‘The piano chose me’

“Coming from a family of musicians,there was never any doubt about the career that I was going to choose,” says Hungarian pianist Gregory who will be performing in the city on November 18 at the Mazda Hall in Camp. “It was more like the piano chose me. There was something alluring about the sound,that drew me towards it,” he says.

He took to the performance stage at the age of 16. Over the years,he has been felicitated with numerous awards across theglobe,including the Kossuth Prize,the highest artistic award in Hungary,and the Liszt Prize by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage,Hungary. For him,these awards are a motivating factor. “Awards should never take away focus from music. Every artiste needs to defend the award given to him/her with each new performance rather than become complacent,” he says.

This is his first visit to Pune and he’s very confident about the audience here. “I think the audience here is very knowledgeable,” he says. “I have found that even in places where classical music is not common,listeners have been mesmerised by the beauty of it,” he adds.

He will perform pieces from Waltz,Chopin and Mozart at his concert. He mentions pianist Annie Fischer as one of his biggest motivators. “She never taught me how to play but her music had an aura around it. Her teaching was rather unique – she was always concerned about the musical expression and the power of interpretation but was never bothered with technical details. That is something that I admired about her music,” he says.