I don’t want to create the impression that I’m specialising. I played his works extensively, including solo works for the piano (like the cycle of the last three sonatas), chamber works, and concertos.
The composer to whom I feel closest at the moment is Beethoven. Which particular works do you think you play best? As my expectations of myself increase every day, performances I used to be proud of a few years ago strike me differently today. But this ties in with the previous question. In general, the performance I’m most proud of is my last one. Which performance/recordings are you most proud of? Today I’m highly critical of recordings that once seemed to me stellar artistic achievements. The greatest challenge has always been keeping up with my ever increasing standards. What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far? My recent musical thinking has been heavily influenced by several workshops I attended with Leon Fleischer. Most important were probably my piano teachers: Lea Agmon and Yuval Cohen. Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career? I always enjoyed music more than anything else, so I always wanted to make it my career.
My first interest is music, then comes the piano. The act of performing music came entirely naturally to me. Just as most people don’t remember when they learned to speak, I don’t remember when I learned to make music. I heard it from the day I was born, beginning with Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.
Music was an inseparable part of my life from the very beginning. Who or w hat inspired you to take up the piano, and make it your career?