Last night we went to a concert and heard music by Tchaicoughsky, Procoughiev, and Cough Debussy.

No, I'm kidding. Somehow the coughing didn't happen during the Prokofiev, when Augustin Hadelich joined the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Is Hadelich some kind of magic healer? Did paying closer attention keep people from coughing? Do they cough when they get bored? Please tell me. If they're capable of not coughing, which they demonstrated, it only intensifies the sense that there is an obligation not to cough. I was seated next to one of the main coughers, and she assured me, between numbers, that she was "not contagious." Not contagious!

Anyway... the crowd loved Hadelich, who's only 27. He played an encore, which was this Paganini...



ADDED: That Paganini piece is chosen for its difficulty so the musician can show off. "It's just like a Metallica concert... but you're forced to behave." I IM that to my son John, who immediately sends me to this metal version of Beethoven's 5th Symphony — supposedly Metallica (is it?) — and over there in the sidebar I see a metal guitar version of the very Paganini piece that Hadelich played last night.