The other night my wife’s piano teacher came to our house to conduct a lesson.  This is not usual, I have to say. He not only teaches but is a successful concert performer who has performed all over the world.   It was a one-off.

At the end of the evening I asked him if he would be prepared to give us a treat – to play something for us before he left.  He chose the Chopin Nocturne in D major, opus 27, one of Chopin’s most famous and beautiful piano pieces.  He played it exquisitely., with feeling and tenderness.  What our neighbours thought of this wonderful sound coming to them through the walls at nearly 11 p.m I don’t know, but I hope it was a treat.

The endless torrent of bad news from around the world has made it  an emotional and disturbing period for reasons we have no control over and are not supposed to discuss on this blog. But this was food for the soul, the most beautiful of sounds resonating through the building and bringing with it true ataraxia.  I admit it brought tears to my eyes, beautiful, reassuring and uplifting.

We badly need more beauty and less uninformed partisanship in our lives, and that applies in almost every country in our roiling and disrupted world.