ConcertPulse
Nagano & Blechacz
»I went on stage, and this big black thing was standing there … with gold inside and long, open strings—I felt like I was in a movie! So I stood on the piano bench and first I took a look inside.« That’s how the Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires recalls her first performance when she was five. She is proud that music never became a job, but remained a calling. A grande dame whose playing has lost none of its grace and virtuosity, even at the age of eighty.