“It took years to understand that it is not enough to play the piano – it is a task for a lifetime, to understand how music really works. Also I was not so interested in the piano. I loved the opera. Oh my God, it was so great to be in Vienna is those days, and hear singers like Mirella Freni!” she says, looking up as if receiving a beatific vision. “In fact none of my musical gods were pianists. I loved the violinist Joseph Szigeti, when I heard his recordings of Mozart I was moved to tears. And the cellist Casals. The great piano God in Vienna at that time was Wilhelm Backhaus. I didn’t like him at all, but you couldn’t say that.”
Photo Source: Opera Chic
(via)