![IN OTHER WORDS](https://cdn.magzter.com/1422886351/1695621456/articles/5qG_cyZUZ1695642694209/IN-OTHER-WORDS.jpg)
An interviewer for the London Sunday Times once praised the acclaimed Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau for breathing some much-needed life into his instrument. The piano, the interviewer said, was “the most machinelike of instruments—all those rods, levers, little felt pads, wires, no intimate subtle human connection with it by breath, tonguing, or the string player’s direct engagement with speaking vibrations.” Arrau’s playing transmitted the sensation of touch, each note like a finger pressing down on the spine, relieving the tension of the day. Admirers of the musician often described his talent in bodily terms, reaching for physical metaphors to explain his interpretive gifts. The Argentinean-born conductor Daniel Barenboim said of Arrau, “The music really goes into his bones and his blood.”
In “The Pole,” the new novel by the South African writer J. M. Coetzee, Arrau has another fan in the character of Beatriz, a fortysomething socialite. But what does she know? The wife of a wealthy Spanish banker, Beatriz volunteers with the Concert Circle, a cultural foundation that hosts monthly recitals in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter. She has been let in because of her ample free time and her impressive Rolodex, not her ear. As the book opens, the “rather staid” board has flown a Polish pianist in his seventies from Berlin to perform works by Frédéric Chopin, another Polish musician adrift outside his homeland. The man’s name, Witold Walczykiewicz, “has so many w’s and z’s in it,” the narrator explains, that “no one on the board even tries to pronounce it. They refer to him simply as ‘the Pole.’”
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 02, 2023 من The New Yorker.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 02, 2023 من The New Yorker.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
![GREAT MIGRATIONS](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1728434/5P_Pv6ozP1718017473428/GREAT-MIGRATIONS.jpg)
GREAT MIGRATIONS
\"Home\" and \"What Became of Us.\"
![SICK, SAD WORLD](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1728434/D-cAnOczU1718017149223/SICK-SAD-WORLD.jpg)
SICK, SAD WORLD
What COVID did to fiction.
![MOVE IN FOR THE CULL](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1728434/_K_62v5bl1718016883329/MOVE-IN-FOR-THE-CULL.jpg)
MOVE IN FOR THE CULL
The complicated calculus of killing some wild creatures to protect others.
![EVERYTHING IN HAND](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1728434/DHmDIshUb1718016457436/EVERYTHING-IN-HAND.jpg)
EVERYTHING IN HAND
The C.I.A.'s covert ops have mattered-but not in the way that it hoped.
![CHICAGO ON THE SEINE CAMILLE BORDAS](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1728434/GV9VZTIf71718016089711/CHICAGO-ON-THE-SEINE-CAMILLE-BORDAS.jpg)
CHICAGO ON THE SEINE CAMILLE BORDAS
I used to tell myself stories on the job, to make it feel exciting—spy stories, exfiltration stories, war stories. I used to come up with poignant little details that turned the repatriation cases I worked on into “Saving Private Ryan,” into “Johnny Got His Gun.”
![A SEMBLANCE OF PEACE](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1728434/hZsXcd95i1718015661938/A-SEMBLANCE-OF-PEACE.jpg)
A SEMBLANCE OF PEACE
How life in a co-living community changed after October 7th.
![HIS BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1728434/xVyXkcqpS1718014979073/HIS-BEAUTIFUL-DARK-TWISTED-FANTASY.jpg)
HIS BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY
Ye bought a masterpiece by Tadao Ando-and gave it a violent remix.
![SCREEN GRAB](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1728434/HNK3-deYe1718013064191/SCREEN-GRAB.jpg)
SCREEN GRAB
How CoComelon conquered children's television.
![FOND OF FLAGS](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1728434/M23m35h4D1718012928864/FOND-OF-FLAGS.jpg)
FOND OF FLAGS
My wife is fond of fast food. I am not. My wife is particularly fond of the Wendy’s Baconator. I argue that it’s less expensive to order a Dave’s Double with a side of bacon, then put your own pretzels on top. (I’m fond of the Rold Gold Tiny Twists Original.)
![TROPHY ROOM](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1728434/bu_QeobEB1718012454740/TROPHY-ROOM.jpg)
TROPHY ROOM
Going on safari.