LDV117

15 DAVID GRIMAL, ITAMAR GOLAN Could you tell us what the pianist Itamar Golan represents for you? David Grimal: To me, Itamar is a very individual musician, an extraordinary, poetic personality with whom I have a great affinity. He brings me inspiration, and we get along extremely well. He’s a highly atypical musician, extremely talented, whose playing is never uninvolved. We also have a common history and roots. Although Itamar is of course a pianist, he reminds me of the Jewish violinists painted by Marc Chagall. He possesses the culture of the great violin tradition of eastern Europe, and when you play with him, you sense that he’s expecting something. It’s an inspiring experience, comparable to what the great accompanists bring to singers. He creates a veritable magic carpet that transports me, and he listens so attentively that he makes me play better! Itamar, could you say in your turn what the violinist David Grimal means to you? Itamar Golan: David too is a very individual musician. He has a magnificent tone that reminds me of the great violinists of the past, whom he reincarnates to some extent, but he also possesses other, more modern characteristics of his own. There’s a reminiscence of the past, along with both the present and the future. We’re very different. He is something of an intellectual and highly intelligent, whereas I am very ‘unintellectual’ and more intuitive, even if he also has a lot of intuition. His musicality is very natural, like that of the old masters. Sometimes we listen together to violinists of the past, Josef Suk, Ginette Neveu, Bronislav Gimpel, whom we both admire very much.