Which is the quality you prefer in a musician?

Absolute rigor and interpretative fantasy at the same time.

Which is the piece that are you studying?

Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni and Mefistofele by Boito.

The ideal time to conduct?

I thought in the evening, but actually it’s the morning.

Which is your mood in this moment?

“Presto agitato”.

The first memory related to music?

At five years, the discovery of a piano in an ancient cottage.

The main feature of your character?

The making of the team.

A value in which you believe?

Gratitude.

What would you do if you were not a musician?

Film director.

Which is the most beautiful compliment that you have received?

My daughter Olivia gave me “the maximum vote” in generosity.

A superstitious ritual before the concert?

Hot lemon tea and milk chocolate.

How to keep fit?

Moving on the podium.

A madness that you did for music?

Try to force the doors of the Verdi Hall in Milan to listen to Pollini.

Your best performance?

Verdi’s Nabucco Ouverture, at the moment.

The most successful concert?

Salomé by Richard Strauss in 2007 in Martina Franca.

The best friend in the world of music?

The pianist Massimiliano Trombini.

If you had a few million euros?

I’d build a concert hall.

Your favorite instrument?

The piano.

An overrated composer?

Salvatore Sciarrino.

A composer to be rediscovered?

Pietro Mascagni.

The greatest musician of all time?

Beethoven.

A young promise to keep an eye on?

The conductor Simone Zuccatti.

The world capital of music?

Vienna.

The best acoustics in the world?

The Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

If you lived in another era?

The fifties and sixties years of the twentieth century.

The last concert you listened to?

La Scala White voices chorus, where my daughter Valentina sings.

The CD that you heard most often?

Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra by Ciaikovski with Berman / Karajan.

How do you define your relationship with music?

Active.

Your favorite song?

Mi ritorni in mente by Mogol/Battisti.

The plate?

Pizza margherita.

The drink?

Sparkling water.

The city where you would like to live?

Siena.

Three scores to bring to the desert island?

Beethoven’s Emperor, Verdi’s Rigoletto and Ciaikovski’s Pathetic.

What do you watch on television?

Anything.

The most beautiful music movie?

2001 A space odyssey.

The most sexy piece?

Spanish Rhapsody by Ravel.

The funniest?

Bajka by Moniuszko: to hear!

The most relaxing?

The second movement of Ciaikovski’s Violin Concerto.

An adjective to define classical music?

Enveloping.

When did you feel proud to be a musician?

At the end of each concert, however it has gone.

When did you feel ashamed?

As a child, at the end of my first piano essay.

How do you prefer to travel?

By train.

The first thing that you put in your luggage?

The shirt of the frac.

What do you like about friends?

The common memories.

The last time you cried?

When my wife’s father was dead.

Your dream of happiness?

Become a quiete person.

The mistake that would not do again?

Some extreme interpretative choices.

Your favorite phrase?

“Know yourself”.

Do you have an absolute ear?

No, but mixed applying.

The longest period in which you stayed away from the music?

In one way or another, music is always in my life.

The strangest place in which you conducted?

In a locomotive depot in Bussoleno, Turin.

 

By Alice Bertolini