LDV98-9

22 CHOPIN | SECRET GARDEN How did you decide on the order of the pieces? I chose to play them in order of publication, not of composition. The large- scale works (the two ballades, the Sonata no.3 and the Polonaise-Fantaisie ) are punctuated by the other pieces, rather like ‘encores’, with the complete programme providing a mosaic of the oeuvre. I’m also fond of the Fantaisie-Impromptu , which my father used to play, but which Chopin didn’t particularly like. Probably because the literal borrowings from the finale of Beethoven’s ultra-famous ‘Moonlight’ Sonata and Fifth Piano Concerto were far too conspicuous for his taste. It’s an odd work, anyway, with a central section that seems almost unfinished. I don’t shrink hesitate to ornament the line, as in the slow movements of some of the Mozart concertos, when the theme is repeated so often without embellishment. I don’t think that’s an insult to Chopin. On the contrary! Have you been influenced by any particular interpreters in the immense Chopin discography? I was brought up listening to Samson François, Arthur Rubinstein and Dinu Lipatti (in the Third Sonata, which in those days was rarely played, unlike the so- called ‘Funeral’ Sonata). Later, I did an enormous amount of work on Chopin with the late Fou Ts’ong, who went so far as to learn Polish in order to gain a better understanding of Chopin’s idiom, especially in the mazurkas!