The Swiss Have Good Exports---Christina Harnisch is not One of Them

Goethe Institut Auditorium. Bangkok, Thailand. May 16, 2013. In the worst public piano playing I've ever heard in Bangkok, Swiss pianist Christina Harnisch was embarrassing to watch struggle through Chopin's Sonata No. 2. Simply put, this dear lady just doesn't play the piano well enough to perform this well-known, difficult work before a paying audience. It wasn't that she played it poorly; rather, she couldn't play it at all. The mystery is why she would play in public; surely, she knew how terrible she is. After the sonata, the fellow sitting next to me commented: "That was painful." Not much harm was done, however: there were only 15 in the audience, and another person and myself didn't return after the intermission. The Swiss ambassador was among the 13 who stayed to the end. If I were him, I would keep Harnisch in Switzerland unless she promised not to play the piano abroad.