It doesn't make sense to me that the piece should start with a 17 month rest. Surely it doesn't really start until the first note is played?
replies(10):
Regardless of the philosophy of it (which is certainly interesting), many pieces uncontroversially start with a rest. If the first bar doesn’t start on a note, then the piece starts on a rest.
You could argue that the first bar is actually shorter than all the following ones and only starts on the first note, but… no one thinks like that that I ever heard of