Grigory Sokolov is reserved and shy; he eludes interviews and questions, microphones and cameras, and has recorded very few of his extraordinary, strictly live performances. He only allows the audience to know his musical thoughts, yet he entrusts them with his whole being. The only point of intense contact is the concert hall; the rest is unimportant. This is why those who have the privilege of listening to him feel they are participating in an unprecedented musical experience, discovering that they can distinguish each note with its unequalled lightness and losing themselves in the harmonics of chords they had never noticed before.

In a career spanning sixty years, which began with his winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1966, Sokolov has built a vast repertoire including Mozart, Chopin, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Schubert, Beethoven, Haydn and Prokofiev, as well as works by English virginalists, Bach, French harpsichordists such as Couperin and Rameau, and Froberger.

Sokolov offers a single programme each season, which he repeats each time he performs publicly. These works are abandoned the following season, at least for a few years, to make way for the new programme. The traces of this activity remain in listeners' memory and in the recordings swapped among enthusiasts. No matter which pieces he chooses to perform, you will certainly feel as if you have never really heard them before.