"Having come from the Soviet Union, if you knew the number of pianos I had to try – nothing scares me if something goes wrong […] Most of the venues I’m playing at I know the pianos. Some are nice, others I must struggle with. But if there’s a problem, I can fix it myself."

"The desire to be loved can become a real enemy. It can very much stand in our way when it comes to reaching a truly free interpretation, where you say, 'Bach is like this for me. I love you guys, but I will not compromise, because something more important is at stake.'"

"You need to implement immediately the ideas you have inside. Don't think about how to place your fingers, then it won't work. It has to come automatically, so to speak. You have to watch what I'm doing, but you can't stop."

"Mine is not necessarily an instrumental way of thinking. It's not about which note sounds bad and how do you make it better. It's always about the phrase. How does a phrase have to be? And then you make it technically possible to get the phrase the way you want it to be."

"Performing complete cycles of all Beethoven sonatas has changed my life. One starts to look for connections; one needs two years to get close to the musical language. I've found connections encompassing all sonatas. Pablo Picasso expressed it well: I do not search – I find."

"When playing in a quartet, one of the most important things is to respect all the individual personalities of each member; they are part of the identity of the group."

"The thing that attracts me to conducting is that we get the chance to paint with an enormous brush. I play the violin as well, that is a much smaller paint brush. It’s still music, it’s still me, but the kind of colors that you can paint with an orchestra is incredible."

"For me the String Quartet is the only ensemble in which sometimes you are right at the front of the texture and in the next bar you have to disappear completely. "

"The hardest part is the travelling and being far away from the ones you love (children, husband, parents, friends). The best part is being able to touch people with my music and seeing their happy faces after a wonderful concert. I really still believe that music makes people better!"