An interview with Patricia Kopatchinskaja

Why did you call this CD ‘Deux’? Our producer suggested it after hearing Polina and me playing. I think it captures the nature of our partnership. I’m not a soloist dragging along an accompanist like a poodle on a leash. We are equally strong, sometimes unanimous, sometimes clashing, giving off sparks.

How did you come up with this particular programme?

It was really about what we could play together. We were exploring our world. We found it somehow. It came out afterwards that the common denominator is the incredible historical Paris concert when the violinist Jelly d’aranyi played Bartók’s First Violin Sonata with him, and Ravel and Poulenc acted as page turners. What do the violinists behind these pieces, Jelly d’aranyi and Ginette Neveu, mean to you?

I’m a big appreciator of the old style of violin playing, of Kreisler, Huberman and Enescu. It wasn’t important if they made a small mistake here or there. Their way was speaking-playing, telling us something very personal. Figures like D’aranyi were personally connected to composers. This was music rooted in friendship, stories and human beings.

How did your childhood experience of folk music affect your approach to the violin?

Real folk music is always functional. It goes with funerals, marriages and harvests. You are paid to make people cry, be happy, to dance. In classical music there is mostly no occasion, and we run the risk that there is often no mood. So remembering folk music can often help us find the emotional meaning of classical music.