Pianos And The Paschal Lamb Poem by gershon hepner

Pianos should be burned, not cooked,
wrote Alfred Brendel in a poem. I
think artists will be booked
if they play instruments that fry.

Brendel surely was quite friv-
olous, but lambs Jews ate on Pass-
over could not be cooked. Forgive
the link that I have made. Alas,

the lamb of Jews becomes for Brendel
the piano that he used to play.
In studies that were transcendental,
the artist’s forte was to pray

when at the piano, obsolete
for him as seed of Abraham
consider now the roasted meat
that used to be the Paschal lamb.

According to Alan Chapman on KUSC this morning, Alfred Brendel, who retired from his career as piano soloist about a year ago, wrote a poem saying that pianos sound better when burned than when cooked.

3/26/09