In the «Salon Symphonique» with Elisabeth Leonskaja

When she steps onto the stage, Elisabeth Leonskaja is reminiscent of a benevolent Grand Duchess from the world of Tolstoy. She immediately fills the listener with confidence, whatever she plays. With good reason, she is revered worldwide as the grande dame of the Russian piano tradition, despite having lived in Vienna for 40 years and feeling just as much at home with Mozart as with the great romantic piano composers. Feelings are just as important here as sounds, and that is precisely what wins us over in Elisabeth Leonskaja’s miraculous sonorities, which are always structurally clear, at times lyrically entwined and even emphatically austere. Playing the piano means infinitely more to her than just making music. «Why do we give concerts? So that people can forget themselves for a while, so that they can immerse themselves in a completely different world and purify themselves, so to speak.» She describes a cathartic effect, almost as in ancient Greek tragedy. «Music is healing. I feel a responsibility to bring out the truth of life and the purity that are inherent in music.»