LDV38.1

29 CÉDRIC PESCIA Have you been influenced by historic piano recordings, those of Sviatoslav Richter and Edwin Fischer for example? Definitely. Richter and Fischer have enriched my musical culture, but so too haveWalter Giesekingand Samuel Feinberg.They broughtme the inspiration of their daring, their ‘freedom of speech’. Although these artists were trained in the Viennese Classics and Romantic music, they weren’t afraid of playing this repertory. It’s also true to say that in those days Bach’s keyboard output was more often admired for its pedagogical than its musical quality. Today we are weighed down with ‘benchmark’ recordings that might tend to stand in the way of our own interpretations. The Canadian pianist Glenn Gould played a salutary role in ‘dynamiting’ received notions of Bach interpretation. His incredibly imaginative playing, his aesthetic approach and his provocations have influenced whole generations. Personally, I don’t place myself in the category of ‘eccentrics’, and in any case originality for originality’s sake doesn’t interest me. What attracts me, on the other hand, is sincerity and the quest for beauty. Beauty is to be found in the vocal dimension of the music, to which I always return. Bach must never stop singing!