LDV92

24 ALEXANDER SCRIABIN ∙ NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scriabin’s Concerto, written in 1896, provides the plat de résistance of your album. A work of great freshness, at times effervescent to the point of passion. The Andante, a very pure, very simple reverie, with a touch of fantasy, is not the least of its attractions. What do you like about it? Right from the opening of the first movement, one enters a singular universe, a truth of the instant, with its flights of soaring lyricism, its amorous phrases. I would sell my soul to play this concerto in public, something I have never done, except in Turkey. Can you explain how you came to make this recording there? I’ve played a lot in Turkey, especially at Bilkent University, because Russian immigrants taught there – they used to make up 90% of the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra. They made music with authenticity there; the musicians’ hearts throbbed with a genuine Slavic passion. I did a second complete recording of the Rachmaninoff concertos with them, which hasn’t been released yet. I got on very well with the Bulgarian conductor Emil Tabakov. It’s a wonderful memory!