nobody plays it through.
- 02
W. A. Mozart
Don Giovanni, K. 527
Overture — D-minor opening
The first few seconds — the whole opera, in advance.
- 03
J. S. Bach
The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I
Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846 — mm. 1–4
Geometry in sound. Four bars, an entire universe.
- 04
L. van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, op. 27 no. 2
I. Adagio sostenuto — Opening bars
Will, given form. Never play it slowly enough.
- 05
F. Chopin
Nocturne in E-flat major, op. 9 no. 2
— — Main theme
When the discipline is allowed to breathe.
- 06
F. Schubert
Impromptu in G-flat major, D. 899 no. 3
— — Opening
Song without words, written for the piano.
Why it counts.
A Mozart sonata allows neither sloppiness nor bombast. That is precisely the discipline I need operationally. I learn it faster at the piano than at the desk.