Thanks to an Unknown Friend (向不知名的朋友致謝)

Life is strange. One can sometimes make friends whose true name one doesn't even know. I have at least one such friend. He died. I have another, he's still alive and long may he live. How did I come to know the second? At the foyer of the Cultural Centre whilst waiting for a  concert to start. He was reading a book. So was I. I asked him what he was reading and he did the same. We got talking and before long, we knew we were talking to the right kind of persons: people with a genuine interest in and love of music. Since then, we had been talking from time to time at the mid-concert breaks about what we thought of and how we felt about the relevant performances or performers. In that way, we became a kind of "friend". We never felt the need to ask for the real identity of each other and how we might get in touch later. Yesterday, he made me a gift: a whole box set of wonderful music by a very good composer from Argentina who is usually known only for his tangos: Astor Piazzolla : the Complete Astor Piazzola Recordings by Gidon Kremer and the Astor Quartet and the Kremerata Baltica under the Nonesuch Records Inc. label and consisting of
(1) Hommage a Piazzolla  (1996)
(2) El Tango (1997)
(3) Maria de Buenos Aires (1998)
(4) Tango Ballet (1999)
(5) Eight Seasons (2000)
(6) Tracing Astor (2001)
(7) Live at the CBC's Glenn Gould Studio (2012)

When I slipped the first item of that box set into the CD player when I got home, I was instantly mesmerized. It was just the kind of music I wanted to hear: original, intimate, restrained, musical, full of rhythm and full of life: it joys, its sorrows, its nostalgia and its romance, its twists, its surprises, its mystery and performed with perfect balance and poise and yet with verve.

I do not know how to thank him. The next time I see him at the concert hall and I'm quite sure I will, I must return the compliments. I already have another box set in mind. But I'll wait to see if he has it too. Life is strange. One never knows.  That's life's mystery. That's one of life's little joys. Celos is one of the songs in that first CD.