I got to double my pleasure on Thursday night, having a delicious dinner at Claude’s Restaurant at the Southampton Inn and then to listen and watch the genius of Konstantin Soukhovetski on the ivories. And to top it off our dinner host was Southampton Inn owner Dede Gottheif and her husband Terry Moan.

The dinner was exceptional, every portion was sumptuous and I got a chance to try a taste of everyone else’s meal at out table. Soft, tender and tasty is the instant review and the prices were reasonable. The room was packed with people enjoying dinner but the piece de resistance was still to come. Congratulations to Executive Chef James Carpenter.

Konstantin came in without a fanfare, in fact he introduced himself, and stopped at our table to greet Dede. His performance combined his mastery of the piano – played so fast you needed an extra set of eyes to follow him. Every song was preceded by a part of his life, growing up in Moscow part of a family of professional musicians, and how each life experience connected to the next music rendition. I remembered his trip to US to play in Indianapolis at a baseball game that was being rained out. Sports in Moscow are different especially America’s pastime – baseball, so ad libbing was a little challenging. So at the end of the performance you knew a little about Konstantin Soukhovetski and were awed by his piano mastery. One question I did not answer was whether all his performances different or the same? I guess I will have to return to Claude’s and find out for myself.

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