Amsterdam, 2 October 2022

Willem Boone (WB): How are you doing after last night’s concert?
Alexander Malofeev (AM): I feel great, but I couldn’t sleep after the concert. I went to bed at 4 o’clock, I walked around…

WB: What did you think of the hall, have you played there before?
AM: No, not in this hall, but I’ve played in the main hall.
WB: I can imagine that the acoustics of the ‘kleine zaal’ are difficult, since the hall is not too big?
AM: Maybe the piano is too big for this hall, but the acoustics and the size of the hall are quite good.

WB: It was a big programme and you played four encores after. Where did you find the energy to play the last one, Islamey?
AM: I don’t feel physically tired during a performance, I am full of energy and really want to play another concert! I don’t feel short of energy. Sometimes it’s a matter of feeling mentally well. 
WB: I really liked the way you played Islamey, because normally it becomes this big, virtuosic warhorse, and now it sounded like another ‘Feux follets’, there was something light about it.
AM: (laughs): Thank you! I’ve played it a lot, but I haven’t performed it over the last couple of years. Sometimes I play it as an encore and I look for new colours. It’s a nice process of rethinking the piece.
WB: Is it truly one of the most difficult pieces of the repertoire?
AM: It is, but it’s possible to learn it. Any piece can be difficult to learn.

WB: That’s true. I watched an interview with you by Zsolt Bognar on the show ‘Living the classical life’, I think it was filmed during the pandemic, wasn’t it?
AM: Yes, it was.

WB: You said: “I am happy when I am alone with the instrument and when I can practice more during the quarantine”, so how are you doing now? Thankfully, there are more concerts, but the touring around has also started again, so can you practice less?
AM: Yes, probably I do that less right now, but I still spend a lot of time alone at home, in rehearsal, on the street. It’s still the same actually.
WB: But you have less time to practice?
AM: Yes, indeed, but honestly, I need less time, especially compared to the time when I was 15 years old. I think I know better now how much I need to practice.

WB: How do you organise things on a day like this when you have to go to Paris?
AM: I’m going by train and I’m going to practice some other pieces, like the Weinberg sonata and, tomorrow, I’ll have a concert. 
WB: Ah, I thought it was today. I was already wondering how you would organise all this! Can you practice mentally when you are on a train or don’t you do that?
AM: I can. If I really need to make a deadline, but I’d rather sleep when I am on a train (laughs). I usually know the notes enough, so normally I feel it’s a good opportunity to catch up on some sleep…

WB: But would you be able to learn a Beethoven sonata on a train just by going through the score?
AM: Yes, I would, sometimes I take a score and I read it in order to get new ideas. I don’t always learn the music without the piano. I think it’s possible, although I don’t like it. 
WB: Do you know the technical movements without the piano?
AM: I spend enough time with the piano to know where the notes are. I usually don’t need my eyes to play!

WB: In the same interview, the host asked you whether you ever felt bad after a failure and you said you never felt frustration, because these are ‘probably the most exciting years of your life where you learn a lot’.

AM: In general, that’s right, I’m still enthusiastic about what I do, I don’t really have periods of frustration, except when you see people in the hall who go home together, while you go to your hotel alone. I often can’t sleep until 4 o’clock in the morning. I sometimes walk around the city at night while thinking of concerts and upcoming events. These are the moments when I do feel frustrated, but then the next day, I practice and I feel a lot of energy.

WB: Is music the most beautiful thing in your life?
AM: Yes, I think it’s not only the most beautiful, it’s literally the main thing I have had from the age of five. It can replace anything. I am trying to be more social, but music is big enough to spend my whole life with! 
WB: I read a comment about this interview on YouTube when someone said: “He is such a positive person, not one negative comment in this whole interview, this is so pure.” Are you a positive person?
AM: (laughs); I don’t know. If I spend time with people, it’s only musicians, they know how difficult the road is, I try to be a positive person. I’d like to have nice interviews without too much complaining.

