Genevieve Joy died Friday night in her sleep at the age of 90 years old. Key figure in contemporary music, she had played a major role in the spread of contemporary piano repertoire, creating works of her husband, Henri Dutilleux to whom my thoughts are, but also other leading composers like Pierre Boulez and Andre Jolivet. She has highlighted in her work the composers much more than herself.

Loneliness is an issue that quite often comes up in discussion with people who know and follow me. I work alone, I play alone, I like being alone most of the time, but isn’t the feeling of loneliness heavy and suffocating? It is true that I don’t meet my friends very often, I am not a big fan of mass meetings and that I avoid crowded places. But in another hand, I like chatting over the phone and mailing them.

Last week I wrote here about going on stage and I evoked the “lucky charm”. Today I will focus on pre-concert rituals as well as these charms. Some do not have rituals or lucky charms, and others elaborate complex rituals which become totally obsessive. Star’s whim or real necessity?

To all those saying that recording is easy, I say, perhaps they should pay a visit to a studio. Of course, you can cut, past, redo, but it is not always an advantage.

When I was little, I dreamed of piano and of being big and knowing how to play well. Today I am big and I remember about these thoughts from childhood: some are true and some are far from reality.

Artistic licenses and protection of creations are a current concern. Illegal downloading, free music distributed by artists themselves; the world of music recording and distribution is changing. Today, many governments are adopting new laws to protect artists’ rights. But, does the artist really need it? I mean, is this protection really intended for artists or is there anyone else interested?

It is a question I’m often asked and find it quite hard to give an answer. The notion of difficulty is a subjective one, and what may seem difficult to you may seem easy to someone else. This ranking does not thus escape my subjectivity – these are the most difficult piano pieces according to me.

First of all, let me start with a quote from pianist Claudio Arrau: “We frustrate ourselves constantly. Out of fear — fear of failure and, strange as it may seem, fear of success as well — we artists suddenly fall sick before major appearances. We create frightful emotional upsets (…). Singers suddenly become hoarse, can’t make their high notes (…). Instrumentalists suddenly lose the use of some fingers or suddenly can’t play the simplest (or the most difficult) passages. Or out of competitiveness and the wish for almightiness, as it were, the least sign of imperfection can cause one to give up in the middle of an otherwise fine performance. Worst of all, the struggle may suddenly lose all meaning, and the artist, lost in a terrible maze of conflict and despair, may give up performing altogether.

I would like to tell you about a book I own, like any other pianist I suppose: “The art of piano playing” by Heinrich Neuhaus, very enriching bible on diverse aspects of our favorite instrument. Like many others, I read it and re-read it, and according to the age I was, I understood it differently. “Do not find yourself in the music, but find the music in yourself” he used to say. Something we all should ponder on…

At this end of January, my interest is focused on France and its SACEM. Does the “Society of the Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music” wish to deprive its members of diffusion? Our team has decided a few weeks ago to put online for free some of my most recent recordings, in streaming and downloading [...]