Steven Isserlis
astronomer, a travel-writer, an animal rights activist. He was an amazing organist and a very good conductor, as well as a great pianist. He was a phenomenon, in fact. He could be quite vitriolic, but could also be very kind, and liberal; he gave money for the defence of Dreyfus for instance. And he could be very funny; he was a great star of the Parisian salons! He was also so lovely to Fauré, one of my great musical heroes. Saint-Saëns was like a father to him. The variety of his music and the restlessness of his imagination mean a lot today. They are
inspirational. True, he hated The Rite of Spring - he wasn’t a modernist in that way; but a composer that original can never sound dated. And he cared about neglected instruments, giving the oboe and the bassoon, for instance, such fine sonatas, at the end of his life. That in itself is touching. He clung to the values of the past, of perfect forms, beauty and elegance, but that does not make him old-fashioned.”
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