"Challenging And Life-Altering"

Sometimes, the artistic life is hard. Often, the artistic life is hard. In terms of making a living, in terms of vulnerability -- there are few things more publicly vulnerable than performing. (Running for U.S. President, maybe.) But the rewards are like nothing else too. As the young American pianist Jonathan Biss put it: "If I ever stop finding music challenging and life-altering, I’ll quit and become an accountant.”

Not that there's anything wrong with being an accountant, of course. In fact, coming into tax time it might not be such a terrible thing to be an accountant, certainly no shortage of work. But leaving that aside, it's a good thing that Biss has stayed in music -- as you can hear today when Studio Sparks (12 p.m.) broadcasts him playing Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Dausgaard, from a concert he recorded at the Danish Radio Concert Hall in Copenhagen.