In keeping with the rest of this impressive work, the ending is unexpected but satisfying, touching the emotions without insulting the brain.
Outside on Fifty-third Street, the façades of the 1939 structure, with its piano-shaped canopy and square windows, and of the 1964 addition by Philip Johnson, whose larger, milled-steel windows have rounded corners, are refurbished and preserved — a satisfying historical touch in an urban environment not given to many such.
IN this day of cloud computing and virtualization, it's important to remember that satisfying feeling of holding a well-built, overengineered object in your hands; to be in touch, literally, with a thing's "thingness".
Where it touched on a common language —"Work," a knotty early piece by Thelonious Monk, or "Isotope," a shifty 12-bar blues by Joe Henderson — it conveyed the satisfying feeling of super-fluency checked by restraint.
Satisfying, gratifying, touching, weighty — this authentic piece of work has got soul.
Throughout, Goldstein weaves in stories and characters from his own life, which provide a through line that's both satisfying and touching.
The mystery itself is left hanging, but certain hints in the text, along with an elegant manipulation of the time-frame, permit a satisfying, even touching ending (though not a comforting one).
Even in the climaxes, Brendel's playing never fully opened out, and if taken individually these pieces might have been more satisfying, with a touch more showiness.
