Eliso Virsaladze

Álvaro Teixeira: I know that Sviatoslav Richter said that you are the greatest pianist alive in the interpretation of Schumann...

Eliso Virsaladze: Oh my God! It's always the same thing...

AT: I was watching the rehearsal and I found it quite... What was your relationship with Richter?

(laughs)

EV: It was good.

AT: As a pianist what do you think of Richter?

EV: That's not an original question. Only an idiot could question that Richter was not one of the greatest pianists in the world. A brilliant and spectacular pianist.

AT: As far as I know in Russia there was a rift between Richter's admirers and those of Gilels who are two of the greatest pianists of all time.

EV: It's not like that at all. They are two very different pianists and both very good. It's a matter of preference and style. They are both great pianists.

AT: I have never heard Gilels live. I was fortunate enough to hear Richter twice when he was already in his eighties. Very good. Deep and brilliant. But he played a Chopin with a lot of wrong notes. Sometimes he sounded like Debussy... Shouldn't he have stopped his career before he entered a phase where he played with too many mistakes?

EV: To begin with, Chopin was neither Richter's favorite composer nor the one he played best. But even the last Richter concerts I attended were very good. It was only by bad luck that he was asked to do a program with Chopin. The fact that he got it wrong doesn't mean anything. He was always very good.

AT: The Russian piano school is one of the best in the world. Maybe the best. But don't you think it's a bit conservative? I don't remember hearing Russian pianists doing repertoire from the second half of the twentieth century and contemporary.

EV: That's not quite true. There are plenty of pianists playing repertoire from the second half of the twentieth century. The problem is that there are still no composers from the second half of the twentieth century as good as the earlier ones and so they are played less. In addition the pianists who specialize in this repertoire are less well known. If they were invited to play in the great halls they would probably be empty. There are no composers as recognized as Stravinsky and Prokofiev. Otherwise Shostakovich and Schnitke are more classical than modern.

AT: What are your favorite composers within the piano repertoire?

EV: There are no favorite composers. The piano repertoire is huge. That is a question to ask violinists and cellists who have a much more restricted repertoire. It is not a question to ask pianists who have a huge repertoire at their disposal. I prefer what I play in each concert.

AT: There are pianists who play more Chopin. Others prefer Liszt. Others Schumman...

EV: I play them all.

AT: Has there been a big change, for you, in terms of musical education and life in post-Gorbatchov Russia?

EV: Everything is fine now. As long as they don't want to transform teaching in Russia in the image of what's going on here in the West.

AT: But do you think that the Moscow conservatory is still the great hotbed of musicians and talent that it was twenty years ago?

EV: The Moscow Conservatory continues to form talented musicians and continues to be one of the best conservatories in the world. Overall it is the world that is worse off, not the particular institution that has declined.

AT: Which orchestra conductors have you most enjoyed working with?

EV: I like working with anyone I can get along with. I really enjoy playing with orchestras so as long as there's a common language between me and the orchestra leader that's fine.

AT: Which are the recordings you have made on disc and cd that you would recommend to the readers of my blog? Which ones do you prefer and would you like people to listen to?

EV: None. I don't listen to myself so I don't know how to advise others in that respect.

(with the collaboration of Artem Khmelinskii as translator)