After a long concert with music by Mozart (two arias with the mezzo Maria Schellenberg, and everybody’s favorite Serenata KV 525) and Skrjabin (the almost unknown Second Symphony), four members of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra entertained a remarkable audience (I counted at least 120 people) with quartet music. Haydn, by the way, one of those marvels among the sixty-eight string quartets he wrote. Those four musicians (four ladies) had just elegantly shaped Mozart’s Serenata for 17 minutes and fought through a tiring, challenging, experimental Skrjabin for 44 more minutes (plus the two arias). Still, they wanted to offer a welcomed “encore” to people who, some with a glass of wine in their hand, others standing behind, already dressed to leave, visibly – and silently – enjoyed the performance.

I also stayed for a while, enjoying the music and thinking that being a musician is truly something special. Those of us who have the chance to make our profession what we have practiced our whole lives (it is the only job for which you start studying as a child) know that music is your best friend, a friend who gives you joy in happy moments and comfort in difficult ones. A friend who never betrays you. And with your best friend, you want to spend time together, even after a long, hard work day.

So, after and despite a long concert, the four ladies offered more music to the smaller audience and themselves for an additional moment of mutual joy and beauty, showing once again that musicians are unique and different.