Beauty: Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 – Andante

I have written before that an important part of my journey out of the closet is re-discovering my identity that was buried under years of child abuse, followed by efforts to hide my homosexuality, followed by the deliberate submersion of much of (what remained of) my personal identity upon my marriage.  An important part of the identity that I submerged was a love of music.  I am now engaged in the process of reawakening that love.

My mother used to say that she and I would sit down, when I was a young boy, and listen to classical music.  I have no specific memories of that, but I do remember listening (on my own) to certain pieces of music on our family “hi-fi” – a piece of furniture that is completely unknown to today’s generation but was commonplace in my childhood.  Ours sort of looked like the one pictured here, only in a “Colonial-revival” style.  Under the lid was the turntable, the radio tuner knobs and, off to one side, a place to store albums.  Here is where my mother kept her Time-Life (or was it Reader’s Digest?) collection of Classical favorites.   

One of those favorites was Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 – Andante (otherwise known as the theme from the movie Elvira Madigan).  I’m sure I didn’t know as a child that it was written by Mozart.  But I well remember listening to its rich, lustrous tones emanating for our hi-fi in the living room.

Recently, I was reminded of this piece and offer it now, accompanied by a few “illustrations” evoked by this luscious music.