[...] A dear friend of mine, Alexis Weissenberg, told me that whenever his mother was asked how a family should behave with a talented child, she would answer: “you should kill the mother”.
Well, I never had to kill either my mother or my father. My talent never made my parents ambitious, and I was able to grow up in serene surroundings. In latter years for young musicians the way to concertism has become still harder, with more harsh consequences.
Numerous are lost on the way. “If their first record isn’t successful, they immediately change horse”. This is the answer of a recording producer to a television journalist. He was talking about a violinist who was only 16 years old. This is a very hard and cynical kind of philosophy. [...]