The pianist who declined a comeback

Text: an original contemporary profile-style practice extract.

When I asked the pianist whether this was her comeback, she looked at the small classroom and smiled. Ten years earlier, she had played in concert halls. Now six pupils sat beside keyboards, trying a phrase with one hand. She said she had returned to music, but not to the life I appeared to be asking her to resume.

She played the phrase slowly, then asked a pupil which note felt difficult. There was no performance for my recorder, only an explanation repeated until the pupil could try it differently. I asked whether she missed applause. Sometimes, she said. She also liked hearing a student solve a problem nobody would applaud. My prepared questions kept leading towards a lost career; her answers kept making room for a present occupation.

I left with fewer dramatic sentences than I had expected. Her work did not arrange itself into defeat followed by recovery. Some ambitions had ended, and other purposes had become worth her time. Calling this a comeback would have made the old stage the destination of every new note. The classroom was not a waiting room for that stage.

In this extract, the writer tries to challenge the assumption that returning to an activity must repeat an earlier ambition.

Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.