It’s been a while since you released your solo album. Do you have any particular reason for taking this long?

There are several reasons. First, I don’t quite believe that what we call music for an audio only medium is the right thing to do. You see, in the 19th century, you could always see the performer, in the time of Liszt, Schubert and Chopin. When they were performing, the listeners not only listened but saw the performance. So… because we developed machines for recording sounds, we started to record music as a sound. And I don’t believe that music is sound. Music is actually time. This is the first reason. The second reason is that there were many CDs on the market and I just didn’t feel that I can add anything to this. So, I was very critical about my own recordings and I simply didn’t like anything. So, I thought, “OK, that can go on the market.”

Krystian ZimermanKrystian Zimerman. Photo © Kasskara/Deutsche Grammophon 

What are the reasons for selecting Schubert’s Piano Sonatas Nos 20 and 21 for this album?

I always have a problem with this question. I’ll answer with a...