LDV44

JOAQUÍNACHÚCARRO 19 It was also in Siena that I had one of the most decisive meetings in my life as a musician, with the dancer and choreographer Alexander Sakharoff (1886-1963). He spoke of ‘filling the sound’, ‘filling the movement’, ‘filling the time’ . . . On that occasion I didn’t grasp the exact scope of what he said to me; but over the years his words have made sense to me and I have become fully aware of the performer’s duty and necessity to fill out musical time with the accumulated experience and tension of his or her inner life. You have had a special relationship with Chopin’s music throughout your career. His name has appeared on your programmes, but you have concentrated on certain works. Why did you take such a selective approach to a composer you love so much? The music of Chopin is so beautiful, so great. One feels so insignificant compared to it that, all my life, I have preferred to concentrate on certain pieces in order to explore their riches as thoroughly as possible.