LDV60

WILHEM LATCHOUMIA 31 Did you want a specific regulation for the piano? No specific regulation. From experience, I adapt to whatever instrument is at my disposal. I had an excellent Steinway D concert grand for the recording. At home, I play on a Bösendorfer. My interpretation must sound right on any piano. And if I think of the instruments Prokofiev played in the USSR in the 1940s, that removes any qualms I might have . . . By interspersing the three sets of ballet arrangements with pieces by Cowell, did you also want to present a portrait of the American composer? Let’s say, rather, to offer some markers, given that his output is so vast. Although he died more than half a century ago, Cowell was an ‘explorer of sound’ and a precursor, long before John Cage and George Crumb. His music is part of my imaginative world. Often, the themes of his pieces are related to witches, fairies, cosmogony. I programme his works in concert quite regularly – and incidentally people often take them for pieces by Crumb.