The recordings of this piece as it was written for the solo piano are ubiquitous to say the least but, having listened to many of them and heard it in numerous live recitals in the US and overseas, most have left me wanting more...

...while some have come close to hitting the mark but none as yet thoroughly convincing to this writer.

Always too fast as if it was part of “Gradus ad Parnassum”, not very rhythmic and little dynamic range except absolute assertions of “ff,” “mf” or “p.”

Thank goodness for the rabbit hole which led me to the wonderland of Alice in this Marsalis recording. I listen to it constantly.

Finally, I hear distant and close-up morning bird calls, an appropriate tempo that allows for the imaginings of a day’s potential and the almost giddy arrival at some anticipated destination or event.

Watteau’s famous painting, “The Embarkation for Cythera” is the supposed inspiration of this piece but Marsalis and Litton have made it less a state of mind and more real, more visceral.

As an island boy by birth, I’ve heard those morning birds, smelled the salt air of the sea always calling despite being in the cool and high mountains; the aroma of food cooked on an open fire and that enticement floating in the air like an enticing cartoon finger reminding everyone’s nostrils the time is 4:20.

Time proceeds much slower under these happy circumstances and it’s in performances such as this that one can be reminded that personal experience and an individual vision can and should influence performance philosophy and practice, rather than institutional - and often antiquated - perceptions of how a thing should be done.

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