Vladimir Feltsman

News 

23 June 2015 

Vladimir Feltman sits on the jury of the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition

 Watch the video below to see an interview with Vladimir, discussing the competition

29 April 2015

 Pianist Vladimir Feltsman in conversation with Nimbus Artistic Director, Adrian Farmer

 AF: When we began recording Schubert two years ago you said to me that playing Schubert was returning to your first love. How, as a Russian, a product of the soviet system, did Schubert come to be your first love?

VF: I fell in love with music through Schubert, I don't even remember what it was, but I was thirteen or fourteen years old. As we all know first love, be it human love or musical love, you never forget it, it stays with you. I am not young anymore, at sixty three I am not really old, but I felt, in a sense, it was time to complete the circle.

AF: Let me ask you about practice.

VF: I practice a maximum of an hour a day. I will practice to learn something new, like a special project for the Aspen Music Festival, but not something which has been with me for most of my life. I hope I know what I am doing by now! All I have to do is to keep my head lucid and make myself available for whatever comes through, so that I don't obstruct it, particularly in the case of Schubert. I personally don't take credit in what is going on, the only credit I take is to make myself available for the music to speak.

AF: When I talk about the recording sessions that we've had together, people ask me: what is Vladimir Feltsman like to work with? And I say he very seldom ever actually does more than two performances of anything, why is that?

VF: Adrian, when I come to work with you I know what I want. It's a very clear picture and if I don't know what I'm doing twice then I had better go and drive a cab or cook soup or do something else. I don't believe if you play it five or ten times that it will be any better, it's as simple as that.