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16 JEAN SIBELIUS
What prompted you to record this disc?
This recording springs above all from my friendship with the conductor Alejandro
Garrido, whom I’ve been close to for twenty years. We studied together, and we
met up again three years ago when I gave a concert with his orchestra; that was
the genesis of the project. I dreamt of embarking on an adventure with them and
they followed me, with all their talent, their tremendous motivation and their
extreme dedication. I went back to Vigo for three recording sessions with them, in
the course of which we worked very hard, yet taking our time, and always in a very
relaxed atmosphere – I realised on this this occasion that to be relaxed is absolutely
essential for the musical gesture. It was an incredible human adventure, on which
I was subsequently joined by my friend Juho Pohjonen, an outstanding pianist
and exceptional musician whom I met in New York during my residency at Lincoln
Center, and with whom I’m planning to work much more in the future.