Christian Zacharias explains that his relationship with the piano has always been guided by his attachment to the music itself, much more than to the instrument: “I was eager to know and feel these musics. I wanted to play with a violinist friend, I wanted to read Mozart’s sonatas. My sound developed quite quickly from there. I tried to imitate the sound of Michelangeli in his interpretations of Beethoven, Emil Gilels as well but I didn’t succeed, his sound is impossible to imitate.” This passion is accompanied very early by a complete training, combining piano, harmony study, counterpoint, and analysis.
In parallel with his piano studies, he began conducting with Heinz Karl Gruber. He even hesitated between piano and conducting, the latter seeming to him at one point to be more secure: “As a conductor, we had more possibilities of success.” But after winning the 2nd prize at the Geneva Competition, he chose to dedicate himself to the piano: “I gave myself 5 years to live from my piano.”
He continued his training with Vlado Perlemuter in Paris, with whom he discovered rigor: “He is an interpreter that I deeply loved, I knew I wanted to work with him since I heard him in Chopin. He is quite austere when I meet him, but I learned a lot from him. I almost learned more about precision and discipline in themselves than about Chopin! That’s what I was ultimately looking for, playing Chopin but without frills. You must honor great works.”
While competitions have been important stages in his career, he points out that results are not enough to define it: “Winning a competition is not always a guarantee of success. For example, I made it to the second round of a competition without winning a prize, but this performance still allowed me to receive concert proposals.” He emphasizes the importance of failure and doubt in musical practice, considering internal demand as vital: “You must be dissatisfied! An artist’s story is the story of his eternal dissatisfaction.”
