John Williams, summer vibes, and gluttony

The first time I attended the Amalfi Coast Music Festival, I found myself utterly bemused when, at the orientation for participating students, we were told about the Italian practice of riposo and sternly informed that there was to be zero practicing between noon and 4 PM every single day to respect the locals’ need for peace and quiet during their afternoon rest.

If you are any kind of highly accomplished pianist you likely got to that point by internalizing the panicked mantra that you must always be practicing, and the idea of practicing being off-limits for a prime four-hour chunk of the day was completely horrifying to most of us, especially as we were there to impress and extract insights from some of the most venerated pedagogues in the world.

Now, though, I think the Italians (and French, as I discovered on a later summer trip to Paris, and obviously the Spanish with their siestas) were onto something. LA, which is already a warm place to begin with, was kissed by a heat wave this week and I found myself completely unwilling and unable to muster up the effort to be productive in the afternoon. I think we in America need some kind of cultural summer policy where we all agree to adopt the clearly wiser practices of our European brethren and write off afternoons. No meetings, emails, or obligation to do work; we shall all nap or lounge or drink cool drinks. Agreed? Agreed.