a number of people we’d never reach
with our classical careers. That’s terribly
important. I see audience [members] at
my concerts who will tell me, ‘We know
you through Pride & Prejudice and we
love that album. We saw you were playing in town and this is our first classical
concert.’ That’s fantastic if you can bring,
through the movies, new people to classical music concerts. And most of them
are young people, which is what we are
looking for because we need to attract
younger audiences.
Do you have a favorite composer?
Thibaudet: Right now I’m attracted
to the Romantic period, which was the
richest and most successful period for
piano literature. That embraces Chopin,
Liszt, Brahms, Schumann and all the way
to Rachmaninoff. And, of course, Ravel.
I also love to commission composers to
write pieces for me, which I think is very
important. I try every two or three years
to have a new concerto written for me
that I premiere. We’ve actually done quite
a bit of that with Marin [Alsop] because
she’s also a pioneer of new music.
Who have been some of your mentors?
Thibaudet: If I could name only
one, I would say Arthur Rubenstein. I
was very lucky to meet him twice when
I was a child. The second time, I spent
15 minutes in his dressing room sitting
on his lap. I was seven and it stayed with
me my whole life. He was such an inspiration because he had that incredible joy
of life, which I think is the most wonderful quality a human being can have. Of
course, music and piano were his life,
but he enjoyed having a good meal,
good wine, a good cigar, and he had
so many wives and mistresses. He
really enjoyed life, and you could feel
that in his music as well.
Did he give you any advice?
Thibaudet: He asked me what I
wanted to do when I grew up and I, of
course, said ‘Be a pianist like you.’ He
WHERE THE
STARS ALIGN
AND PERFORM
FOR YOU
said, ‘Remember to always be nice to
your audience and make time for them,
because, without our audience, we don’t
exist.’ This is so true and I still think of
that now. If they’re able to organize it,
I’ll always have a table in the lobby after
concerts and sign whatever people want
and meet every person there who wants
to meet me. Growing up, I loved to meet
artists at a concert, and there was nothing
worse for me than to go running backstage and say I want to meet Mr. So-andSo and be told he’s not receiving anyone
because he’s tired. I said I would never
do that. Sometimes, it could take just
30 seconds to change the life of someone.
JOIN US
Sundays at 5:30 pm
for our 2013–2014
Concert Season
MISCHA MAISKY, CELLO
LILY MAISKY,