The memorial lasted nearly five hours; our contribution del about two-thirds the way through. I dawdled backstage, listening, sweating nervously, gossiping. Heard from the wings, Bethany Beardslee's "Four Songs of Berg", accompanied by Yehudi Wyner, was the ultimate in what German singing should be: penetrating, clean, unaccented, silken, granitic, utterly wise and utterly insane. I chatted with James Levine who, despite stitches in a digit (he displayed a bloody forefinger), managed to play Schoenberg's "Six Little Piano Pieces" as though they were music, not 'modern music', and appropriate homage to Paul. << less