WB: Is there nothing you dislike about the job?
AM: Sometimes, I feel tired, although that can be due to a lack of sleep. It doesn’t happen during concerts. Every job has its problems, but there are many more happy moments.
WB: Another comment: “The reason he is at this level is that the piano is no work for him, it is what he loves to do.” At the same time, isn’t it incredibly hard work?
AM: It is, but I don’t see it as work, because it is the only thing I have been able to do since the age of five. There are periods when I practice around ten hours a day. Music is the only option to spend my life, because I am too much inside it. I always think about it, it’s difficult for me to speak about anything else when I am with friends. It will always be part of my life, I don’t know what it feels like to do anything else!

WB: Yet another comment, someone said: “You are a young body in an old soul” and he compared you to Rubinstein. What do you think of that assessment?
AM: I am pleased about the comparison; I just do what I do. It would be too pretentious to say that ‘I am an old soul’ myself, but it’s probably correct (laughs).
WB: Do you actually read comments on YouTube?
AM: Yes, I do. It’s some sort of exchange with people.
WB: And are you hurt by negative reviews?
AM: Yes, although I’ve been warned to not read them, you cannot stop reading sometimes. From a negative review, I cannot work out sometimes what I could do to get a better review. 

WB: You said: “Maybe it sounds dull, but we, musicians, live to send the audience the kind of emotion they lack in daily life.” I was thinking; what exactly is the message you send to people?
AM: The goal for someone in the audience is to step out of your daily routine and feel something you normally don’t feel. That’s how I feel when I go to concerts. 
WB: Is it a message you can’t express in words? Does it go beyond that?
AM: I am not good with words. I feel much more comfortable on stage.

WB: I can imagine that music is about consolation, love or warmth, but you can also express that with gestures by putting an arm around someone or hugging them. What’s the added value of music?
AM: It’s different, I have a visual version of music in my mind, but it’s not a painting or architecture, it’s like a huge desk with photos. I’m inside a castle of light. Somebody asked me asked me yesterday why I sit so low. It’s because I have the feeling I can go inside the piano. 

WB: You’re still extremely young and sometimes we forget you’re only 20, which is very young to me, and you have such a career. Were you the youngest winner ever when you won the Tschaikofsky Competition. 

AM: No, it was a competition for young musicians. I participated in quite a few competitions and it was the right decision at the time, I prepared my programmes and now I don’t need to do it anymore. 
WB: How old were you then?
AM: I was 13 years old.
WB: And did your career start right after that?
AM: Yes, I got concerts in Moscow. It was a nice time for young musicians in Russia, we got a lot of support, i.e the help of orchestras, which is impossible to imagine for a 13 year old boy in Europa or the United States! 
WB: You were 13 when you won, so you were pretty well trained at that age!
AM: Yes, I won another competition in Kazakhstan, I actually practiced much more than now. 

WB: I guess you went to a programme for gifted children and you got a full training when you were only 10 years old?
AM: Yes, it was a programme for young musicians, probably one of the best in the world. Now unfortunately everything seems to have changed.
WB: How many hours of lessons have you got per day ?
AM: I was very lucky with my teachers. I started in a very small school, next to my home. When I was preparing for competitions, I had five hours of lessons per day. 

WB: I don’t know if you’re familiar with the system in the Netherlands, you go to the conservatoire when you’re around 18 years old, then you do what you guys did when you were about ten years old! I just wonder why we don’t have one pianist in this country of your level… We have good pianists, but there are so many good pianists from Russia…
AM: In the Soviet Union, there were many bad sides to the system. There are five music universities in Moscow, and there about 200 pianists who graduate every year in that city alone. Maybe, 400 pianists graduate in Russia every year. Statistically, it’s a problem. Maybe we should change our profession right after our graduation! (laughs)

WB: Will they be teachers or will they do something completely different?
AM: A good teacher is even more difficult to find than a good pianist! 
WB: You seem quite together and balanced for your age. How do you keep up with this life? It’s not the usual life of a 20 year old!
AM: I wouldn’t say that my life is balanced! It’s not balanced at all actually…
WB: Okay, it was at least my impression. I have a few questions about last night’s programme: you played two Beethoven sonatas, is Beethoven kind of a test in a recital? Is it scary?
AM: No, it’s not scary, but I thought I maybe had too much Russian music in my repertoire. I played a lot of Rachmaninov and I’m still happy to do so, but unfortunately he didn’t write that many compositions. He is the godfather of all romantic piano music.

