This is Nedda Casei‘s pad on Sutton Place.

Nedda, 82, was a leading mezzo at the Met for 21 years.

She has been trying to sell her place for two years through Sotheby’s at $5.5 million, but had to settle for $2.9m.

Yllka Istrefi is concert pianist who lived through the war in Kosovo and subsequently moved to England. She studied at the Royal College of Music and is an exclusive Steinway Artist. Her story is a parable for our troubled times.

Erik Carlson has compiled a sequence of the opening chords of Beethoven’s third symphony, as recorded by maestros from Oskar Fried in 1924 to Riccardo Chailly in 2011.

Somewhere among them must be a tempo and a pitch that’s just right for you.