Please Do Not Touch the Art

Pianist Greg Anderson leaves fresh fingerprints across music history in a recital that ignores the caution signs. Through his own fantasies and reinventions, Anderson treats composers as musical collaborators — Beethoven and Chopin finish one another’s phrases, the Beatles drift toward Bach, and Mozart dissolves into ragtime. As time folds in on itself, the recital becomes a poignant meditation on memory, longing, loss, and the stubborn vitality of art.

This program brings distinct musical eras into fluid conversations with one another. At first, the recital seems rooted in Vienna at the turn of the 19th century. Schubert and Liszt evoke a nostalgic vision of Viennese elegance before Mozart’s music reveals the volatility hidden within. The first half concludes with Anderson’s Mosaic Variations, a sprawling new work that unites Mozart’s musical descendants in an imagined collaboration — 32 composers responding to Don Giovanni.

After intermission, chronology loosens further. Meredith Monk, Bach, the Beatles, Jim Croce, Rachmaninoff, Daft Punk, and Mozart coexist in overlapping musical histories, connected through music of love, loss, and remembrance. At the center stands Bach’s Chaconne, its timeless repeating pattern of harmonies renewing endlessly across the centuries.