Every performance is special, but every so often I’m invited to take part in an occasion that I know I will remember for the rest of my life. That happened last week in Switzerland, when my dear friend, the legendary violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, invited me to perform at a milestone celebration during the Lucerne Festival.

The setting alone was extraordinary: Villa Senar, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s beautiful former home on the shores of Lake Lucerne. The evening brought together Anne-Sophie’s family, friends and some remarkable figures from the worlds of music and public life. Sitting front-row center was one guest I had not expected to perform for: Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. Before the show, her security detail discreetly briefed me with one very clear instruction: I was not to interact with her during the performance.

As it turned out, President von der Leyen had other ideas.

One of the signature pieces in my show is an effect called Lemon, Egg & Walnut (which I performed on The Late Show with David Letterman). I borrow a ring from someone in the audience, and after a rather improbable series of events, the ring ends up in an equally improbable place.

When the moment came to borrow a ring, President von der Leyen volunteered hers.

I certainly wasn’t going to refuse.

Her security detail had told me not to involve her; I hadn’t. She had involved herself.

I took the ring and continued with the routine. It vanished, only to reappear under increasingly impossible circumstances: inside a walnut, which was inside an egg, which was inside a lemon.

President von der Leyen was wonderfully enthusiastic throughout the show. Afterward, she told me that she had never met a real magician before. I assured her that she had now.

But as memorable as that encounter was, the evening really belonged to Anne-Sophie.

Our friendship goes back over twenty years, and I’ve been fortunate to share some very important occasions with her. At dinner in Lucerne a few nights before the performance, Anne-Sophie said something to me, with her family sitting around the table, that I will never forget: all of the highlights of her life have included me.

I was deeply touched.

There is an unusual privilege in being a magician at moments like these. Music can accompany the milestones of our lives, but so, apparently, can magic. Over the years, my performances have somehow become woven into a number of Anne-Sophie’s celebrations – in Munich, Moscow, Kitzbühel, Vitznau, Tanglewood, and dozens of shows in New York. That made me want this particular performance to be much more than simply bringing my New York show to Switzerland. I wanted to create moments that could happen only for her, on this particular night.

One of them involved Mozart.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was fascinated not only by music, but also by magic and conjuring. Performing in Rachmaninoff’s home, surrounded by some of the world’s finest musicians, gave me an irresistible opportunity to bring those worlds together.

I began with a numerical mystery built around Mozart. A prediction had been written before the performance, yet a series of choices ultimately led to details connected with Mozart and, finally, to the date of our gathering. The prediction read: 25,826. The concert date was the 25th of August, 2026. In other words: 25-8-26.

For another brief interlude, I performed one of my favorite visual effects. I held up a red apple, and took a bite. In an instant, the apple changed to green, bite mark and all. Sometimes the simplest magic is the most satisfying.

But the piece I was most nervous about involved a very special member of Anne-Sophie’s family: her beloved dog, Bonnie.

Earlier this year, Bonnie had become gravely ill. A veterinarian had saved her life, and that veterinarian happened to be among the guests at Villa Senar.

I invited the vet to participate.

Using an invisible die, a completely free choice produced the number two. We then turned to Wikipedia. Following the number that had been chosen, we began looking at the second letter of a randomly-selected sequence of words.

B.

O.

N.

N.

I.

E.

BONNIE.

The reaction in the room was everything I had hoped for. For Anne-Sophie – and particularly with the very person who had saved Bonnie sitting there – it wasn’t simply a magic trick. It was personal.

For the finale, I had prepared something entirely new.

Throughout the evening, several small objects had been introduced: a violin, a piano, a Grammy, a musical clef and, somewhat less predictably, Yoda.

Individually, they didn’t appear to have much in common. But at the end of the show, light and shadow brought them together. Their silhouettes gradually transformed until the seemingly unrelated shapes formed a portrait of Anne-Sophie herself.

That was the image with which I wanted to leave her – and the audience.

Creating magic for someone you know well is both a gift and a challenge. You know more about what will touch them, but you also care much more deeply about getting it right. I had rehearsed extensively before arriving in Switzerland, and again at Villa Senar the evening before the performance. Even then, there is always that moment before a new piece is performed for the first time when you wonder whether what existed so clearly in your imagination will actually work in front of a live audience.

That night, it did.

The show began very late – around 11:30 at night – and by the time the evening finally came to an end, it was approaching two in the morning. Yet I don’t remember feeling tired. I remember the room, the laughter, the astonishment, and the remarkable feeling of performing magic in Rachmaninoff’s home for Anne-Sophie and the people closest to her.

I’ve performed thousands of shows over the course of my career. One of the strange things about performing that many times is that individual evenings can sometimes blur together.

This one never will.

I came to Switzerland to help Anne-Sophie celebrate a milestone. I left feeling that she had given me a gift as well: the chance to participate in another important chapter of her life, surrounded by her family and friends, in one of the most beautiful settings imaginable.

And somewhere along the way, the President of the European Commission handed me her ring.

It was that kind of evening.