deeplystirredsoul

As well as being a racing driver François Cevert was a classical pianist. His favourite piece was Beethoven’s Pathetique, and he played it at every opportunity. In between the 1973 Canadian and US Grands Prix, just before he died, Cevert went to Bermuda with the Stewart family, and played Beethoven’s Pathetique on the hotel’s grand piano every night.

“Just before Christmas that year we were shopping in the local town when our five year old Son Mark decided he wanted to buy us a Christmas present, he asked if he could go into a record shop. Helen waited outside , our young Son walked in and hardly tall enough to reach the shelves where the records were displayed he eventually picked out an album at random because he liked the glossy cover, he took it to the counter, had it gift wrapped and paid with the money we had given him. François had been extremely close to Helen and he once told her that, if anything ever happened to him, wherever he was, he would make sure that somehow he would send us a message or some kind of sign to let us know he was alright. Imagine then, how we felt when, on Christmas morning , just eleven weeks after his accident, Helen and I opened the present from Mark, something chosen completely at random by a five year old child and discovered it was a record of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 8 in C Minor….commonly known as Pathétique.