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MENAHEM PRESSLER 23
Yes, on that subject, how do you keep up your energy?
I practise four hours every day. In spite of teaching, travelling, concerts. Whatever
happens.
In concrete terms, I don’t know what I would do without Annabelle Weidenfeld,
who accompaniesme to all my concerts. She helpsme and givesme the strength to
keep going. The work environment is of key importance. For example, on this disc,
the recording producer is a great music lover and he shares my love for Mozart. It’s
a precious quality to know how to choose your collaborators. On a more spiritual
level, everyone is trying to achieve happiness and personal fulfilment. In my case,
that comes from the piano. I need to make music and to continue performing the
whole repertoire. That nourishes my soul and keeps the flame burning, the urge
to live.
Is it important for you to explore the Austro-German repertory more
deeply? Is that a way of going back to your roots?
All repertories are equivalent inmy eyes. I love Bach as much as Bartók. I was born
in Germany, I was brought up in Israel, I have lived all my adult life in the United
States, and I travel all over the world. If you ask me who I am, I’ll answer: a citizen
of the world. When I arrived in Palestine as a refugee in 1939, music saved my life.
I found it very hard to adapt to the change. I was sixteen years old. I couldn’t eat.
Psychologically, I had great difficulty in coping with being cut off from my roots. I
had to rebuild everything from scratch. We no longer spoke the same language, I
no longer had the same friends. I still remember those years as a very tough period.
Fortunately, I found wonderful teachers who helped me to keep going and to give
meaning to my life: to become a musician.