WB: Were you the one who suggested playing Beethoven or were you asked to?
AM: It was my idea, it still often happens that you play Russian music when you are Russian. You feel more comfortable. …….
WB: I once asked Menahem Pressler what he liked most about Beethoven and he answered: “Everything”, do you agree?
AM: Yes, I do, his music is a bible for all romantic music. It’s wonderful musically, it’s so interesting for me to analyse his music. For sure, we will be together for many more years to come! (laughs)
WB: I have a few questions about Medtner. You said he deserves to be better known, why is that?
AM: Because he is a great composer! I played one of the ‘Forgotten melodies’ and I think it’s one of the best Russian cycles, like Tschaikovsky’s Seasons. Nobody plays it as a cycle and they are incredible. Unfortunately, I can’t play much of his music at the moment, because I was asked to do less Medtner. He deserves to be better known, but maybe it’s better to return to his music when I can say what I want to play during recitals! 

WB: Why were you asked not to play his music? Was that because of the situation in Russia?
AM: No, it happened before the war, it seems to be impossible to sell a concert that features Medtner! 
WB: How come he is not popular? Can it be that there aren’t many tunes that you can actually whistle like with Rachmaninov? When you started with Rachmaninov, it was easier to recognise melodies, his music floats, while Medtner has beautiful episodes, but it remains difficult to relate to his language!
AM: It’s difficult to listen to his music, yet it is extremely interesting to learn, since you have to think of so many aspects. The best practicing sessions of my life were while working on his music! 
WB: I like the Forgotten Melodies you mentioned. There is also a big piece, the Night Wind Sonata.  Boris Berezovsky once played it in Amsterdam and it was beautiful!
AM: It takes a huge amount of time to learn it and I’d like to be sure that concert organisers will accept it. Otherwise it would be a pity if I studied the piece and couldn’t get concerts I could play it in.
WB: What do you think of his piano concertos?
AM: They’re beautiful, but I don’t see any occasions to perform them. Nobody needs them. Nobody needs Rachmaninov’s Fourth Concerto either! 
WB: It’s a pity, because it’s an interesting piece!
AM: Yes, it’s sad, it has to do with ‘rules’, that I have to comply to. I can only deal with very small doses of ‘modern music’ for instance, 15 minutes per solo recital. 

WB: How pianistic is Medtner’s writing?
AM:  It’s badly written! It’s difficult to study his music, because you can’t find the melodies. Sometimes, there are too many notes, which makes his music inaccessible for the audience. Pianistically, it’s uncomfortable.
WB: Who writes more pianistically: Rachmaninov or Medtner?
AM: Probably Rachmaninov. With his music I feel there is only one way to interpret it, such as the Second Piano Concerto. He composed such beautiful melodies, where those of Medtner are much more difficult to understand. 

WB: I have one last question: you worked with Valery Gergiev and he’s someone who doesn’t like to rehearse. What is it like to play with someone who doesn’t like to rehearse? Is it inspiring or can it be nerve-wracking?
WB: Do you feel at ease with someone who doesn’t want to rehearse?
AM: In Russia, any orchestra can play a Rachmaninov concerto at night without a rehearsal, any time! 
WB: What do you think would happen to Gergiev in this situation?
AM: He can still do a lot of concerts and operas with the Mariinsky Theatre. As for his international appearances, I don’t know. I don’t see a solution.
WB: Do you think he can give concerts in the West again?
AM: I think he could do some concerts in the West, but there has to be a solution for this war first. Then hopefully the culture will come back. I had to cancel concerts in spring because of fear among certain organizers, but was it helpful? Not for the political situation I’m afraid. 
WB: I think music has nothing to do with war!
AM: Maybe not ‘nothing’, but there are more important things to solve right now.
WB: I hope music can be a solution for anything!