LDV93

18 You are one of the few pianists who, from an early age, have felt a deep attraction to Schubert’s style. Is this due to the fact that you studied abroad and met many of his great interpreters before you even entered the Paris Conservatoire? Before I went to the Conservatoire, my two teachers, Denyse Rivière and Marcel Ciampi – both of whom were close to Yehudi Menuhin – had given me the opportunity to spend three years at the Menuhin School near London. It was a centre of incredible artistic richness and, unlike Paris, Schubert’s music enjoyed remarkable prominence there. I was nurtured, in a sense, by the memory of Die schöne Müllerin performed by Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten, in front of whom, incidentally, I myself played. They lived out this music with an intensity and a naturalness that I have never encountered again anywhere since. It was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life, although I didn’t realise at the time how decisive it would be for my later career. SCHUBERT ∙ PIANO SONATAS D840 & D960