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28 BRAHMS_ CELLO SONATAS
How long have you wanted to record them?
I’m not the type to do everything very early. When I see young cellist colleagues of
mine who record their Bach suites or their Beethoven sonatas before they’re thirty
– often to come back to them ten years later – I do get the feeling that it really is a
bit premature.
I think my discs come when the time is right. But I would have liked to record them
with David Golub; in fact we were ready to record all the Beethoven sonatas and
variations when his cancer was diagnosed and alas took him from us so quickly.
Since then, I’ve found it hard to say to myself that I may perhaps record them
one day. I felt so close to him; we communicated so naturally. For my part, I can
only record a work if I have totally absorbed it, if it literally comes from inside
me. Whether that’s right or wrong, a good thing or a bad thing, is not for me to
judge; indeed, I’m incapable of judging it. But if I record a work it’s out of necessity,
because it has become a part of myself.