Dmitri Bashkirov plays Debussy Clair de lune live 1960

From an interview Dmitri Bashkirov gave in Russian in 1986 Our aim is to stir the listener s imagination, to provoke thoughts and feelings in him. I play many concerts and I know that listenersespecially in our countryneed more than passive relaxation. In contact with music, with the performer, they are looking for spirituality. I think about this in relation to the younger generation of performers. There are many problems here. The wellknown unification of education and upbringing often results in the young performer not being able to think and feel independently and deeply. But the highest creative achievements rise up on the basis of individual creative thinking. Isn t that what s so attractive in the work of the progressive romantics of the last century The inspiration of romanticism. This quality has not lost any of its significance today. The freedom of inner feelings, the flexibility of mind (with a firm ideological position, of course) that is what other young piani