Schwerin

The man who goes home at four was out on the platform, in his cap, rolling the cover back onto the timetable case.

I asked him if it was going to Schwerin.

He said it was, and it had opened this morning, a day ahead of what everybody was told.

They found the fault, he said.

I felt the skin go tight, and I didn't drop it.

It ticked.

I stood on the platform in Schwerin with the clamp in my fist until the skin on my palm stopped being something I could argue with.

Then I wrapped it in my scarf, pushed it inside my coat, and went to look at the board.

They were to be met in Iceland, in Ireland, in England, in Flanders, at the mouths of the Elbe, the Wacer, the Vistula, on the islands of the Baltic Sea, at the foot of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland.

They had settlements at Dublin, at Hamburg, at Schwerin, on the island of Gotland, thanks to them the current of trade, which starting from Byzantium and Baghdad, crossed Russia by the way of Kiev and Novgorod, was extended up to the shores of the North Sea, and there made felt its beneficent influence.

In all history, there is hardly a more curious phenomenon than that effect wrought on northern Europe by the superior civilizations of the Greek and Arab empires, in which the Scandinavians were the intermediaries.

In this respect, their role, despite the differences of climate, society, and culture, seems quite analogous to that which Venice played in the south of Europe.

Oh, look, um, I think, um, I think that, um, what I feel, [laughs] what I feel is most likely is that this concerto was composed for Sperger.

Um, I do think that some of the other concertos, um, tran- uh, transmitted through that collection in Schwerin, um, were maybe also composed for Sperger, um, for various reasons that we don't need to get into, uh, right now.

Um, but in this particular case, we have, uh, we have Pleyel's autographed score.

Um, so that, um, I guess came together with Sperger, um, from, from Pressburg.